The search for information, be it for work, academic, school or personal purposes, is another main use observed in Latin American cities. The figures leave no doubt about the importance of this type of use. 75% of users in Bogotá (Dane, 2002), 67% of users in Lima (Apoyo, 2001) and 77.9% of Venezuelan users (UNDP, 2002a) declare this is a frequent use for them. Computers and Internet connection are becoming indispensable tools to find information to prepare homework and academic work, from school level up to higher-level education, a fact that compels students to come into close contact with ICTs. School teachers generally advocate the use of computers, even if they themselves are not so proficient in their use. The Quito survey among cybercafés users observed that “… there exist great numbers of students from
schools and universities… who require the use of a cybercafé to fulfil their academic activities”
(Ponton, 2002: 79). The use of Internet for school and university activities was also observed in Mexican cybercafés by Robinson (2002b) and in poor neighbourhoods of Lima (Fernandez- Maldonado, 2001). In Bogotá, 48.4% of users declare they use it for educational and training purposes (DANE, 2001). In Lima, 56% of users declared academic purposes in September 2001, a proportion that was decreasing according to both the socio-economic level and the age of the users (Apoyo, 2001).
Another common motive to use the Internet is for learning or improving computing skills to increase the individual chances in the job market. In the study of Proenza et al (2000) in Peruvian cybercafés, 11% of the sample population declared they attended the cybercafés to acquire computing and Internet skills. Most of the users of the same survey said that their computer abilities had improved remarkably since they began visiting the cybercafés. Looking for a job via the Internet is becoming increasingly popular too. In Brazil, more than one millions users (approximately twenty percent of the total) entered a website that offered
employment or information about jobs during January 2003, almost double what was measured during December 2002 (Clarín, 2003). In Lima, job hunting and looking for business possibilities were also observed in users of cybercafés (Fernández-Maldonado, 2001). The proportion of users that declared using the web to find a job was twenty percent in 2001 (Apoyo, 2001). Using Internet for acquiring information about government procedures and even to develop the procedures electronically is on the rise. For example, 18.3% of users in Bogotá declared that they make use of government pages (DANE, 2002). This has been recently favoured by the creation of government portals in the region which facilitate access to government related information, basic statistics, links with government institutions, and in some cases the possibility of initiating online transactions and procedures with government agencies. Besides, governments are increasingly modernising and integrating their register systems and delivering e-government services to citizens, although this is happening at very different speeds. A visit to the government portals in the region (websites in Table 6.11) provides a good view of the level of sophistication of the portals.
Argentina http://www.info.gov.ar/ Bolivia http://www.bolivia.gov.bo/ Brazil http://www.redegoverno.gov.br/ Chile http://www.gobiernodechile.cl/ Colombia http://www.gobiernoenlinea.gov.co/ Costa Rica http://www.go.cr/gobierno/digital Ecuador http://www.presidencia.gov.ec/ Mexico http://www.presidencia.gob.mx/ Paraguay http://www.paraguaygobierno.gov.py/ Peru http://www.perugobierno.gob.pe/ Uruguay http://www.presidencia.gub.uy/ Venezuela http://www.gobiernoenlinea.ve/
Table 6.11. Government portals in Latin America.
Brazil and Chile stand out as the most developed countries in terms of e-government services to their citizens. Brazil’s Rede Governo (Government Network) has 18 thousand links and 72% of the Federal government services are available their website. Five hundred different services of the state governments are also available to Rede Governo users. The website had thirty million monthly hits during 2001. The most successful implemented e-government activities have been online tax filing, the computerisation of the electoral process and the electronic floor and stock exchange for government purchases (e-procurement) (da Veiga, 2001). Chile is another excellent example as it has been ranked fifth in the Brown University’s second annual study of e-government services in 2002, after Taiwan, South Korea, Canada and the US, and has been internationally praised for its e-procurement services.
Additionally, there is a wide availability of Internet commercial, media and financial services, which are mainly geared towards the tastes and ways of life of the elite. The latest UNCTAD study on e-commerce reports that the rhythm of evolution of e-commerce in the region is low: one percent of the total electronic transactions in the world, and much lower than, for example, the Asia/Pacific region (5.7%) (UNCTAD, 2002). Brazil has by far the leading e-commerce in the region because it has a large domestic market and an early start in ICT diffusion and development, but most other countries are rapidly developing their e-commerce markets. For example, supermarket chains have been popular in Argentina (DISCO) and Brazil. Brick-and- mortar large department stores have also been successful in implementing online stores in the large countries.
E-commerce surveys at regional level show that the main products commercialised online coincide with the global preferences: software, computer and electronic devices, books, music, holidays and travel, etc. However, the level of electronic retailing in the region is, on average, low due to two main reasons: unreliable logistics and delivery systems and especially, lack of users’ confidence about online payments. There is wide evidence that many users consult the web to make decision about their offline purchases. For example, in Argentina 81% of Internet users declared using the web to shop, but only nineteen percent effectively carried out the online transactions in December 2001 (UOL, 2002).
Electronic banking has been one of the most successful examples of the adoption of tele- services throughout the region and is more popular than e-commerce. Most banks offer online transaction services to their clients as it implies less overhead expenditures. E-banking has been one of the first tele-services to become available in the region. With home banking, users can operate their accounts, pay for different services, taxes and credit cards. In Brazil, more than one third of Internet users make use of home banking through Internet. E-banking clients have an average of 7.45 visits per month (AHCIET, 2003).
In Argentina the levels of e-banking activities increased rapidly during the period of the financial ‘corralito’, when citizens were impeded from withdrawing their savings from their accounts. Electronic banking was the only way to avoid paying with the scarce money that was circulating. From mid-2001 to February 2002 the number of e-banking users increased from six hundred thousand to one million, which was approximately thirty percent of the total users in Argentina (La Red, 2002). Even if electronic banking is on the increase, other countries show lower levels of e-banking transactions than Argentina and Brazil. In Bogotá, seventeen percent of users declared they use e-banking (DANE, 2002). Surveys in Lima sketch the profile of e-banking users (fourteen percent of total users): a high-income user that connects to the Internet from home with high frequency (Apoyo, 2001).
The link between mass media and Internet has been very clear, both in the commercial as in the cultural aspects. Regarding the first aspect, traditional media (radio, TV channels, magazines and mainly newspapers) have been among the first to enter the business of providing online services and content. The online versions of the largest newspapers have become the most visited websites of each country and they have developed as portals that canalise users to other e-services, chat rooms, forums, that sometimes provide free Internet service. A common feature of the online newspapers is to make the reader interact making it possible to react to the news, recommending them or sending them to others by email, opening up forums to debate main national or sometimes international issues, to make users participate in surveys, publishing the ranking of the most read articles, and more recently videos and audio news, etc. For example in Argentina, 26% of the users visited the page of the main newspaper, Clarín, during June 2001, to spend an average of eighteen minutes (Frascaroli, 2002). In Lima, 28% of users declared they visited the online version of El Comercio, the main newspaper during the last three months (Apoyo, 2002a), which was the most visited local website.