Study reveals Swiss internet habits
The Swiss surf the internet for about six hours each a month. That is one of the findings of a comprehensive study into home internet use.
It reveals that, on average, the Swiss surf the internet 14 times a month and that on every occasion, they log on for about 26 minutes.
Men continue to dominate home internet use and spend twice as long as women on the web. On every session on the web, Swiss users look at about 40 pages.
It’s the first survey in Switzerland conducted by the market research company, Nielsen Netratings, and will be followed by regular monthly updates making it possible to analyse trends.
“Swiss people do not spend as long on the net as other users in the world,” said Nielsen spokeswoman, Sandra Wüest. “While Austrians spend about six hours too, Germans are on the net about eight hours and for Americans it is nine and a half hours a month.”
Three million people in Switzerland – 42 per cent of the population – are estimated to have internet access at home.
The data has revealed a clear gender gap. Not only do men make up sixty per cent of home surfers but they spend on average twice as much time on the web.
“When we go into social demographics, women surf around three hours and 45 minutes a month,” said Wüest.
The four most visited properties in Switzerland are Bluewin, MSN, Microsoft and Yahoo. Bluewin heads the popularity stakes with 817,000 visitors a months, followed by MSN at 677,000, Microsoft at 616,000 and Yahoo at 600,000.
Nielsen has conducted surveys on internet use in 26 countries. By the end of 2001, the company hopes to have surveyed more than 90 per cent of the worldwide internet community.
by Vincent Landon
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