Canadians use the Internet more than anyone else

New report from CIRA looks at the Internet and Canada's place in it

OTTAWA, Jan. 21, 2013 /CNW/ - Canadians rank first in the world when it comes to Internet usage, spending an average of 45 hours per month online. Despite this fact, Canadians still spend more for broadband speed than 19 other countries. These illuminating facts, and more, are included in a new resource from the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) released today.

The 2013.CA Factbook is a compendium of facts and research about the global domain name industry and .CA's place therein. It also provides a glimpse into the state of the Internet in Canada.

"I believe that Canadians will find the information within the Factbook revealing" said CIRA's president and CEO Byron Holland. "From the increasing consumption of media content online to the continued growth of .CA, the Factbook provides a snapshot of an Internet landscape in Canada and around the world that is constantly evolving."

The .CA Factbook is presented as an online, social document with tweetable factoids, and numerous graphics.

Some other facts of note include:

• 49 per cent of Canadians strongly prefer .CA versus 17 per cent for .COM for business.
• Canada's Internet economy accounted for 3 percent of Canada's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2012, totalling $49 billion.
• Per viewer, Canada leads the world in viewing online video.
• Canada's top-level domain, is one of the fastest growing TLDs in the world, ranking fourth among its country code top-level domain (ccTLD) counterparts.
• During the last five years, global registrations for domain names were up 70 per cent to almost 240 million domains online.

The .CA Factbook (http://www.cira.ca/factbook/2013/index.html) is divided into four main sections, the Global Net, .CA's in Canada and the Canadian Internet Economy, Canada Online and .CA and the World.

About CIRA

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority is the member-driven organization that manages Canada's .CA domain name registry, develops and implements policies that support Canada's Internet community, and represents the .CA registry internationally.

SOURCE: Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA)

For further information:

Please contact:

Tanya O'Callaghan
Communications Manager, Canadian Internet Registration Authority
[phone] ext. 262
[e-mail]