Russia is world leader in online communications

Russians communicate online more often than residents of any other country, and email is the most popular format, Kaspersky Lab announced, having studied the daily activity of Internet users.

Almost 95 percent of Russian users check their email daily, while worldwide this number is lower by 10 percent. In Western Europe about 83 percent of Internet users check their inbox on a daily basis.

The second most common way to spend time online is communicating in social networks, with 88 percent of Russians doing just that.

The majority of Russians also like to communicate on Skype (71 percent) and using instant messaging (65 percent).

Russians also use the Internet as a source of free multimedia and programs.

The study showed that 83 percent of users watch videos online, 74 percent listen to music on Internet radio and almost 57 percent spend some time playing online games.

“There are also a lot of hunters for free software among our compatriots – more than 81 percent,” Kaspersky reported. “In Western Europe there are a lot fewer fans of ‘free cheese’ – about 48 percent.”

http://themoscownews.com/russia/20121122/190897361.html

However, Russians trail behind in terms of how much they use Internet for payments and trade.

At the moment more than 53 percent of Russians buy goods online, but only 35 percent actively use online banking.

However, Russian hackers are also among the most active Internet users. Russia is in the list of countries with a heightened risk of “contamination” via the Internet, with more than 58 percent of Russians facing the cyber threat.

Russia is also world leader on the number of hostings of harmful programs.

http://themoscownews.com/russia/20121122/190897361.html