Bangkok--16 Jun--Hill & Knowlton New study commissioned by Microsoft Advertising suggests that Bangkok internet users have more sophisticated, extravagant lifestyles than their offline counterparts A recent study commissioned by Microsoft Advertising has found that amongst affluent people living in Bangkok, those who regularly spend time online have more extravagant purchasing habits and lifestyles than non-internet users. Bangkok’s online residents are a lot more likely to visit a cinema, museum or concert, twice as likely to travel and own a luxury watch worth over 1,000 USD and three times more likely to take a business air trip than non-internet users. Furthermore, compared to the nine other Asian cities included in the study, on average, Bangkok’s online community were found to be the second most frequent users of Instant Messaging (IM) with 40% of respondents claiming to chat regularly online. Commissioned by Microsoft Advertising to help Thai advertisers better understand the habits of Thailand’s online community, the study was conducted by Synovate in a total of ten cities across the region which included Singapore, Seoul, Taipei and Hong Kong. The study targeted affluent people aged between 25 and 64 years of age, quizzing them about their internet and lifestyle habits. In Bangkok, responses were gathered from a total of 1,700 people and the term affluent was defined as people with a personal income of at least 40,000 Baht or those living in a household with a total monthly of 70,000 Baht and up. “The study suggests that amongst Bangkok’s affluent residents, those who spend time online live more extravagant lifestyles and are bigger spenders than their offline counterparts,” said Kamolpat Swaengkit, National Sales Manager, Microsoft Advertising. “An explanation for this could be that the internet users are benefitting from the ability of the internet to easily connect people to the information they need, enabling them to research products and make purchases more easily anytime and anywhere, be it in the office, at home or even on the go via an internet enabled mobile,” Kamolpat added. Interestingly, contrary to popular beliefs, the study suggests that spending time online goes hand in hand with an active, outgoing lifestyle. 57% of internet users claimed to be interested in reading, attending or watching football, as opposed to only 46% of non-Internet users and 11% of internet users are members of gyms as opposed to only 7% of non internet users. Finally, when it comes to drinking alcohol, the internet users were again the bigger spenders with 39% having recently splashed out on a drink, versus only 27% of non internet users. Of the internet user respondents in Thailand, the survey confirmed Hotmail to be the most used e-mail service (62%) and Windows Live Messenger the leading IM service with 36% of all internet using respondents claiming to regularly chat on MSN. The next most popular IM service used by participants in the survey was Yahoo! Messenger at 7%. About MSN and Windows Live MSN attracts more than 465 million unique users worldwide per month. With localized versions available globally in 42 markets and 21 languages, MSN is a world leader in delivering compelling programmed content experiences to consumers and online advertising opportunities to businesses worldwide. Windows Live, a new set of personal Internet services and software, is designed to bring together in one place all the relationships, information and interests people care about most, with enhanced safety and security features across their PC, devices and the Web. MSN and Windows Live will be offered alongside each other as complementary services. Some Windows Live services entered an early beta phase on Nov. 1, 2005; these and future beta updates can be found at http://ideas.live.com. Windows Live is available at http://www.live.com. MSN is located on the Web at http://www.msn.com. MSN worldwide sites are located at http://www.msn.com/worldwide.ashx. For press only: Suphada Jaidee Hill & Knowlton Thailand Tel: 0-2627 3501 ext 209 Fax. 0-2627 3510 Email: [email protected] Jamie Rowland-Jones Hill & Knowlton Thailand Tel: 0-2627 3501 ext 206 Fax. 0-2627 3545 Mobile : 08-18292106 Email: [email protected]