More and more households are purchasing personal computers and connecting to the Internet, a survey conducted in mid-2004 has found.

Some 1,581,900 households, or 71.1% of all domestic premises in Hong Kong, had PCs in 2004. Among them, 1,444,700, or 91.3%, were connected to the Internet, representing 64.9% of all households.

The Census & Statistics Department said this represents a noticeable increase compared to the previous year when 67.5% of households had a computer at home and 60% of them had it connected to the Internet.

Utilisation of electronic business services was also high. About 96.5% of people aged 15 and over had used electronic business services of one form or another for personal matters in the year before the survey, as against 93.6% in 2003.

Regarding the usage of online purchasing services, the survey estimated that around 410,600 people aged 15 and over, or 7.1% of all people in that age group, have used one or more types of online purchasing services for personal matters in the year before the survey. The corresponding figures in 2003 were 401,600 people and 7%.

Online Gov't info

Use of online Government services is also increasingly common. The survey estimated that 1,639,400 people aged 15 and over, or 28.5% of all in that age group, used online Government services for personal matters. The figure in 2003 was 24.3%, up 4.2 percentage points.

An establishment survey has found that establishments using computers and having Internet connections has grown to 58.4% and 50.4%, from 54.8% and 47.5% the previous year.

Among the major sectors, PCs are most popularly used in the financing, insurance, real estate and business services sector (82.3%) and manufacturing, electricity and gas (63.1%). The percentage of establishments with Internet connection is also highest in these two sectors, at 76.9% and 54.1%.

The total amount of business receipts received from selling goods, services or information through electronic means in 2003 was estimated at $21.2 billion, up 35.4% on the $15.6 billion receipts the previous year.

Of the total amount received from selling goods, services or information through electronic means, the percentage share in respect of selling through the Internet was 64.6% in 2003, about the same as the 65.5% figure in 2002.