Koreans join Web's '30-million club'

The number of Koreans who use the Internet passed the 30 million-mark last month, representing 68.2 percent of the nation's 45 million people aged 6 or older.

The Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) said on Tuesday that the country had 30.67 million Net surfers at the end of June, up from 29.22 million six months ago.

The data comes from a biannual survey of 17,347 residents from 7,030 households, conducted by the MIC and the National Internet Development Agency in June.

Korea has become the fifth country in the world to join the 30-million club, following the United States, China, Japan and Germany.

Since the start of commercial services in 1994, the internet population has been steadily increasing to the point where it is almost as popular as mobile phones.

Korea's Internet success has spawned a digital divide between ages, sexes and regions.

More than 95 percent of those aged between 6 and 29 periodically go online, compared to 86.4 percent for those in their 30s, 58.3 percent in their 40s and just 27.6 percent in their 50s.

The survey also showed that Internet usage stands at 74.4 percent for men, compared to 62 percent of women. Around 70 percent of urban area inhabitants use the Internet, while only 46.2 percent of people who live in rural areas go online.

Korean Internet users spend an average of 11.5 hours a week on the Web, an hour less than six months ago, mainly to search for information (73 percent), enjoy online games (54 percent) and use email (33 percent).

More than 45 percent of respondents said they are a member of at least one Internet community while 37.1 percent of them utilise instant messaging services.

Seung eun Myung of ZDNet Korea reported from Seoul.