On line purchases growing in the UK. Jeff
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More Than a Quarter of U.K. Internet Users Purchase Online, Nielsen Says
By James Amott and Bundeep S. Rangar
More Than a Quarter of U.K. Internet Users Purchase Online
London, Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) -- More than a quarter of U.K.
Internet users have purchased goods or services online, as they
felt more secure with transactions and more companies set up Web
sites in the U.K., a report by VNU NV's Nielsen Media Research
Inc. said.
The study commissioned by CommerceNet Consortium Inc.
indicated half of those who bought online made purchases as many
as five times, with 6 percent making more than 20 purchases.
The research showed that 12.5 million people, a quarter of
the U.K.'s population, have access to the Internet. Market
researcher Fletcher Research Ltd. expect that to rise to almost
20 million by 2003, translating into $5 billion in online retail
sales by that time, excluding financial services.
``The take up of e-commerce is roughly two years behind the
U.S.,' said Andrew Joyce-Gibbons, a CommerceNet spokesman, in an
interview.
One in five users said they used the Internet a few times a
week, and 7.6 percent used it more than once a day.
Yahoo! Inc.'s search engine, a facility to search for Web
sites of interest, was the most popular, attracting 40 percent of
users. Alta Vista, 83 percent owned by CMGI Inc., was preferred
by 15 percent of Internet surfers, while Lycos Inc. was the first
choice for 8 percent. More than 38 percent said they did not know
which search engine they used.
The survey was undertaken using a sample of 4,715 randomly
selected adults to look at the adoption and uses of the Internet
at work and at home.
CommerceNet is a California-based non-profit organization
set up in 1994 to promote the growth of business on the Internet.
It has 600 member companies in 22 countries, including Microsoft
Corp. and Intel Corp., it said. It has 65 members in the U.K.
New York-based Nielsen, recently bought by Dutch Publisher
VNU for $2.7 billion, provides broadcast, digital and Internet
information services in the U.S. This was its first such research
in the U.K. |
