BRAT: Over half of Romanians access internet also from another place than home

As the internet usage increased continuously in Romania during  the last couple years and became a mainstream channel, its penetration among people aged 14-74 y.o. living in urban areas reached to 67% . Adopted initially by young people, internet is now conquering older generations and people living in smaller towns.

Using the results from SNA Focus and SATI, BRAT made a detailed profile for internet users, focusing on the places where  people prefer to connect to the internet.

Although people heavily connect to the internet from home – with over 80% of people using it at home – the internet is more and more accessed also from outside the home. The usage of the internet from outside the house is tied by the usage of the new technologies – mobile internet, smartphones and tablets.

A comparison of the socio-demographic characteristics and consumption preferences for the people that use internet at home and the ones that use it in various places show that the later are younger, more active, with better jobs, many times management ones.

When it comes of media consumption, people that use internet anywhere spend less time on TV and listening to the radio, compared to people that log online only from home. Two thirds from the internet users that don’t watch TV during week use internet also outside of the home. Those people assimilated rapidly the new technologies and use tablets, smartphones or mobile internet. Over 1M people access internet on mobile phones, while 250,000 people connect to the internet outside of the home using tablets.

Over 75% of people that use online banking also use internet outside of the house. The internet is offering them, besides the needed info to decide over products and services they buy, the practical way to buy them (e-commerce). The people that use internet outside their homes are more likely to buy, during the year that follows, either a new car or a house.

When it comes of the websites that offer information from different areas of interest, BRAT’s analysis saw that the online traffic is almost     double during working days compared to the week-ends, which proves that internet consumption from outside the home is significant and has influence over the total online traffic.