UK Internet Penetration Could Rival The Wristwatch

Despite belief that the UK internet market had plateaued at 50%, the report shows that a further 7% of adults have joined the world of the web. Over the last quarter a further 3 million British adults have gone on-line taking the total number of UK web users to a staggering 27.8 million.

Broadband, has been a contributory factor in the phenomenal rise of internet users, says Mintel, with almost 20% of adults using the high-speed connection. However, surprisingly enough, dial-up internet has also increased. Mintel said that the previous theory, ‘as broadband usage rises, dial-up will decline’, has clearly not happened.

The report says that the importance of the over-45s continues, in particular those aged 45-54. In the last three years, the number of users in this age range has jumped by a massive 30%, reaching 65%. The rise in this age group is so significant that it equals the number of users in the 15-43 age range.

From January to March this year, the most popular transaction on the web was travel with almost 20% of users purchasing a hotel, flight or holiday. Books were the second most popular retail purchase at 16%, followed by videos & DVDs at 15% and music at 12%.

One-in-ten households are also using the internet to bid at online auction sites, amounting to a substantial 2.7 million adults, while a further 20% of web users browsed auction sites with the intention to purchase.

In a separate report released earlier this month, Nielsen//NetRatings said that the UK was only one of three countries to see internet usage figures grow over the period. In June, the number of households in Britain using the web rose by 0.61% to over 21 million (see Internet Users Drop By Over 3.5 Million In June).