Monday, February 24, 2003		Feature

Dotcom crashes as Net cashes

WELL, the dotcom boom has long gone, but the Web still amuses its surfers. People’s desire for shopping, banking and generally entertaining themselves on the World Wide Web (WWW) has increased considerably, according to a new survey.

Significantly, more persons are using the Internet to send pictures and videos, shop, download music, play games and do their banking, according to the survey in ZD.net.uk.

It also found that the online shopping has increased dramatically. Nearly two-thirds of 2,900 Web surfers Ipsos-Reid surveyed says they had at some point in time bought something online, up from 36 per cent of those surveyed in 2000.

The biggest markets for online shopping are in the USA and the United Kingdom, where 77 per cent and 68 per cent of Web users surveyed, respectively, have made purchases online.

"In spite of the dotcom meltdown, the Internet is still going strong and is advancing steadily," Gus Schattenberg, vice-president of the global research at Ipsos-Reid says. "There is no sign that we’ve reached any kind of a plateau, and the Internet is becoming a more important part of everyone’s daily lives."

The percentage of respondents who tend to their finances online has nearly doubled, from 20 per cent in 2000 to 37 per cent last year, according to the findings.

The growth in the Internet use will continue apace, the study predicted, with the advent of wireless phones with picture- and video-swapping features, the growing demand of digital cameras, falling prices for personal computers and Web access, and the introduction of new Internet-surfing devices. (ANI)