The number of Taiwanese using the Internet grew to 8 million -- nearly one-third of the island's population -- as of early June, up from 5.6 million a year ago, according to a survey by the Chinese-language Business Next (數位時代) magazine.
About 1.5 million people in Taiwan use broadband, up sharply from less than 100,000 last year, John Wang (王志仁), editor in chief of the monthly magazine, said at a press conference yesterday.
About 500,000 Taiwanese subscribe to the superfast Internet service.
The survey said 27 percent of Taiwanese are so-called ``digital people'' who use e-mail and at least one digital appliance, such as a computer, mobile phone, pager or personal digital assistant.
Among these appliances, mobile phones are the most popular, with 81 percent of the total population using the phones, the study said.
The ``digital people'' are almost equally divided between the two genders, with 51 percent of them being male, the survey said.
Meanwhile, the number of people who have bought goods via the Internet has risen to 18 percent of Internet users, compared with 9 percent a year ago, according to the survey.
Books and magazines are the most popular items bought on the Web, according to the survey.
The poll surveyed 1,109 people around Taiwan on June 1 to June 4 and has a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points.
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