Over the last six months the number of people with Internet access in Germany has increased by one third and the German consulting firm, GfK, estimates that there are now over 12 million Germans online. NOP Research estimated that there were over 7 million Germans online in March of this year.
The study found the profile of the typical Internet user in Germany to be in keeping with that of the general Net user. He has a high level of education, is between 20 and 39 years old, and is in a high-income bracket.
GfK found that there has been an increase in the number of Germans accessing the Internet from home. The number of users accessing from work dropped from 59 percent of users last year to 36 percent this year.
While there has been an explosion in the number of Germans accessing the Internet, another report by KPMG warns German businesses against underestimating the importance of e-commerce to their GDP in the next five years. The report found that German businesses are not taking e-commerce seriously enough.