The Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) and Korea Network Information Center (KNIC) announced Friday that according to their surveys taken in December 2002, 26.27 million persons were estimated to be Internet users. MIC and KNIC said that "Internet user" was defined as someone who used the Internet more than once a month.

Some 91.4 percent of persons under 20 and 89.8 percent of persons under 30 were Internet users. However, the proportion of Internet users dropped the older the demographic group became, as 69.4 percent of persons in their 30s, 39.3 percent in their 40s and 9.3 percent of persons in their 50s, were estimated to use the Internet more than once a month.

Students were seen to be using the net the most at 95.5 percent and housekeepers were the job group that used the net the least, with 37.2 percent.

A total of 71.8 percent of Internet users said that they logged on daily and the average weekly usage time was 13.5 hours, a 1.6 hours increase from June 2000. The survey also showed that Instant Messengers used to chat were on the increase rapidly, with 36.8 percent of the user population using them regularly.