• March 19, 2001

Around 10% of European citizens are now shopping online. International Data Corp's annual e-consumer survey, "European Internet economy - ready for 2001?" says that cost is not, as was previously thought, seen as a major disincentive to surfing the Internet.

The research also found that almost half of the population of 14 European countries had accessed the Web during the last three months, with 20% of this number - equating to 10% of all European users - having bought something online in that period.

One of the most interesting aspects of the report is that 43% of European Internet users are female, up 3% on the previous year's research.

This suggests that the male/female ratios online are becoming more equal than when the Web was in its infancy, just five years ago.