Singapore Net Users Take To e-Government

According to Internet audience measurement firm Nielsen//NetRatings, the Singapore Government’s S$1.5 billion (US$856 million) investment in its public sector infocomm initiative is starting to generate positive results.

“The Government’s bid to become a leading e-Government is definitely making headway. Audience online trends are very encouraging as more Singaporeans log on to government Web sites and tap into their services online,” said Hoe Chin Fee, managing director of ACNielsen eRatings.com in South Asia.

“Electronic services are very much integrated into the system and are customer-centric, and coupled with the fact that they are easily accessible 24 hours a day, it is no wonder that more Singaporeans are opting for the online option.”

Based on a panel of 4,000 Singapore Internet users surfing from their homes in June, data collected by Nielsen//NetRatings showed that the Ministry of Education (MOE) Web domain recorded a 120 percent increase in unique audience over a six-month period.

There were 64,904 individuals visiting the domain at least once in June, generating more than 1.5 million page views in the process. Students, as well as their parents, visit the site to research profiles of potential schools and study resources; a “good number” also check on opportunities to launch a career in their fields of educational interest, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.

Another government Web site popular with Singaporeans was internet.gov.sg, which includes pages from the Land Transport Authority‘s (LTA’s) Web site and the Government-related onemotoring.com.sg.

Nielsen//NetRatings figures showed that 73 percent of visitors to internet.gov.sg searched for or viewed pages related to the recently launched online bidding system for the LTA’s certificate of entitlement (COE) to register vehicles. The LTA Web site itself saw a 10 percent increase in traffic from 16,600 visitors in May to 18,200 visitors in June.

Apart from vehicle-related subject areas, another area that drew surfer interest at internet.gov.sg was employment related. The June findings revealed that Singaporeans were filing job applications and conducting job searches online – 20 percent checked on job availability within the Civil Service, while 47 percent looked at content posted from the Ministry of Manpower.

All in all, the internet.gov.sg site had attracted 58,018 individual surfers in total, who generated 683,750 page views.

And as Singapore made preparations to celebrate its 36 years of independence in August, surfers also made it a point to visit the main government Web site, generating 384,635 page views from 54,894 individuals.

“A lot of searching and surfing at the government domain probably had a lot to do with trying to be the first to secure a free ticket to the [National Day] parade,” Hoe added.

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