Information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that about 159,900 households had used the Internet in 2014, accounting for 84.3% of the total, up by 1.7 percentage points year-on-year. With the popularity of smartphones, the households using mobile broadband to access the Internet increased by 7.2 percentage points year-on-year to 87.1%. Meanwhile, households using fibre optical broadband connection almost doubled, at 17,700. For population aged 3 and above, the rate of Internet usage was 69.8%, up by 4.0 percentage points year-on-year. The rate of Internet usage for population aged 15-24 topped at 95.9%. Moreover, 93.4% of the Internet users had accessed the Internet daily, up by 2.4 percentage points year-on-year. Regarding the purpose of using the Internet, 86.9% of the Internet users used the Internet for communication, 75.6% for web entertainment and 13.8% for Internet shopping, up by 6.6, 2.1 and 0.2 percentage points respectively year-on-year. Median Internet shopping spending amounted to MOP 1,000 in the fourth quarter of 2014, up by 33.3% year-on-year. Mobile phone users accounted for 92.3% of the total; the proportion of population who accessed the Internet using a mobile phone increased by 10.0 percentage points year-on-year to 79.5%. In addition, 153,700 households possessed computer equipment, sharing 81.1% of the total, down by 0.8 percentage points year-on-year. The rate of computer usage for population aged 3 and above also dropped by 1.1 percentage points year-on-year to 60.6% owing to the greater variety of functions available on mobile phone and other devices. Survey on Information Technology Usage in the Household Sector 2014 was conducted in the fourth quarter of 2014 through a supplementary questionnaire of the Employment Survey, which collected data on information technology usage among population aged 3 and above.
