Cyprus Internet Usage Rises, E-commerce Sluggish

92% of Cyprus businesses have access to the Internet, which is used in all large and almost all medium-sized enterprises, but the percentage of enterprises that adopted e-commerce has stayed unchanged since 2008 at 7.6%, said the Cyprus Statistical Service in its latest survey.

The annual survey ‘Information and Communication Technologies Usage and E-Commerce in Enterprises 2009’ was carried out for the fifth consecutive year in all the member states of the European Union.

There was a steady increase in broadband connections with 94,3% of the enterprises with access to the Internet having a broadband connection. 51,6% of enterprises have a website, while 19,5% of enterprises have a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software application for managing information about clients.

In another survey on household Internet use, the percentage of households with access to a computer keeps increasing, reaching 61,2% in 2009, compared to 56,3% in 2008.

Internet access in households continues to increase. In the first quarter of 2009, the Internet was accessed at least once in 52,8% of the households, compared to 42,9% in 2008. There was an increase in the number of individuals that used the Internet during the first quarter of the year, from 38.8% in 2008 to 47.9% in 2009. 90,0% of the households with Internet access have a broadband connection.

Individuals 16 – 24 years old (81,7%) and students (93,9%) are the most frequent Internet users, and men use the Internet more frequently than women. Frequent users among men and women are 47,9% and 41,7% respectively, according to the survey.

The most popular Internet activities among Cypriots are finding information about goods or services, and sending or receiving e-mails, however, the percentage of individuals making online orders had a remarkable increase during 2009. 13,0% of Cypriots made orders of goods or services for private use over the Internet during the first quarter of 2009, compared to 6,8% in the first quarter of 2008.

Tickets for travel and holiday accommodation was what most of Cypriots order over the Internet. 39,1% of Cypriots who ordered goods or services over the Internet in the last 12 months, ordered tickets for travel and holiday accommodation.

Providing credit or debit card details over the Internet was the most common method of payment for goods and services ordered over the Internet. 70,1% of the persons that made orders over the Internet between April 2008 to March 2009 provided their credit or debit card details over the Internet to pay.