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E-commerce still tiny in Cyprus

14/11/2006

Broadband home use rises

Anyone searching the internet from Cyprus for a computer lately cannot fail to have spotted www.cyprus-pc.com, but according to new data from the Statistical Service, this pioneering online retailer is the exception rather than the rule.

Only 7% of Cypriot enterprises that use the internet actually accepted orders via the internet in 2006, although this was higher than the 5.1% reported in 2005 according to the annual ‘Information and Communication Technologies Usage and E-Commerce in Enterprises’ survey.

At the same time, a parallel household survey found that only 6.7% of individuals ordered products over the internet, although this was higher than the 5.1% recorded in 2005. These individuals ordered mainly books, magazines, newspapers and e-Learning material.

More e-government

While e-commerce remains tiny, businesses are interacting more with the government online. Business using the internet for interaction with public authorities (mainly obtaining information) increased from 39.5% in 2005 to 44.3% in 2006.

More generally, computer and internet usage in business is widespread: 94.5% of enterprises used a computer in January 2006. Among small enterprises of 10-49 employees (which is around 95% of all enterprises in Cyprus) there was an increase in computer usage from 92.8% in 2005 to 93.6% in 2006, as well as in internet usage, from 82.1% in 2005 to 83.7% in 2006.

Broadband home-use rises

The survey on households found that there was a significant increase (from a very low base) in internet connections via broadband, from 4.5% in 2005 to 12.1% in 2006, while the proportion with any kind of internet access from home rose from 31.7% to 36.7%.

The total percentage of households with a computer was 51.9% in 2006, while 40.9% of individuals aged 16-74 used a computer and 33.8% used the internet during the first quarter of 2006.