MEDIA-I: Office workers outdo students at gaming sites

<p>SINGAPORE: Internet users of working age are heading to online </p><p>gaming sites in greater numbers. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>According to NetValue, 173,270 internet users visited online gaming </p><p>sites in February, and that figure jumped 42 per cent in August this </p><p>year. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>More than 25 per cent of the wired population visited gaming sites. In </p><p>addition, the time spent per user at online gaming sites increased from </p><p>29.4 minutes to 39 minutes per user during the same period. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>NetValue Singapore country manager, Jack Loo, said: "Not only were more </p><p>people visiting online gaming sites, there has also been an eight-fold </p><p>increase in the amount of bytes transferred at these sites. This </p><p>indicates that more people are actually playing games online and not </p><p>merely browsing through the pages. They were also likely to be </p><p>downloading gaming applications from these sites." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>The research company found popular online gaming sites frequented by </p><p>Singaporeans included gamespot.com, uproar.com, ea.com, 17play.com.sg, </p><p>gamespy.com and khabal.com. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>