Over 10,000 UK adults make their initial foray onto the internet every day, according to research by NOP Research Group Ltd, and the rapid growth of free internet service providers is credited with the surge. The survey found that the free ISP market, championed by Dixons Freeserve, has started to attract a different type of consumer – reaching more older and less affluent users, as opposed to the younger, upwardly-mobile types which constituted much of the early internet audience.
Of the 10.6 million people who had used the internet in the last 12 months, 1.3 million were found to have bought 470m pounds worth of goods and services on the web. The most common usage is still searching for information on companies, with reading newspapers and searching for travel information tied for a distant second. The average frequency of internet usage was found to be seven times per week.
