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Aussie Internet Facts & Figures

Posted : 22 August 03

[my comments in blue text and square brackets]

Email
22% of companies have fired an employee for misuse of email at work
The average office worker spends 25% of their day on email alone
Around 50% of a workplace's email system is taken up by non work related info and images
Australian spammers contribute 0.5% to the global spam. Australia in the 19th rated spamming nation in the world. [only 19th, surely we can do better than that]

ARIA is prepared to sue
The Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA) has announced that it is prepared to sue individuals for uploading files to servers and file sharing networks. It has issued a statement in support of the RIAA (in the US) that has already issued a large number of lawsuits in the US.
Over 5 million songs have been downloaded (legally) from Apple's iTunes music store in it's first 8 weeks since opening. No word yet on the Australian iTunes store...
[downloaded/uploaded any music lately...]

Australian ISP's - 563 in total (at Sep 2002 and decreasing mainly due to mergers)
6 Very large ISPs (with more than 100,000 subscribers) which provided Internet access to 3.1 million subscribers or 68% of all subscribers,
29 Large ISPs (10,001 to 100,000 subscribers) with 0.9 million subscribers or 19% of all subscribers,
172 Medium ISPs (1,001 to 10,000 subscribers) with 0.5 million subscribers or 11% of all subscribers,
254 Small ISPs (101 to 1,000 subscribers) with 0.1 million subscribers or 2% of all subscribers
102 Very small ISPs (100 or fewer subscribers) with 4,000 subscribers or less than 0.1% of all subscribers. [here I am]

Australian Internet Usage (at March 03)
Households with PCs : 66% (increase of 2% in 1 year)
People >1 with Internet access via home PC : 58% (increase of 1% in 1 year)
People aged 16+ with Internet access - any location : 75%
People 16-34 with Internet access : 85%
People 35+ with Internet access : 69%
Males 16+ with Internet access : 73%
Females 16+ with Internet access : 76%
People 16+ with Internet access who used Internet : 72%

Internet Connection Speed (at March 03, % home users)
Cable : 6.13% (increase of 4% in 1 year)
Digital Subscriber Line : 2.15% (increase of 1.5% in 1 year)
Unspecified High Speed : 4.85% (increase of 2% in 1 year)
Narrowband (modem & including ISDN) : 86.87% (decrease of 8% in 1 year) [I thought that this would be lower and broadband higher actually]

Australian Businesses Online (at June 2002)
According to AC Neilsen's Broadband Barometer, 41% of Internet enabled small businesses have a broadband connection. This represents 206,000 businesses, which means that small business comprises 44% of the 470,000 total broadband connections sold in Australia.
Businesses with PCs : 84%
Businesses with Internet access : 72%
Businesses with website : 24%
Internet access by large businesses (100+ employees) : 99%
Internet access by medium businesses (20-99) : 93%
Internet access by small businesses (5-19) : 80%
Internet access by very small bus. (0-4 employees) : 65%
Large businesses with website : 81%
Medium businesses with website : 55%
Small businesses with website : 34%
Very small bus. with website : 15%

Businesses receiving online orders : 9% [better get in quick before the market is flooded]
Businesses ordering online : 35%
Bus. accessing government services : 57%
Businesses using electronic mail : 94%
E-commerce revenue : $11.3billion (up by $2 billion in 1 year)

Top 10 Web Searches for May 2003 (Alta Vista Australia)
1) Big Brother [are we a nation obsessed with reality TV or what]
2) Sex [typical, must be all those sex crazed women out there]
3) Porn
4) Real estate
5) Buy domain
6) White pages
7) Matrix
8) Qantus
9) Yellow pages
10) Bella donna [who or what is Bella Donna?]

On-line auction scams
Fraudulent sales in on-line auctions now make up 1% of total sales. Most scams involve phoney or non-existent goods that are sold at low prices or inflated through dummy bidding. The best way to protect yourself is to ask sellers to provide their contact details including a phone number and address.Escrow services are also available (where a third party holds the money until the buyer receives the goods).

Viruses (From Symantec Aug 2003)
Number of Mac viruses : 65
Number of Mac OS X viruses : 1
Number of PC viruses : 64,785
[surprise, surprise]

Have you looked at :
http://www.whereis.com.au/ - find and print street locations for anywhere in Australia
http://www.systemstanley.com.au/ - check your health at Sue Stanley's world class health & fitness site
http://www.howstuffworks.com/ - how to pick locks (amongst other useful stuff)
http://www.abebooks.com/ - one of the best sources for rare and used books
http://www1.auspost.com.au/postcodes/ - online postcode search
http://www.quotations.com/w_filter.htm - ever been lost for words?

Sources :
TIO
ABS
DCITA
internet.au
ARIA
AC Neilsen

Now you can quote random facts and figures and sound intelligent too !