The survey, released yesterday by France-based NetValue, found that of 11 countries studied, the US is second behind Korea in percentage of households connecting via broadband, where one in nine on-line households uses broadband. France has the highest percentage of broadband households in Europe, and with one in 16 on-line households having a broadband connection, twice the UK rate.
Although only 5% of on-line households in Germany are using a broadband connection, Germany leads the other countries included in the report for ISDN usage. In February 2001, 37.8% of German on-line households connected via ISDN, followed by Denmark with 19.5% of households.
Compared to the Asian and European countries in this study, except for Korea, the US leads broadband usage with 11.1% of households connecting via broadband in February. However, broadband penetration in the US is significantly lower than in Korea, where the figure is 57.3%.
When comparing broadband usage to modem usage in the US, NetValue points out that it is not only important for businesses to recognise the growth potential of the market but also which user groups are the "early adopters." Its survey shows that the 14 and under age group accounts for a significant portion of broadband usage.
Consequently, NetValue argues that businesses that are directly and/or indirectly affected by broadband usage - cable operators who provide broadband access, entertainment sites who use audio/video or gaming sites - can use this intelligence to better target their marketing/advertising initiatives and tailor their product offerings to the 14 and under age group.
Broadband allows users better access to richer online material. With more than half of Korean households connecting via broadband, it is not surprising that 73.9% of the Korean internet population used audio or video in February, and over half (54.1%) used a gaming protocol. Over a third of internet users in Hong Kong used audio/video and Spain had the highest audio/video usage in Europe (33.8%). In contrast, only 29.5% of US internet users and only 23.8 per cent of UK internet users viewed video or used audio.
Broadband and audio/video trends emerging in Korea are good indicators for what the future may hold in Europe and the US.