Poll: Russians use Internet to find out news, watch movies and connect with friends

(Interfax – October 13, 2014) The Internet usage index in Russia is 66 percent, the same as a year ago, and 46 percent of users go online daily, the Russian Public Opinion Study Center (VTsIOM) said.

Most active users are persons aged 18 to 24, people with higher education (66 percent in each of these two categories), prosperous people (58 percent) and Muscovites and St. Petersburg residents (55 percent), VTsIOM said, presenting the outcome of a poll of 1,600 citizens carried out in 42 regions on October 4-5.

Thirty-four percent of respondents said they did not use the worldwide web.

Russians mostly browse the Internet for domestic and international news (82 percent, including 34 percent on a daily basis), ways to broaden their outlook (81 percent) as well as music, movies or books (80 percent).

Three quarters of respondents (77 percent) use e-mail services (37 percent daily). Some 74 percent connect with their friends via social networks and 70 percent rely on the worldwide web in work and study.

A total of 54 percent of users are gamers (43 percent show no interest in games) and 43 percent make purchases online (54 percent reject such services). Forty percent admitted downloading software and 20 percent said they sometimes visited erotic websites.

The least common type of online activity is online diaries (14 percent).