South Korea and Taiwan Dominate Asian Internet Usage According to Nielsen//NetRatings

Business Wire, March 8, 2001

Business Editors/Hi Tech Writers

STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 8, 2001

Spain, South Korea and Taiwan Added to Global Index, Bringing Total

Number of Countries Measured to 21; South Korean and Taiwanese

Internet Activity Pushes Yahoo!'s Unique Audience Over 100 Million

People; US Now Accounts For Less Than Half of the Internet Universe

More than half of the people in Asia Pacific with home Internet access live in South Korea or Taiwan, and South Korea is the fourth largest Internet population in the world, according to the Nielsen//NetRatings Global Internet Index for January.

With the addition of South Korea, Taiwan and Spain to the January Global Internet Index, Nielsen//NetRatings is now measuring the Internet audience, advertising and user activity of 371 million people across 21 countries. In Asia Pacific, Nielsen//NetRatings measures Internet activity for a total of 47.9 million people. South Korea's Internet population accounts for 22.3 million people and Taiwan's Internet population accounts for 10.0 million people.

"With a high penetration of broadband Internet access and a sophisticated telecommunications infrastructure, South Korea has emerged as a dominant Internet market in Asia. The addition of South Korea and Taiwan to our coverage more than doubled the number of households and people with Internet access reported on by Nielsen//NetRatings in that region," said David Day, director of analytical services for Nielsen//NetRatings. "Furthermore, of the 21 markets we measure, South Koreans spend the most time surfing per month and the most time online per surfing session, with a surprising 16 hours and 17 minutes per month and 46 minutes and 25 seconds per session." (see Table 1)

Allen Weiner, vice president of analytical services for Nielsen//NetRatings, expanded: "South Korea has been a technology center for decades as one of the leading global semiconductor markets fueled by such companies as Hyundai and Samsung. This has led to a worldwide Internet prowess for both business and personal usage. Interestingly, online communities are the most popular category among Korean home surfers, illustrating the fact that Koreans are dispersed around the globe and relish the Web as a means of bringing people together."

Nielsen//NetRatings is the world's largest and fastest growing Internet audience measurement service. The Nielsen//NetRatings Global Internet Index provides the only worldwide measurement of Web audience and usage patterns across 21 countries, compromising over 88 percent of the global Internet audience universe.

In December, Spain became the 19th country measured by the Nielsen//NetRatings Global Index. More than 3.6 million individuals in Spain surfed the Internet from home in January, spending the most time online per surfing session in Europe, logging nearly 35 minutes per session (see Table 1).

Day said, "It's interesting to see the extent to which average time spent online in a month varies from country to country. South Koreans spent more than twice as much time online than most countries. They're also viewing an amazing 96 pages per surfing session - more than a third more pages than Taiwan, the next highest market in terms of page views.

"Many factors come into play to here, including the availability of content, the maturity of the surfing population and the telephone line charging structures within markets," he continued. "For example, nearly four million people in South Korea have broadband Internet access. Since nearly 40% of the housing stock in South Korea is apartments, broadband has been relatively easy and cost effective to install. Furthermore, the average monthly broadband subscription is US$28 with unlimited access time, and the average ISP connection through a telephone line is only US$8 per month with unlimited access time. All these factors are highly conducive to heavy Internet use."

      Nielsen//NetRatings Global Internet Index
      Table 1. Time Spent Online, At-Home, January 2001
      Ranked in order of time spent online per month
------------ -------------- ---------- --------------- ---------------
Rank         Country        Time Spent  Time Spent     Page Views Per
(Time Spent                 Per Month   Per Surfing    Surfing Session
Online Per                              Session
Month)
------------ -------------- ---------- --------------- ---------------
1            South Korea     16:17:16   0:46:35               96
------------ -------------- ---------- --------------- ---------------
2            Canada          10:48:24   0:32:02               38
------------ -------------- ---------- --------------- ---------------
3            US               9:57:36   0:32:26               37
------------ -------------- ---------- --------------- ---------------
4            Hong Kong        9:46:20   0:36:31               55
------------ -------------- ---------- --------------- ---------------
             Global Average   9:08:29   0:32:34               43
------------ -------------- ---------- --------------- ---------------
5            Germany          8:16:00   0:29:14               46
------------ -------------- ---------- --------------- ---------------
6            Japan            7:56:48   0:29:48               48
------------ -------------- ---------- --------------- ---------------
7            Netherlands      7:08:18   0:28:11               40
------------ -------------- ---------- --------------- ---------------
8            Australia        7:07:38   0:34:43               38
------------ -------------- ---------- --------------- ---------------
9            Brazil           7:06:28   0:36:23               44
------------ -------------- ---------- --------------- ---------------
10           Italy            7:05:49   0:31:35               44
------------ -------------- ---------- --------------- ---------------
11           Taiwan           6:57:60   0:36:09               64
------------ -------------- ---------- --------------- ---------------
12           Spain            6:33:13   0:34:59               38
------------ -------------- ---------- --------------- ---------------
13           France           6:32:04   0:26:02               36
------------ -------------- ---------- --------------- ---------------
14           New Zealand      6:28:05   0:26:56               29
------------ -------------- ---------- --------------- ---------------
15           Norway           6:22:26   0:25:12               39
------------ -------------- ---------- --------------- ---------------
16           Singapore        6:05:17   0:32:22               50
------------ -------------- ---------- --------------- ---------------
17           Sweden           6:02:26   0:26:56               43
------------ -------------- ---------- --------------- ---------------
18           UK               5:59:38   0:30:01               39
------------ -------------- ---------- --------------- ---------------
19           Denmark          5:13:23   0:24:19               41
------------ -------------- ---------- --------------- ---------------
20           Finland          4:57:07   0:25:55               41
------------ -------------- ---------- --------------- ---------------
21           Ireland          4:25:35   0:28:48               37
------------ -------------- ---------- --------------- ---------------
      Source: Nielsen//NetRatings