WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31, 2004
Philippine Internet users reach 4 mn
AFP
MANILA : More and more young Filipino professionals are using the Internet to shop and do business, according to a survey released Tuesday.
There are about four million Filipinos wired to the World Wide Web, a fourth of whom regularly go online, according to results of the August to December 2003 survey by marketing research firm AC-Nielsen.
AC-Nielsen country manager Bing Van Tooren said the average Filipino surfer is male, aged between 20 to 39 and earns 700 to 1,000 dollars a month. Most them access the Internet from their offices and homes, she added.
Findings also showed regular Internet users who do online shopping and banking were continuing to increase, even as there was more room for Internet connectivity to grow, Van Tooren said.
Virigilio Pena, chair of a government commission on information technology, said however that cellular phones remain far more popular in the Philippines than Internet surfing.
He said most Filipinos still do not see the practicality of the Internet, as opposed to mobile phones that allow instant text messaging, the most popular form of communication here.
The Philippines was first hooked up to the Internet 10 years ago, using low-speed telephone lines, he said.
Before that, users had to pay expensive long distance telephone connectivity board system for electronic mail.
The Philippines has a population of 84 million and studies show that about 51 percent of them live on less than two US dollars a day.
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