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IIA surveys Web usage in Ireland
Friday, May 25 2001
by Tony O'Brien


Internet use in Ireland continues to rise despite the problems hitting the IT
industry, a new survey has found.

Some of Ireland's most popular Web sites all report increases in visitor numbers
and as many as 80 percent remain confident about the future. However, the cost of
Internet usage and slow connection speeds for residential users were highlighted
as the main barriers to growth.





The survey, carried out by the Irish Internet Association (IIA), polled 15 of
Ireland's most visited sites. All but one of the companies said they had seen a
significant increase in the number of visitors to their sites this year with the
average rise put at 40 percent year-on-year.





All of the respondents said they were confident that Internet usage by Irish
businesses and individuals would continue to increase this year, despite any
technology slowdown.





However, the survey showed that only five of the companies actually allowed
e-commerce transactions on their site.





The range of increase in usage went from 20 to 300 percent with an average of 40
percent while sites allowing e-commerce transactions saw rise of 20 to 250
percent with an average of 57 percent.





"This strong increase in usage is as a result of an ever-increasing number of
Irish people gaining Internet access and the increasingly valuable content and
service available," said Mark Henry, the IIA research spokesperson.





He said the findings also show that the slowdown in corporate technology spending
is having no impact on Internet usage.





"Businesses who postpone or delay their Internet plans today are missing out on
opportunities to attract Irish users tomorrow," he maintained.





One of the respondents, Colin Bauer, e-commerce manager at DHL said, "Internet
technologies are at the heart of our product development strategy and there are
no plans to review or stop this. We will continue to exploit Web-based
technologies."





The companies polled were drawn from a wide range of industries, including
recruitment, media, on-line directories and business and financial services. The
survey was carried out over the week ending Monday, 21 May.



The survey also asked if respondents saw greater usage of their sites in the
first four months of 2001 compared to first four months of 2000. Ninety-three
percent reported that usage was higher. Furthermore, 80 percent of respondents
indicated that they expected more usage of the course of this year. 



Amongst those polled were, Anything Irish, Assurelink, DHL, Enterprise Ireland,
eSearch, The Examiner, Farmer's Journal, First Active, Irish Jobs, Irish
Permanent, Recruit Ireland, Scope/Techcentral, Stepstone and Toyota.





An IIA survey late last year showed that around 62 percent of Irish surfers are
now purchasing goods on-line.  Only recently, the IIA and the E-Commerce
Association of Ireland agreed to merge.