Third of UK Users Reject Online Ads.

When it comes to e-mail, UK Internet users are ahead of the European pack, according to research by BMRB International. More than 50 % of the Internet users in UK are using e-mail to chat with friends, BMRB found. The European average is 34 %. BMRB reported that Sweden, Denmark, and Finland also come in above the European average in e-mail usage. It is Sweden that dominates overall Internet usage in Europe. More than half of the Swedish population has used the Internet, BMRB found. Other European nations with high rates of Internet usage include Finland (50 %) and Denmark (46 %). At the other end of the scale, BMRB found that only 19 % of Italians have ever used the Internet. Less than one-third of the people in the UK, Austria, and The Netherlands have gone online. Twenty-eight percent of European Internet users have visited entertainment sites, including adult sites. Internet users in Finland are the most likely to visit entertainment sites (50 % have done so), followed by the Austrians (41 %).Only 25 % of German users have visited entertainment sites. Internet users in most European countries are more likely to access the Internet from work than home or school. BMRB found that home users of the Internet in Europe connect more frequently than those that access the Net elsewhere. Finnish users connect almost everyday, according to BMRB, while only 29 % of UK users and 15 % of Spanish users do so. In Europe banking via the Internet is more popular than shopping online, except in the UK, Spain, and Austria. Internet users in Finland are the most active online bankers, with 44 % of home users in that nation banking online, compared with just over one-fifth of the users in Belgium, Denmark, Germany, and Sweden. The top European nations for shopping from home via the Internet are Sweden, Spain, Austria, Finland, and the UK, BMRB found. Between 10 and 17 % of the Internet users in those countries have purchased online. More than one-third of UK Internet users are online advertising rejecters, according to BMRB.