Internet: The Cabinas Publicas Generation

Peru has seen a sharp rise in Internet use over the last few years, and the country represents a success story of ICT access in the developing world. The ITU states that internet users in Peru increased from about 800,000 in 2000 to about 7,128,000 in 2008. [1] The World Bank’s “ICT at a glance” data show that international bandwidth (bits per second per person),which measures the capacity that backbone operators provide to carry internet traffic, increased from 4 in 2000 to 2,704 in 2007. [2]  The mean levels for the Latin American and Caribbean region is 1,126, thus placing Peru higher than the regional average.

Table 1: Profile of Internet User in Urban Peru

InterMedia Peru 2009: survey of urban adults (15+), n = 417 who had used the internet in the previous month

Forty one percent of the respondents in our 2009 urban survey in Peru said they have household access to a computer and 21 percent said they have household access to the web. However, twice as many said they use the web at least monthly. The web is also fast becoming an important source of news and information; forty percent of respondents said they accessed news on the internet on a weekly basis.

This remarkable access and ability to use the internet for those who lack the purchasing power for computers and internet connections at home can be attributed largely to the rise in the number of cheap public internet facilities, known as cabinas publicas, in all of Peru's urban centers. As can be seen in chart WWW 1, 72 percent of the respondents said they use the cabinas publicas on a weekly basis for internet access (read more about cabinas publicas here).

Chart 1

The most popular internet service providers are Speedy (Telefonica), followed by Americatel and Claro. [3]

A user profile analysis reveals that 41 percent of the youngest respondents (15-29) in the survey said they had logged on to the internet the previous day. In addition, about six in 10 respondents who have a post-secondary degree said they use the internet daily, compared to twenty percent of respondents with a secondary education or less. Forty-one percent of urban respondents claimed to access news on the web at least once a week.

As can be seen in the chart Table 1, international websites such as Google, Hotmail and YouTube dominate web use among urban survey respondents. Hi5, which is the fourth most popular website in urban Peru, is also one of the most popular social networking websites in Peru and all of Latin America. It surpasses Facebook in popularity.

Table 1: Urban Peru: Popular Internet Websites
Percent of those who reported visiting the following websites in the previous month

InterMedia Peru 2009: survey of urban adults (15+) who had accessed the internet in the previous month, n = 417

In addition, among Peruvian websites, Table 1 shows that the newspaper, El Commercio’s website is the most popular among the survey repondents. Another populat Peruvian website isTerra.com; featuring news about sports, entertainment and other general information. RPP.com is the top radio station’s website, while Peru.com is an all purpose portal for Peruvian internet users. It has general news and information, sports news, business news, political news, leisure activities such as chat and horoscopes, films, entertainment, etc.

For accessing information online, urban Peruvians trusted international websites/search engines such as Google, Wikipedia and Youtube. However Peruvian news sources such as RPP (radio station’s website) and El Comercio were also considered to be one of the most trustworthy sources.

The most popular activities on the internet for urban Peruvians are sending emails and gathering information about specific topics (see Chart 2).

Chart 2

Internet use and access has grown in Peru, but not just in quantitative terms. In the past, users went online mainly to check email, but now they are blogging, watching videos and chatting with friends, among other activities. In addition, people have been also accessing social networking websites (charts WWW6 and 7). Although sending/receiving emails and researching a topic still remain the most popular activities; blogging, accessing news and social networking are also fairly popular. Read more on Web 2.0 (blogging and social networking) activities here.

Chart 3

[1] International Telecommunication Union ICT Statistics Database Accessed from http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/icteye/Indicators/Indicators.aspxI

[2] World Bank ICT at a glance Accessed from http://devdata.worldbank.org/ict/per_ict.pdf

[3] Ministerio de Transportes y Comunicaciones – MTC. Accessed from http://www.mtc.gob.pe