Media Usage Study: Wikipedia and Facebook to Become Ever Pervasive
- At the European Forum Alpbach Telekom Austria Group presented a benchmark study about media usage in Austria, Slovenia and Croatia
- Wikipedia and Facebook are the most used Web 2.0 platforms - Facebook is very strong among the younger generation
- Younger users are often very careless about their own privacy
Vienna, September 2, 2010: At this year’s European Forum Alpbach, the Telekom Austria Group (VSE: TKA, OTC US: TKAGY) presented a benchmark study: “Information usage patterns, Web 2.0 and the Impact on Society” in Austria, Slovenia and Croatia. This online survey was carried out by the research institute GfK (that’s the way the company´s name is written) Austria in August 2010* with 500 Internet users in each country.
The study about media usage and media competence focuses on one of the most burning issues around social changes arising from web 2.0 applications. Information and communications technology are deeply affecting our society especially the digital natives, the younger generation born after 1980, who have grown up using electronic devices such as mobiles and computers along with digital media and are now posing unprecedented questions that need to be tackled.
According to Hannes Ametsreiter, CEO Telekom Austria Group: “Based on the wide scope of its offering, the Telekom Austria Group is creating a network infrastructure for the applications of the future. We want to offer comprehensive solutions tailored to the communications needs of our customers. Therefore, we have to identify trends and developments at a very early stage. As market and innovation leader we make a significant contribution to the progress of our markets of operation through our product and service portfolio. We consider it an integral part of our corporate responsibility to provide navigation to people and safeguard their security in an ever-changing society driven by the fast pace of technology”.
The survey confirmed that Europe’s younger generation is online in the benchmark countries of Austria, Slovenia and Croatia, where one third of the interviewed Internet users attach great importance to broadband access lines. Without Internet access, 50% of Austrian users “feel cut off from the outside world” and consider their communications possibilities as restricted. 65%f users in Slovenia and 80% in Croatia feel disconnected without Internet. Web 2.0 applications are considered a very credible and dependable information source: This is also reflected in the credibility users attribute to these platforms, which amount to more than 50% of the surveyed users.
Networking via social media platforms and logging on to these websites many times a day have become indispensable for users under the age of 19. The younger generation accounts for 85% of Facebook users in Austria, 90% in Slovenia and 100% in Croatia.
The survey also showed that users of social media platforms like Facebook are often very careless about their privacy and tend to grant access to very confidential data as they consider these sites safe and secure. There are however country-specific differences with regard to the type of confidential data that are available online. In Croatia users have no reservations about disclosing their full name (67%) a picture of themselves (69%) and their email address (63%). The Slovenians however, feel more comfortable providing their postal addresses and private telephone numbers, in comparison to three other European countries surveyed.
A further compelling survey result revealed that users generally feel that their privacy is less jeopardized than the privacy others. One third of the Austrian and Slovenian Internet users and 50% of their Croatian counterparts have no concerns at all about any potential privacy violation. However, two thirds of the interviewed individuals across all countries are concerned about the possibility that personal content might be taken out of context.
Furthermore, according to the Internet users in the survey web 2.0 platforms have the potential to mobilize people in favor or against a specific issue and therefore to bring about political changes due to the huge volume of information that can be made available in a short time, which has considerably increased over the past 5 years. Breaking-news is increasingly accessed via new media and online newspapers and the Internet, whereas TV and radio are mainly used for entertainment. Furthermore, social network platforms are deemed to have positive effects on personal relationships, especially on the circle of friends, and to enhance professional networking opportunities.
The survey also revealed that the Internet and the mobile phone are closely interwoven and rank among the most important communications channels. Roughly 30% of the Austrian and Slovenian users access social media via their mobile phone and while in Croatia it is 40%. While the Austrians prefer a direct conversation when talking business, both the Croatian and the Slovenian tend to use emails and mobile phones for business relations.
Based on the results of the survey, Ametsreiter concluded: “Information technologies have the potential to bring about major social changes as they are able to mobilize individuals, make information and knowledge available to the general public and connect people across age barriers and country boundaries. This is why we are interested in the learning and information behavior, the everyday work life and the private sphere of people, while at the same time engaging in an open dialogue with the relevant target groups and decision makers.”
The most important initiatives of the Telekom Austria Group in this context include Hedy Lamarr Lectures in cooperation with the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the research and further education organization Medienhaus Wien, where international experts are invited to give public lectures about potential social consequences of the transformation currently under way. Further activities encompass numerous collaborations with universities and research institutions, the future.talk or the promotion of the “KinderuniWien” (Children’s university), where a special study of children was carried out this year focusing on social media and the timely development of media competences.
* Survey period: AT: 05.-08.2010; SI:11.-19.08.2010; HR: 12.-20.08.2010
About Telekom Austria Group:
The Telekom Austria Group is the leading telecommunications provider in Central and Eastern Europe. The Group has been listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange since November 2000 and is currently operating in eight countries: in Austria (A1 Telekom Austria), Slovenia (Si.mobil), Croatia (Vipnet), the Republics of Serbia (Vip mobile) and Macedonia (Vip operator), Bulgaria (Mobiltel), Belarus (Velcom) and Liechtenstein (mobilkom liechtenstein). The Fixed Net segment encompasses voice telephony, data and IT solutions, Internet access, multimedia services as well as wholesale. The Mobile Communication segment includes mobile voice telephony, mobile Internet and data as well as m-payment solutions. The Telekom Austria Group serves roughly 2.3 million fixed net lines in Austria and has a customer base of 19.2 million mobile subscribers across its markets of operation. The Group’s revenues were EUR 4.8 billion as of year-end 2009. More detailed information is available at www.telekomaustria.com
Contact:
Elisabeth Mattes, Spokeswoman and Director Corporate Communications of the Telekom Austria Group
Tel: +43 664 6639187
E-mail: elisabeth.mattes@telekomaustria.com
Sophie Kriefman, Grayling on behalf of the Telekom Austria Group
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7932 1850
E-mail: Sophie.Kriefman@Gryaling.com
