MEDIA-I: Webstats - Korean net users top online usage

When it comes to spending time online, Koreans continue to lead the

region with an average of 13.2 hours spent on the web each week,

according to findings by research company, NFO World Group - Hong

Kong.

Internet users in mainland China spent more time accessing the web for

news and entertainment information in comparison to users in other

countries.

Surfers in mainland China also spent more time chatting online than

their counterparts in regional countries.

Meanwhile, Korean and Taiwanese net users preferred to search for

information while on the web. In comparison, users in China spent the

least amount of time searching online.

Not surprisingly, regional internet users spent most of their time

online accessing email accounts, with internet users in Malaysia leading

the region.

In Singapore, web users spent almost an equal amount of time on news,

entertainment and chat sites.

However, according to the report, Singaporeans spent more than half of

their time online searching for information on the web.

REGIONAL INTERNET USAGE PATTERNS

Hong Kong Singapore China* Taiwan Malaysia Korea

(Jan-Mar) (Dec-Feb) (Jan-Mar) (Dec-Feb) (Sep,Dec) (Sep)

N=776 N=556 N=357 N=568 N=496 N=406

Claimed average 9.3 9.3 11.1 10.6 8.8 13.2

internet time

in a week (hrs)

Purpose of visit: % % % % % %

Email 70 88 86 83 93 80

News 56 49 79 59 50 26

Entertainment 54 44 74 47 44 36

Chat 36 40 69 32 44 29

Search for 38 62 27 79 61 81

information

* The China sample was drawn from households in Shanghai, Beijing and

Guangzhou