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Chavez Offers Venezuelans Ready Access to the Web
By Giovanna Monteverde, InterMedia program manager for Latin America
28 October 2008
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, known for his behind-the-scenes meddling in the country's media sector, isn't restricting access to online information. On the contrary, Chavez sees expanded web connectivity as an essential part of
Venezuela's economic development, and he has directed substantial investment toward building the necessary technological infrastructure. Venezuelans are becoming some of the most well-connected web users in Latin America.
The government is using both carrots and sticks to expand internet use to the entire population. For example, web access by lower-income Venezuelans gets a boost from about 450 state-run "Infocenters" located throughout the country, where customers can go online at a subsidized rate. A national study by Tendencias Digitales in 2007 found that 64 percent of Venezuelan internet users connect through the Infocenters and privately-run cyber-cafes. Lower-income consumers also have the opportunity to buy cheap computers that can be made web-ready. And to encourage more people to go online, the government requires various official tasks such as passport renewals and tax filings to be performed electronically.
Internet users are spending a considerable amount of time online: 78 percent of frequent web users said they spent one to four hours surfing the internet each day. There is also a tradeoff between the time Venezuelans spend on the internet and the time they spend on other media-mainly to the detriment of print and radio.
There is no evidence of Internet censorship in Venezuela or of extensive content restriction, though there is a law on the books to ban the display of sites with adult content in cyber-cafés, Infocenters and other public places. Moreover, the May 2007 nationalization of CANTV, the country's largest telecommunications company, has raised some public fears that the government could potentially use it to filter web content. In fact, the government already monitors internet traffic through CANTV using a program similar to MRTG (Multi-Router Traffic Grapher). Government policy also requires all other internet service providers to monitor their traffic through a similar program.
Internet use patterns among urban dwellers
A phone survey of Venezuelan urban residents, conducted by InterMedia in July 2008, revealed that about one third of respondents go online daily to get information about current events, and 53 percent do so at least weekly. People see many advantages to getting information on the web, notably the ease of accessing multiple types of media-radio, streaming TV, standalone video, newspaper articles, etc.-in one place. Venezuelans also appreciate the ability to get information quickly online, the ease with which items of interest can be shared electronically with family and friends, and the diversity of information sources available.
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| Base: n=1331 [adults 15 and older] in Venezuela; July 2008 phone survey of urban dwellers. Percentages denote share of affirmative responses. |
Home use of the Internet is growing briskly amid a competitive market for fast broadband connections, which has dramatically lowered the cost of high-speed subscriptions. There are about 80 companies providing home internet service in Venezuela, though CANTV, Interco, NetUno and Supercable currently dominate the market.
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| Base: n=500 respondents who use the Internet at least hree time a week; July 2008 phone survey of urban dwellers |
The use of wireless connections has increased significantly in the last couple of years, with 9 percent of annual internet users saying they log on via Wi-fi. This percentage is likely to double in the current year as more restaurants, stores and other public establishments offer free or low-cost wireless connections.
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| Base: n=500 respondents who use the Internet at least three time a week; July 2008 phone survey of urban dwellers |
Men outshine women in web activity
As in many other countries, the demographics of web surfers (people who use the Internet at least three time a week) tend toward the young, urbanites and the better educated-and in Venezuela's case, males. Sixty-seven percent of men access the internet weekly, versus 57 percent of women. Virtually all respondents with post-graduate degrees said they used the web weekly, compared to 78% of those with a university or college degree. Eighty-three percent of Venezuelans 15-24 use the internet at least weekly, compared to 63 percent in the 35-49 category and only 38 percent for those 50-64.
Web usage patterns
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| Base: n=500 respondents who use the Internet at least three time a week; July 2008 phone survey of urban dwellers |
The use of sites to watch and upload videos and music (such as YouTube) and the use of social networking sites (i.e. MySpace) have increased notably in the past year. Blogs are also becoming more popular, with about one third of web users saying they have posted a comment or uploaded a video on a blog. That said, email remains by far the most popular online activity.
InterMedia's data show that nearly all Venezuelan internet users access online information in Spanish, while about a fifth also look at English-language sites. Google is the most popular site for getting information about Venezuela, followed by the sites of Venezuelan media groups Globovision (5 percent) and El Nacional (5 percent).
| Base: n=500 respondents who use the Internet at least three time a week; July 2008 phone survey of urban dwellers |
Google also tops the most-visited foreign websites, hit by 34 percent of Venezuelan web surfers, followed by CNN at 6 percent and Yahoo at 5 percent. However, given the rising popularity of social networking sites, these rankings are likely to evolve in coming years.