Heavy Internet use in Taiwan leads to savvy consumers: report

The ratio of Taiwanese surfing on the web every day is the second-highest in the Asia-Pacific region, a trend that has created a group of consumers that are savvy enough to take advantage of the Internet in their buying behavior, a Google Inc. report revealed Monday.

The report said 96 percent of Taiwanese use the Internet every day, trailing only Hong Kong's 97 percent.

While Taiwan has seen smart phone penetration hit a record-high of 82 percent, for those aged between 25-34 that figure has reached 100 percent, it said.

The heavy Internet use has led to the emergence of a group in Taiwan that Google describes as "savvy consumers, who also value pleasure in life," although the company did not give specific demographic information about the group.

It said that the group is more interested in searching information on the Internet and more willing to buy.

Google said 70 percent of that group are willing to spend more money to have more time to do the things they enjoy and improve the quality of their lives, while 67 percent expressed confidence in being able to keep their consumption power at the same or even higher level in the coming two years.

It added that 75 percent of the group learn about the items they are interested in online before purchasing them, and 66 percent spend more time in virtual stores than real shops.

Source: Focus Taiwan