• by July 20, 2000

Considering the amount of web-enabled services now available to users the world over - from email to instant messenger to online games - it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that different countries favor different communication tools.

According to the latest research, Australians and British enjoy chatting on the Internet, while Americans prefer online gaming. And every country is at a different stage of web-addiction (Americans, of course, top the list here.)

Media Metrix today released the May 2000 Internet audience measurement results for Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the UK, Japan, and the United States, revealing that Americans spent the most time on the Internet, averaging more than 13 hours per person among at home users in May.

Japanese Internet users followed with an average of nearly nine hours spent online per person, while the French spent the least time online, an average of approximately four hours per person in May.

Digital media users in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States spent most of their time on various software applications, devoting an average of at least two hours in May. While Australian and British users were engaged in applications for online chatting such as ICQ, the messenger services of MSN, Yahoo!, Juno and AOL, Americans favored the MSN Gaming Zone, where they spent nearly five hours on average playing with other Internet gaming aficionados all over the world. Other top gaming sites include Boxerjam and Mplayer.

"People spend a lot of time on applications like AOL Instant Messenger and ICQ software applications because they are designed for frequent, regular interaction and provide an inexpensive, fast and easy way to communicate with friends," said Mary Ann Packo, president of Media Metrix.

In Germany and France, digital media users spent the most amount of time on Internet Service Providers (ISPs), with Germans spending just over four hours on average on AOL Proprietary, and the French staying on Wanadoo.fr for nearly 50 minutes on average in May. French and German ISPs offer content such as stock updates, weather forecasts, the latest news and online shopping. Canadians, meanwhile, spent the most time on portals such as MSN.com, Yahoo.com and Sympatico.ca.

More extensive global data is available at http://www.mediametrix.com.