Internet users surf faster and faster
Internet: For the first time, MA Comis allows for a comparison of web usage between German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland.
Wemf consumer media study on Internet use in Switzerland,
for the first time also provides insights into the network habits of the
population of French-speaking Switzerland. This means that the number of
Compared to last year's survey, users were massively affected by
2701000 to 3711000 people. The aspects of website use, Internet
in general, e-commerce, Internet providers and mobile telephony are in the
compared to the previous year. With the online planner
media planning tool is also available.
The Internet is mostly used in the evening (75%), but in the early morning
24 percent of German-speaking and French-speaking Swiss already surf and e-mail.
MA Comis examined 50 Internet services and applications. As before
e-mail is still the most popular application, closely followed by
Search engine queries. In both parts of the country, the
habits are roughly the same. In contrast, the French-speaking Swiss surf on the
more often for entertainment and fun than the German-speaking Swiss, they
also consult the web more often when it comes to going out.
Share of e-buyers stagnates
The Internet is used intensively for shopping. The proportion of
German-speaking Swiss e-buyers increased very significantly from 43 percent (1999) to
73 percent (2005), but stagnated compared to the previous year. Almost three
A quarter (2087000) of all German-speaking Swiss internauts have already
shopped online. In French-speaking Switzerland, the figure is 69 percent (586,000
persons). To a limited extent, people are also prepared to pay for
Internet offers, most of all for the downloading of
programs, for auctions and for music downloads. With
In the latter case, the number of people has increased within a year from
67,000 to 169,000 people.
The best-selling products on the Internet are books (57%) and
Concert and other admission tickets (53%). Also travel tickets (45%) and
Hotel bookings (53%) and the purchase of sound recordings (48%) are popular.
The best-selling products also include clothing and shoes,
Fashion items, DVDs and video films, computer software and hardware,
Gifts, tickets for public transport, rental cars and
others. There are also a number of regional linguistic differences. So
French-speaking Swiss use the web more to book flights, for example,
while the German-speaking Swiss order more music online. For purchases
48 percent of all online shoppers spent up to 500 francs online
(extrapolated 1099,000 people), about the same number bought for even more
higher amounts.
Broadband connections are booming
The way in which web users access the Internet has changed significantly.
access the Internet: Broadband connections (ADSL and
TV cable) has increased sharply. Whereas in 2001, 60 percent of
population surfed via an analog telephone line, in 2005 only
still 26 percent. In the same period, ADSL connections shot up
to 45 percent (from 1%) and access via TV cable to 19 percent
(from 6%). ADSL has grown by 13% since last year's survey,
while access via TV cable remained unchanged.
MA Comis also provides information about usage habits in the
Mobile telephony, with 93 percent of web users also owning a cell phone.
After making a phone call, the next step is to communicate via SMS
at the forefront.
Of the website groups, those of the Bluewin family are the most popular.
(72.4%), followed by Migros (53.5%), Search (53.1%),
Scout24 (34.1%) and the Directories family (33%). In the
Tamedia (34.4) dominates the ranking of publishing houses, followed by Ringier (21.8%),
Jean Frey (13.1%) and NZZ (11.8%).
René Worni
