Statistics | Telecommunications – 159,900 households connected, more smartphone users

Around 159,900 households were connected to the Internet in 2014, accounting for 84.3% of the total number of households in Macau. According to information from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC), this number is up by 1.7 percentage points year-on-year.
The data indicated that the percentage of households using mobile broadband to access the Internet increased by 7.2 percentage points year-on-year to 87.1%, driven by the popularity of smart-phones. Meanwhile, households using a fiber-optic broadband connection almost doubled, at 17,700.
For members of the population aged 3 and above, the rate of Internet usage was 69.8 percent, up by 4.0 percentage points year-on-year. The highest rate of Internet usage was that of members of the population aged 15-24, at 95.9 percent. Moreover, 93.4 percent of Internet users accessed the internet daily, up by 2.4 percentage points year-on-year.
Regarding the purpose of using the Internet, 86.9 percent used it for communication, 75.6 percent for web entertainment and 13.8 percent for shopping. The median online shopping spending amounted to MOP1,000 in the fourth quarter of 2014, up by 33.3 percent year-
on-year.
DSEC further indicated that 153,700 households possessed computer equipment. The rate of computer usage for members of the population aged 3 and above dropped by 1.1 percentage points year-on-year to 60.6 percent, owing to the greater variety of functions available on mobile phones and other devices.