Austria's Internet use grows in 2010

Even if the extremely dynamic developments in internet use seen in the early years of the internet are a thing of the past, the use of the internet still continues to increase year on year. Over the last five years this increase has amounted to 16%.

This is shown in the latest results from the GfK Online Monitor, which is carried out quarterly amongst 4000 persons, representative for the whole of Austria.

Maria Kostner, online expert at GfK Austria, comments: "For young Austrians the Internet has become a part of their life that they simply cannot imagine having to do without. And so we find that 83% of the 14-19-year-olds and 73% of the 20-29-year-olds even make use of the internet almost every day."

Constant growth over the last five years

Hardly any other medium is able to demonstrate a dynamic upwards trend in its history to compare with that of the internet - which in the meantime has become a part of the mass media. Moreover, even though the dynamic developments of the early years of the internet are a thing of the past, in the last five years the use of the internet has increased by 16%, from 61% in 2005 to 77% in 2010.

"The use of the internet continues to grow steadily by a few percentage points year on year. The vast majority of this growth can be put down to the use of the internet at home. The next years are going to be fascinating as we wait to see if the internet will continue to grow in the same way and achieve almost total coverage of the population or whether there will continue to be target groups who are simply unable to get to grips with the medium of the internet. Amongst other things, this will be dependent on what sort of offer there is in the future for terminals which provide a rational and manageable means of access to the internet," Kostner adds.
Particularly high growth amongst senior citizens

A particularly high rate of growth is identifiable amongst the older members of the population. Even though the share of internet users amongst the older age groups (60-69 years: 59%; 70 years plus: 27%) remains noticeably below the average for the general population, it is this target group, above all, who are able to claim the highest growth rates. If, again, we consider the last five years from 2005 to 2010, the growth amongst the 60-69-year-olds is 90% and for the over 70-year-olds a massive 170%. The average growth for all internet users for this period was 26%.

You can find information about online research at GfK Austria at www.gfk.at and download the latest results from the GfK Online Monitor.