A recently published survey revealed that e-mail was the most popular
Internet utility among commercial users in Israel.
Acquiring general
information and professional updates took second place in popularity
among survey participants.
The survey respondents were asked to rate on a scale of 1 to 5 the level of use
of different Internet services in the recent month, where “1”
represented no use and “5” represented a high level of use.
E-mail was named as the most popular area of use on the Internet, with an
average score of 4.2. Acquiring general information and professional
updates was the second most popular use according to the respondents,
with a score of 3.9. Two areas that scored the lowest among
respondents were the purchasing goods or services, with a score of 2.3
and games, with a score of 2.0.
The survey also found that most of the respondents felt that advertising through the Internet was
an effective way to acquire information (with an average score of 3.5
out of 5). The users felt that advertising through Internet banners was
interesting (3.2). Only a small number of respondents felt that the
banners were a nuisance (2.4).
Over a third of the respondents, 37.2 percent, surfed the Net for 10 hours or
more a week. About 17 percent surfed the Net 7 to 9 hours a week, 28 percent surfed 4 to
6 hours and 17.7 percent surfed 3 hours or less a week.
The 33600 Kbps modem was the most popular Internet hook up amongst 65.6 percent of
the respondents. 9.4 percent used ISDN, 7.5 percent used Frame Relay, 5.1 percent used a
56000 Kbps modem and 12.4 percent did not know how they were connected.
Netscape
4 is the most popular browser among 42.5 percent of the respondents, 36.1 percent
used Explorer 4, 16 percent used Netscape 3, 15 percent used Explorer 3, 3.3 percent did not
know which browser they used, and 1.3 percent used another type of browser.
The survey was initiated by Modus, a company that operates an Israeli
e-commerce site called HomeNet. More than 2,700 Internet surfers took part in the
45-day survey, carried out during the months of September and October
1998. The survey results were analyzed by the Rotem Institute for
Marketing Research and Forecasting, headed by Dr. Aryeh Rotem.
