Forty per cent of Irish use Web regularly

Nearly two in five Irish people are regular users of the Internet, and one in 14 use it for online purchases, a survey released today shows.

TheGlobal eCommerce Report 2001, produced by British research firm TNS Interactive, shows Ireland has the fourth-highest proportion of Internet users among the 18 European countries surveyed - at 39 per cent of all over-15s.

Irish Internet users are made up of45 per cent of the male population and 33 per cent of women, with the 18-24 age group being themost Web-savvy, at 65 per cent.

Of the total Internet users, 18 per cent say they have bought goods online - the most popular purchases being books, holidays, cinema/concert tickets, musicand food.

The main reasons cited by those polledfor not buying online are that it is too complicated and their fears over credit card security.

But the study says that although over 70 per cent of people use a mobile phone for conversations, the hyped WAP revolution has failed to take hold in Ireland, with a mere 3 per cent of people using WAP.

The highest Internet penetration in Europe is in Norway, with 65 per cent of the population using the Web.

Across all countries surveyed, there has been an rise of 50 per cent in the number of Internet users shopping online in the past year.