Bucharest inhabitants are keen on chat and e-mail

Media Controller Company, which specialises in monitoring, research and impact services for all media supports, between April 6-12 conducted a poll about IT and Internet.

The poll was conducted in Bucharest, canvassing a representative sample made up of non-institutionalised population over 18 years of age. The number of research subjects amounted to 1,170 people.

It revealed that only 24% of the people in Bucharest actually own a computer at home, while those most “in touch” with IT are people aged 18-29 (who answered, “Yes, I do have a computer at home” – 36%) and 40-49 (35%).

Technology is less present in the homes of those people in Bucharest pertaining to other age groups (30-39 years, 50-59, over 60).

Most computers owned by capital inhabitants do not belong to the latest generation, as 35% are Pentium II or K6II processor systems. PI or K6 come next, with 23% of the systems, followed by 486 on 21% of the computers.

61% of the people in Bucharest are planning to upgrade their computer, but only 27% of the PC owners intend to replace the one they already have.

22% of the people in Bucharest use the Internet, with aficionados aged 18-29 years. Out of this age group, 45% actually surf the web, while 55% do not. 30% of those aged 30-39 years surf the web, with the percentage of Internet users dropping in the other age groups (20%, 11% and 4%).

The Internet is usually accessed from work (35%) or from home (27%). The other places the people in Bucharest use to surf the web are Internet cafes (23%). The rest of them access the web from both work and home.

Top Internet usage reason is exchanging e-mail messages (42%), followed by the actual websurfing, which registers a much lower percentage (28%) and communication by forums (19%). The interesting thing is that only 2% of those in Bucharest are actually using the web to shop online.

Only 25% of the people in Bucharest read periodicals online. Most of the surfers (39%) do not spend more than three hours online in a week, while 35% spend 5-10 hours a week on the Internet and 22% of the surfers spend 11-30 hours online.