Europe and Asia Pacific set to overtake North America in internet access

“In terms of penetration levels, just over a quarter of European households have internet access at home via a PC. This figure can be compared to one third of Asian households and over half of American households” said ACNielson eRatings.com’s chief of measurement science Richard Goosey.

He adds, “don’t expect this American domination to last long though…Over the next 12 months, another 9% of European households and 12% of Asia Pacific households plan on acquiring internet access.”

Goosey noted that Germany and the UK dominate internet access in Europe in terms of overall numbers of users, with South Korea alone accounting for 45% of the number of people with internet access in the Asia Pacific region. Add Taiwan and Australia to that 45%, and these three countries account for 86% of the total number of people in Asia Pacific with internet access.

In terms of the populations with home internet access in Europe, Holland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden can all claim that over 50% have access. In Asia Pacific, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia and New Zealand all clear the 50% mark.

Internet use at work in Europe and Asia Pacific, however, is significantly less. Nielson//NetRatings state that, “clearly the use of the internet at work is not the cultural norm yet in these regions, which could impact the growth of business to business commerce ventures.”

Whilst on-line shopping is most popular Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, and Denmark, none of these are close to the US levels where 74% of surfers shop on-line. In the UK and Hong Kong, only 19% and 13% respectively of surfers shop on-line.