A new survey done by two companies in Cyprus, Evresis and Immarcoms, called I Report 2012 (page in greek) reveals that people in Cyprus indeed love the Internet.
The results of the survey showed that the total percentage of people in Cyprus that use the Internet is 53.3% (+3.1% from 2011). This means that over half of the population use the Internet.
The main reasons are to read the local news and to communicate with other people using social media networks. This would be a good explanation on why the most popular websites in Cyprus according to Alexa are either news websites and social media websites (along with some not so reputable websites!).
Furthermore the third main reason is to buy things. I guess that people in Cyprus started to discover that the shipping costs are less that the huge profit that traditional shops have in Cyprus and they can get things cheaper in Ebay, Amazon, Asos and other eshops. The percentage is 32.4% and has increased 43% from 2011. The most popular items are clothes and shoes along with travel related items (tickets, hotel bookings etc).
Social media is really booming in Cyprus. Almost everybody that uses the Internet has a Facebook account (97.4%). In general social media websites had an increase of 72% from 2011.
The last important fact that the survey revealed is the increase of mobile Internet. 10% of Internet users, surf the Internet through their iPads. This is something that local Cyprus websites should take into consideration when designing their websites. A mobile version of a website is essential these days.
The results were not surprising but I believe that the increase in numbers is significant. I believe that the general conclusion is that the Internet has become a part of the daily lives of people in Cyprus and they will start using it from anywhere (mobile Internet).
Chrys Zampas
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@Mike McCormac
Twitter is not that popular in Cyprus. The reports mentions that Internet users that have Twitter are 19.4% which is significant smaller than 94.7% for Facebook.
LinkenIn is mainly used by business people but all they do is to register and connect to some people. There is more than that in social media networks.
@Pantelis Vladimirou
I believe that eshops that are based in Cyprus lack of trust. We trust Amazon and Ebay but is difficult to trust an unknown eshop even if it’s based close to our house!
Hello Chrys,
I checked the report and the results are indeed very encouraging for Internet Marketeers and Business Owners. Also we have noticed a 100% increase on visits at most news sites in Cyprus.
Regarding shopping online its an interesting part because it shows that Cypriots buy a lot online but unfortunetly not from Cypriot E-commerces but global sites like ebay. Why? Im sure most of us already know why.
Cypriots have really got into Internet and Social Media activities a lot but website owners and Brands need to do a lot to catch up. This report shows the growth on the Cypriot users, we need another report that will show us the growth on Cypriot Websites and Companies online visibility 🙂
Interesting article Chrys!
Everybody seems to have stats for Facebook usage in Cyprus, but nobody seems to have similar stats for Linkedin or Twitter. Have you come across anything?
Best
Mike