Internet users double but few make online purchases

Internet users double but few make online purchases

JAKARTA (JP): The number of Indonesia's individual Internet
users doubled to two million people in 2000 according to a survey
conducted by the Association of Indonesian Internet Service
Providers (APJII) in collaboration with the Indonesian Internet
Business Community.

From this data, APJII estimates that the number will double
each year.

The growth in Internet users reflects the improvement in
Internet access in the country, the survey said, although it
found that only a few of the users engaged in e-commerce
transactions.

According to the survey, which was based on a field study and
interviews with 1,500 respondents in 10 of the country's cities,
there are 55 active ISPs out of the 147 providers that had been
given licenses as of March this year.

Approximately 18 percent of the active ISPs controls 80
percent of the Internet market, the association said in the
survey.

The survey also said that of the 88.4 percent of respondents
who were familiar with online transactions, only 16.3 percent of
them used the Internet for making purchases, citing faster
access, practicality, time-cost efficiency, and lower costs for
doing so.

The remaining 83 percent were unwilling to undertake online
transactions due to some concerns that their credit cards might
be misused, or that there was no guarantee that the goods would
be delivered, it added.

Separately, the survey found only 16 percent of total
respondents had engaged in internet banking, with this 16 percent
citing that internet banking was practical, easy to use, time-
cost efficient, and ensured more privacy.

The other 84 percent of respondents who were reluctant to
engage in internet banking claimed that their banks didn't have
the facility, they did not know how to use it or they did not
need it yet, the survey added.(05)