In January, 2004, about 10 million Canadians visited a government entity on-line, says comScore Media Metrix Canada, an on-line marketing firm. That number translates to 60 per cent of the country's on-line population, and about 33 per cent of the country's entire population.
ComScore, which released its survey Monday, hailed the findings as "clear evidence that our government is getting closer to its constituents."
Canadians also ranked first of four countries in e-government, comScore said, with each visitor spending 38.7 minutes at their government's website, and visiting 67 pages.
In contrast, users in Britain spent 19.5 minutes on-line and visited 33 pages; French users spent 19.5 minutes on 37 pages, and U.S. visitors spent 34.8 minutes on 50 pages.
"This indicates that Canadians are interacting heavily with their government on-line, utilizing the sites frequently and looking deep into the information presented," the survey concluded.
Canadians are also increasing their usage of on-line government. Leading the list of government agencies was Canada Revenue Agency (ccra-adrc.gc.ca), with a 155-per-cent increase in unique visitors in the period from November, 2002, to January, 2004.
The government of Nova Scotia (gov.ns.ca) was second with a 95 per cent increase, and next was Human Resources Development Canada, with a 92 per cent increase.
The kind of people who use e-government are generally older than 35 years of age, and have household incomes of less than $60,000.
"The Canadian government is definitely on the right path, and understands that the Internet is an important tool for reaching its constituents," comScore Media Metrix Canada president Brent Lowe-Bernie said in releasing the figures.
"Information, and the power to obtain it on your own schedule regardless of social strata, is a mantra that government agencies are beginning to understand around the world," he added. "Canada is setting some of the precedents for others to follow."
Quelle: globetechnology, 15.03.2004
