Ray Van Eng (07/28/97) 
Two recent researches into web surfing behavior have concluded
that business Internet users are ardent supporters of the global network.
One of the studies, the FIND/SVP
1997 American Internet User Survey indicated that workers in smaller businesses
(those with 100 people or less) rely more on the Internet than employees
in larger corporations. Some of the highlights include:
|
Small Business with
less than 100 workers
|
All business users |
| Online hours per week |
|
|
| Use e-mail with customers |
|
|
| Use e-mail with vendors |
|
|
|
Use Internet to purchase
items
|
|
|
Source: FIND/SVP 1997 American Internet
User Survey
The most frequently purchased items were: software, computer
hardware, office supplies, consulting services and research. The average
transaction value was $1,500. The survey was the result of in-depth interviews
with 1,000 Internet users and an equal number of non-users during the months
from February to April this year.
Another researcher, PC
Meter, finds that on the whole business users devote more time on the
world wide web than home users.
 PC
Meter noted that in April '97, business users spend an average of 345 minutes
in 8.3 days on the web while home users only spend 210 minutes in 7.7 days.
Those who access the Net from work also request more pages (27.3 pages
per day) than their counterparts at home (25.8 pages per day).
Other interesting PC Meter findings include:
- The fastest growing segment of the market comes from
people who are under 18 and those over 55 years of age.
- The average web surfers go online for barley an hour
a day. Heavy users (7 hours a day or more) make up the most of the web
usage.
- Entertainment sites are among the most popular which
takes up 14% of online time. Education are among the lest popular which
takes up only 1%.
- Without a doubt, e-mail is the most often used feature
with 84% of users regular employ it for communication.
- Over 40% of the users visit online chat areas. More than
25% of users visit adult-oriented web sites with an alarming 12% doing
so during working hours.
- About 40% of U.S. home PCs arePentium based while about
60% are x86 based.
- Some 47.5% of home PCs are running Windows 95 with the
remaining 52.5% running the Windows 3.x or other systems.
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