Instant messaging surpasses email to become number one Internet activity in Taiwan

July 21, 2005

Ranked third in 2004, instant messaging has become the most popular Internet activity in Taiwan in 2005, with over 50% of Taiwan's netizens using this type of service at least once a day, according to a survey conducted jointly by the Institute for Information Industry's Market Intelligence Center, Yahoo-Kimo and MSN Taiwan. The survey shows the top-five Internet activities in Taiwan in 2005 are instant messaging, email, using search engines, reading online newspapers and magazines, and downloading software.

The survey indicates that the gender breakdown among Taiwan's Internet users has changed little, with men and women accounting for 48.5% and 51.5% of users respectively. Young people are the primary users of the Internet, with 52% aged between 20 and 29 years old. The average "Internet age," the number of years a person has used the Internet, among Taiwan's Internet users is 5.3 years.

The survey also reveals that blogs are an emerging Internet trend in Taiwan. Forty-three percent of Taiwan's netizens have experience with blogs, with 22% having simply browsed blogs, 3% having written blogs and 18% having both browsed and written blogs. The survey shows that women are more likely to use blogs than men and younger people are more likely to use blogs, with over 50% of Internet users aged nineteen or younger reporting blog usage.

The top-three products bought by Taiwanese men online are 3C products, books and magazines, and software, while the top-three purchases for women in Taiwan are books and magazines, beauty and healthcare products, and 3C products.

Of all Internet users in Taiwan, 68% have experience buying or selling things online and 39% have used Internet auction sites. Internet users cited low prices, ease of finding what they want and product shipping as their main reasons for using Internet auctions. They said the inability to check merchandise, transaction security and fear of being cheated were the primary drawbacks of Internet auctions.

(Central News Agency)

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