Only six per cent of world online, but Europe is fast growing area - report
Many people who are not connected to the Internet in the developed world have simply chosen not to be through lack of interest and perceived need, a recent survey has found. Conducted by research group Ipsos-Reid, the survey interviewed people in 30 countries, including European ones, who say they have no plans to get connected. The reasons given by respondents for staying offline are no need (40 per cent), no computer (33 per cent), no interest (25 per cent), lack of knowledge of how to use it (16 per cent), cost (12 per cent) and lack of time (10 per cent). It may take some time to see these figures turn around according to a representative of Ipsos-Reid. 'Those growing up on the Internet will one day make up the bulk of the population and there will be very few non-users down the road,' said Brian Cruickshank, senior vice president of the company. But Cruickshank was upbeat about developments in Europe. 'The next crest of the Internet wave will come from markets that are already well along the way, particularly in western Europe - with the most capacity for upside surprises, since their social structures and communications infrastructures offer few barriers...in these countries, it's simply a matter of time before more people go online - we have already started to see Europeans representing a larger proportion of the global Internet population.' While only a quarter of the respondents from non-developed markets, like India and South Africa, had Internet access, figures for developed markets, like Sweden, the Netherlands, USA and Canada, found that about one third of those who could use the Internet chose not to.