Half of UK business were online in 2001, according to the first stage of results from the Office for National Statistics’ 2001 e-commerce survey of 12,000 businesses.
The report shows that the larger a business, the more likely it is to be online: 46% of the smallest businesses use the Net, compared with 98% of those companies with a 1,000 employees or more.
Permanent, broadband connections are used by 5% of the smallest companies and by 44% of of the larger ones (1,000 employees or more).
Online trading Of those online, 7% of businesses used the web to make sales during 2001, whilst 25% bought online. The level of activity varied according to the size of businesses, but again, the larger the business the more likely they are to be trading online, says the ONS.
Excluding the smallest businesses with less than 10 in employment, the percentage of UK businesses selling and buying online rose to 11% and 28% respectively.
