Internet users in the UAE are more likely to use a variety of online services to communicate and amuse themselves, a recent study says.
Email, social networks and online video are the most popular online activities, with more than 80% of the users dealing with these every day, the survey by Kaspersky Lab revealed.
Interestingly, the world average for email activity is almost the same (86%) and the interest in social networks and online video worldwide is approximately 10% lower than in the UAE.
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Responsible use of online technology, particularly for children, will come into focus once more on Tuesday, February 5, which is the tenth Safer Internet Day.
Internet World Stats (IWS) in its latest report points out that UAE has 5,859,118 Internet users, equaling 70.9% of the Emirates' population. According to Facebook, there are 3,190,660 subscribers for the social networking site as of Sept,2012.
[UAE internet growth and population statistics from IWS]
Other popular activities of UAE internet users include downloading free software (68%), communicating via video calling services such as Skype (62%), and listening to music or the radio over the web (60%).
The popularity of video-and-voice services among UAE Internet users is significantly higher than the world average - up to 30% more - the survey revealed.
Additionally, half of all UAE Internet users are keen on communicating via instant messaging (56%) or gaming (50%). Nearly the same percentage of people (54%) uses the Internet as a source of multimedia content - music, films, and videos.
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According to the Kaspersky survey, use of these activities corresponds with the world average for each.
Meanwhile, the number of UAE citizens who use the Internet to perform financial transactions is well below the world average at XX percent . (add the figure here)
However, the number of users shopping or banking online is growing steadily. Currently more than 46% of UAE users make online purchases every day and a little more than 45% actively use online banking systems, the survey said.
The survey conducted in 2012 looked at more than 11,000 participants aged 16 and over from around the world, including Latin and North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
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