Books are the most popular online purchase

LONDON: A new research has revealed that more books are sold on the Internet than any other product and the number is rising.

Polling company Nielsen Online conducted a survey of 26,312 people in 48 countries and found that 41 percent of Internet users had bought books online,according to media reports.

This is different from two years ago when 34 percent of Internet users had done so.

The company said much of the rise in online book selling was in emerging markets, such as South Korea and India, with British consumers in 10th place.

During the study, it was found that the largest percentage of people buying books in any country was South Korea at 58 percent.

Nielsen estimated that equated to 18 million people.

In the US, 57.5 million customers were estimated to have purchased books. However that only equated to 38 percent of Internet users.

In the UK, 14.5 million were calculated, or 45 percent of those online.


Global book buyers:

1. South Korea - 58 percent 2. Germany - 55 percent 3. Austria - 54 percent 4. Vietnam - 54 percent 5. Brazil - 51 percent 6. Egypt - 49 percent 7. China - 48 percent 8. India - 46 percent 9. Taiwan - 45 percent 10. UK - 45 percent