E-Commerce
Industry Soaring.-A
new study shows that online retailing, travel, brokerage and auctions
are stronger,...
E-Commerce
as a Way of Life.-Internet
usage as a part of people's everyday lives is increasingly pervasive
around the world, says a new study,...
E-Commerce
as a Way of Life.
Internet usage as a part of people's everyday lives is increasingly
pervasive around the world, says a new study, and e-commerce
is more than ever a part of life online.
Almost two-thirds (62 percent) of Internet users have by now
purchased a product or service online, according to "The
Face of the Web," an annual study of Internet trends by
marketing research firm Ipsos-Reid in New York City, a U.S.-based
division of Ipsos.
That's up dramatically from 36 percent of respondents in 2000.
Other key stats from the study:
- The United States
leads the world in Internet usage, with 72 percent of
American adults having gone online at least once in the
previous 30 days. Canada was second, at 62 percent.
- 44 percent of those
polled in the global study report having downloaded a
music file.
- 38 percent have
played a video game online.
- 37 percent conducted
an online financial transaction
- 24 percent have
burned a CD of digital music files downloaded off the
Internet.
In 2002, 54 percent of the total population in the 12 countries
surveyed indicated that they had, at some time, used the Internet.
Interestingly, urban Russia was the lowest on the list, with
only 8 percent having used the net recently when surveyed.
The Internet has become a medium for more than just surfing
for information, said Brian Cruikshank, an author of the study
and leader of the company's U.S. technology practice. Increasingly,
it is becoming part of daily life, and not just for IT workers
and tech-head teens.
Cruikshank said that two markets in particular stand out: the
United States, where 77 percent of Internet users have bought
a product or service online, and the United Kingdom, where 68
percent have purchased online.
Online banking has also experienced a dramatic increase between
2000 and 2002, almost doubling to 37 percent from 20 percent,
the study found. Online banking is most prevalent in Canada,
the U.K., Germany and the U.S., where more than 40 percent of
Internet users had banked online.
"The Internet is in advanced stages of growth in the U.S.
and is becoming a necessity (even) to many of the few adult
Americans who had resisted going online before," said Cruikshank.
"Because it's all around us, being used in so many ways-from
communications to transactions to entertainment-it's become
a central way that we navigate our lives,"
The international survey research data was collected via Ipsos's
Global Express, a quarterly international survey.
