The number of US households accessing the internet has reached 43% (up 60% on last year) compared with 25% (up 50%) in the UK, says the latest consumer technology report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers which surveyed 800 users. US consumers spend an average of 5.3 hours a week online compared with 2.4 hours in the UK.
The report finds nearly half (48%) in the US use the internet primarily for email, 28% of them for research. The figures are almost the reverse of last year, the report says. In the UK 39% of respondents said they use the internet primarily for email; 38% for research. French and German netizens go online first for research, while Germans (14%) are mostly likely to go online primarily for banking or investing.
The report says time online is at the expense of traditional media: 70% in the US and 67% in Europe said they’d watch TV or read if there was no internet. 22% in France said they listen to music; 12% would go to the cinema.
Of greatest concern to US netizens is speed of access (32%) compared with cost of access in Europe (34%). Regular telephone lines connect 71% in the US, 50% in Europe. In Germany, 49% connect through ISDN. 25% claimed to use cable modems for access, which showed no change from last year.
Typical online spending in the US is a $295 transaction – also no change from last year – while the number unwilling to spend on line has fallen to 19% from 30% last year. 25% said they’d downloaded MP3 music files. 64% said interactive TV services are too expensive; 59% said they are too complicated.
