Nearly 30 percent of Germans between the ages of 14 and 69 use the Internet at least occasionally either at home or at work, according to the fifth GfK Online-Monitor survey.
The survey, which included 8,000 users from November 1999 to January 2000, found that 16 million people aged 14-69 already access the Internet via well-known online services such as T-Online, AOL and CompuServe from either their home or office.
T-Online, the online service of Deutsche Telekom, continues to be the ISP market leader in Germany. It is used by 8.6 million people at least occasionally, with 7 million of these using it as their main service provider. With 5 million users, AOL is the second most popular ISP, far ahead of others such as Yahoo! Online, Freenet, Mannesmann Arcor and VIAG Interkom.
At least 21 percent of the approximately 28 million households in Germany with at least one person aged 14 to 69 have Internet access. Around 92 percent of Internet users know at least one search engine, with Yahoo! Deutschland being the undoubted market leader. Approximately 7.6 million people, i.e. around 50 percent of Internet users, have used its services in the last three months, and more than half indicate it as being the search engine they use most frequently.
According to the GfK survey, more than 20 percent of Internet users (3.4 million) have ordered or purchased a product online in the last 12 months. The most popular online purchases were once again books, CDs, and software. The fastest growing items in terms of online purchases were telecommunications products such as telephones, mobile telephones, and also items such as jewelry and software.
More than 20 percent (3.8 million people) have made use of services offered online. The most popular were booking and purchasing cinema, theatre, and concert tickets, and booking flights, hotels, vacations, and train tickets. Other frequent Internet uses reported in the survey were chat rooms, auctions, car rentals, and stock purchasing.
The survey also found the Internet to be an established entertainment, information, and communications medium that is used on a daily basis across the board. The most frequent users are in the 20-39 age group. At just under 8 million, they make up half of Germany’s total users. There has also been a considerable increase in the number of German women using the Internet, as the survey found they now account for 40 percent of users.
The GfK survey was commissioned by AOL Europe Interactive Marketing Group, interactive media Axel Springer Verlag, Deutscher Multimedia Verband, Deutsche Telekom AG, Gruner + Jahr Electronic Media Service, Verlagsgruppe Milchstrasse/Tomorrow Internet AG, WEB.DE AG and Yahoo!.
