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 | | Tuesday, 11 December, 2001, 14:56 GMT Women lead UK online growth  The internet is stretching its appeal Women are fuelling a surge in internet use in Britain as they catch up with men, according to new research. An extra two million women have gone online over the past six months, a jump of 10 percentage points. But the survey by the internet bank Egg found also found that affluent young men were still more likely to use new technology. The growth of the internet in Britain is mirrored across the world, with 474 million people online at home, according to a Nielsen NetRatings survey. Appeal of technology The Egg survey found that around 19 million Britons, or 42% of all adults, used the internet in their own time. The quarterly research found that people are becoming increasingly receptive to new interactive technologies.
The highest proportion of people with access to interactive technologies is to be found in the Midlands, with Wales as the least wired area of the UK. "Britain's appetite continues to grow for new and exciting innovations that are already on the market or on the technological horizon," said Mark Nancarrow, chief operating officer at Egg. Cashless and cardless "We are now also seeing a significant level of interest and anticipation for technologies such as digital payment and aggregation services, which are currently not widely available in Britain."
"The extent to which many people are receptive to potential new technologies of the future is extremely interesting," said Professor Robert Worcester, chairman of Mori. "One-quarter of the general public - and four in 10 under 35 year olds - say they would like to see technology that establishes who people are and how much money they have with iris or fingerprint recognition, meaning that one would never have to carry a wallet again." US leads online world Across the world, about 15 million logged on to the internet from home in the past few months, bringing the global internet population to 474 million. The US still has the most web users, with 186 million people or 39% of its entire population online. Europe, the Middle East and Africa combined have 128 million people online and Asia Pacific 104 million. Regions like Latin America, where only 20 million are connected to the internet, are catching up. Nielsen NetRatings analyst Richard Goosey said he expected to see a strong surge in internet access in Latin America over the next 12 months. Nielsen NetRatings conducted more than 40,000 surveys between June and September for the study. | | See also:  Internet links: The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites Top Sci/Tech stories now:  Links to more Sci/Tech stories are at the foot of the page. | |||||||||||||||||
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