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PUBLICATIONS /   Györgyi Danó: Hungarian netizens	magyar

In the following I am going to present the main results of an empirical research on Internet-usage habits. It will show how the Internet influences Hungarians in their decisions, and it examines why and the purőose people use the Internet and in what cases they use it to gain information. The Internet-usage of different demographic groups are also analysed in detail. 1. Introduction In spite of the former expectations, the penetration of the Internet in Hungary is still growing slowly. According to the Interbus research carried out by NRC Research Ltd and TNS Hungary in the first half of the year 2006, 32% of the Hungarian population between the ages 15 and 69 can be regarded as frequent Internet-users. The most common activities are e-mailing, searching and reading online magazines. The following research will show the influence of the Internet on decision-making processes, in what cases people gather information on the Internet and what habits different demographic groups have. 2. Research results The collection of data was performed at the end of 2005 in a panel-research, in which 1032 people over 18 were interviewed by telephone. The research was carried out nationwide on a sample that is representative of sex, age and dwelling, the unevenness of the sample was corrected with weight. The error-span of the results in the case of 1000 participants, on the level of 95% probability is ą3,2%. 2.1 Internet usage More than half of the participants use the Internet with a certain frequency, (38,4% regularly, 17,2% occasionally), on the other hand, 44,3 % never do. Independently of the fact if they do or do not use the Internet, 70,1% of the participants have or could have access in a any way. The reasons and aims were examined with an open question. Among spontaneous answers gathering information was mentioned far more often than any other (40,8%). Those who do not use the Internet mention four main reasons: the most common was the lack of interest (32%), they do not know how to use it, they do not know it, they do not need it, or they cannot see the sense of it, and every fifth (18,4%) mentioned financial reasons. The categories and percentages are presented in the chart below.

Table 1. Why is / is not the Internet used?

With the following block of questions, I tried to find out what Internet-users used the web for the last year, and if they planned to do any activities that they have not tried so far. Those who have not used the benefits of the Internet were also questioned about their plans for the next year. 50,7% of all the participants have used the Internet already. Most of them searched the web for information, and read the news (43,1% and 42,0%). Similar number of them did e-mailing (40,3%), and more than one third surfed for fun or read forums. The percentage of chatters is only 21,3% now. The proportion of those who did shopping or ordering is 13,3%, and those who did not pay through the Internet was 11,6%, but it is worth mentioning that in both cases 12-13% said that they have not tried it so far, but plan to in the following year. Telephoning was mentioned the most times among future plans, 15,5% intends to try it in the next year.

Diagram 1. Internet-activities of the last year

2.2 Internet as a source of information We also asked the participants whose advice they took or where they were informed in connection with certain activities (purchasing products, movie listings, finding recipes, learning about politics). In every case they could choose from four categories, which are: 1. friends, aquaintances, 2. newspaper articles, radio and television programs, 3. advertisements: TV, radio, newspapers, flyers 4. Internet, e-mail advertisements. The least frequent in the view of the whole population was the Internet. When it is about buying food, the most important factor is the advertisements, in the case of politics the dominance of newspaper articles, TV and radio programs can be seen.

Diagram 2. Information sources I. Diagram 3. Information sources II.

If we take a closer look at the proportion of mentioning Internet as the source of information we see that in the case of purchasing of gadgets and choosing cinema programs, it is 1/6 or 1/7. In the case of recipes, only every 10th mention is from the Internet and in the other cases, the proportion is even smaller.

Diagram 4. Information sources III.

Analysing the age groups, it is clear that users of different age use the Internet in different ways, so the role Internet plays in their decisions is different, but there is no difference in one thing: that in each age group car-purchasing motivates the most users to search for information on the Internet.

Diagram 5. Internet information sources, detailed by age groups

When analysed according to sex, an interesting result apper. This is in the case of recipe-collecting did more women mention the Internet. In the case of buying food, nearly as many women than men (6-6%) use the Internet to get information. In the case of buying clothes, men are in the majority (9%).

Diagram 6. Information sources, according to sex

We also asked the participants if they gave advice or they were asked for advice in connection with purchasing. Those who answered that it had happened to them regularly mentioned Internet as a source of information in higher proportion than the rest. In our case, this is 5-6% more than in the whole sample. The result thus clearly shows that those who influence the opinion of others rely on the Internet more than average. 2.3 The credibility of the information sources In view of the above, it is an interesting question what the participants think of the credibility of certain media. The participants could choose from a scale of 1 to 5. The results show that there is no significant difference in the judgment of the media. Considering this slight difference the radio is thought to be the most reliable and printed press the least. The proportion of those who consider the Internet to be absolutly reliable is 12,1%, which is only 0,2% behind the television, which is valued 5 by most. It is also interesting that there is no significant difference between the opinion of Internet-users and non-users, among different demographic groups.

Diagram 7. Crediblity of information sources I. Diagram 8. Crediblity of information sources II.

Summary The circle of Internet-users is growing, although not radically. Internet is used not only by those who are especially interested in information technology and the young, but more and more housewives and middle aged people too. A good example is recipe-collection, where not only the users between the ages of 20 and 29, but older people also search the web. The spread of Internet-usage is hindered by financial factors, which means not only the subscription fee, but also the purchasing of a computer, and other gadgets (i.e. modem, ADSL) and the telephone costs. As the circle of Internet-users changes, we can expect that the content will also change, more and more services will appear and the connection between everyday people and information technology will be different too. Bibliography [1] Eszes István - Bányai Edit (2002): Online m@rketing, Műszaki Könyvkiadó. [2] Hofmeister Tóth Ágnes-Simon Judit-SajtosLászló (2003): Fogyasztói elégedettség, Alinea Kiadó [3] Kotler, P. (2002): Marketing Management, KJK-KERSZÖV Jogi és Üzleti Kiadó Kft. [4] Naresh K. Malhotra (2001): Marketingkutatás, Műszaki Könyvkiadó. [5] Paul A. Scipione (1994.): A piackutatás gyakorlata, Springer Verlag [6] Vasné dr Egri Magdolna (2006): Marketingdöntések az Internet világában, Harvard Business Manager pp.16-28 [7] http://www.nrc.hu (2006.10.03.) >> back to the publications