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Published on October 19, 2007

This is a key finding in the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre's (Nectec) online survey on Internet usage conducted in June and July, in which 28,582 users participated.

Its report  "Internet User Profile of Thailand 2007" found that ADSL had become the most popular channel for Internet access, used by about 37 per cent of users, bypassing dial-up modems, which this year accounted for only 14 per cent of access.

Nectec deputy director Chadamas Thuvasethakul, who was also the project leader, said the centre had been conducting its survey annually for eight years to monitor the development of Internet usage in Thailand.

The survey also found that Net usage had became more diverse. Though information searches and e-mail are still the most common uses, there is an increase in the use of other applications such as online games, chat, online music and music downloads.

Another important finding is that there has been no increase in electronic commerce, despite the improvement in Internet infrastructure and the greater numbers of Internet users.

Chadamas said the survey

found every year that a large section of Internet users had never bought products or services online. The proportion this year was 71 per cent. The main reasons cited were that they do not yet trust online merchants and they cannot actually examine products online.

She said lack of confidence in electronic-payment systems and security of credit-card information were also obstacles to the growth of e-commerce, and that these findings could be used to make further developments to promote online trade.

The main concerns of Net users were viruses, slow connection speeds, pornographic content and spam.

They listed virus and security attacks, equal access and cyber-crime as the three priority issues that they wanted to see addressed.

Chadamas said the significant change in Internet usage this year was the increased access through mobile devices.

The survey found that the three most used mobile services were short messages, games and picture and ring-tone downloads. However, users also showed interest in new services like mobile

payments, mobile TV and mobile chat.

Chadamas added that as the Internet now played a greater role in people's daily lives, the country needed an organisation to oversee the development of content.

"We found that about 80 per cent of Net users in the survey agreed on this issue while expressing greater concern about the young generation's safety when using the Internet," she said.

She said 83 per cent of users believed the Information and Communications Technology Ministry should take care of this task.

Pongpen Sutharoj

The Nation