World Telecommunication and Information Society Day

World Telecommunication Day is celebrated on May 17th ever since 1969, while World Information Society Day is celebrated since November 2005. In November 2006 International Telecommunication Union proclaimed that those two Days will be put under a common denominator, and May 17th was proclaimed World Telecommunication and Information Society Day. The purpose of celebration is to raise awareness of the opportunities which Internet usage and other information and communication technologies provide.

According to first results of the Croatian Bureau of Statistics on the usage of information and communication technologies in the Republic of Croatia in 2009, level of ICT integration in business is high. Usage of information and communication technologies is an extremely important part of contemporary business conduct, and the Survey showed that 98% of enterprises used computers in everyday business and 95% of enterprises had the Internet access.

The Internet became a necessity for an efficient business conduct, so 57% of enterprises, which is a decrease of 7% as compared to the previous year, had its own web site. There are 84% of enterprises that use the Internet for banking and financial services, while 61% use the Internet for administrative purposes. Also, a significant increase was shown in the number of enterprises that use the Internet for education and training of employees, from 18% to as much as 29%.

The integration of business processes and communication between business entities via the Internet allow for a more efficient offer of goods and services and their purchase and sale on the market. The Survey showed that purchases and sales via the Internet are increasing. There were 31% (an increase of 9%) of enterprises that bought products and services via the Internet, while 23% (an increase of 11%) of enterprises offered them for sale. The share of e-commerce compared to conventional commerce was still rather low. Still, there was a significant increase in some areas. There was a major increase in the number of enterprises that do more than 50% of their total sales via the Internet. After the addition of enterprises whose share of the Internet sales exceeded 25%, there can be noticed a significant increase in this segment, of as much as 20%, as compared to the previous year.

According to first results on the usage of information and communication technologies in households and by individuals in the Republic of Croatia in 2009, there was slight increase in households equipped with the ICT, while a significant increase in usage of broadband Internet was noticed. The Survey results showed that households in the Republic of Croatia were still relatively poorly equipped with the ICT but an increase of 2% was spotted in having personal computer, and there was a 5% increase in having Internet access, as compared to the previous year.

As compared to the last year, a significant increase of 26% was spotted in broadband access to the Internet, while at the same time, there was a significant decrease in the number of households using a dial-up access, from 37% to 12%. The share of households using the mobile or cable Internet was the same as in the previous year.
There were no noticeable changes in the age structure of computer users as compared to the last year. The youngest population still maintained lead in the computer usage and the number of users decreased proportionally with age. A similar trend was noticed in the employment status structure, where pupils and students, as the youngest group, were the most frequent computer users. A significant increase was noticed among pensioners in the eldest age group, where the number of computer users doubled.

If the results were compared with the last year data, it can be seen that individuals mostly used the Internet for obtaining information on goods and services (70%), for sending electronic mail (77%) and for reading daily news and magazines (an increase of 10%). There was a considerable increase in the Internet usage for educational purposes and for seeking of health-related information (an increase of 8%).

The Survey results showed that commerce via the Internet was not represented as much as it should had been; only 10% of individuals purchased goods and services via the Internet, but there was an increase of 3% though. Buyers' habits were very similar to those recorded in the previous year: books, magazines and educational material, together with clothes and sports equipment were still favoured.