Internet use grows in Russia

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MOSCOW, March 16 (UPI) -- The number of people in Russia using the Internet every day jumped in Russia during the course of the winter, the state-run Public Opinion Foundation said.

A study published in December found 46.8 million people in Russia surfed the Web every day. Using figures taken from 20 weekly surveys that included 30,000 respondents, the Public Opinion Foundation said that number has now climbed to 50.1 million, a 13 percent increase, RIA Novosti reported Saturday.

The organization calculated the number of daily Internet users in Russia was 3 million in 2003.

The current figures mean 43 percent of all Russians use the Internet daily. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev in 2010 set the goal of having 90 percent of Russians use the Internet daily within the "next several years."

Russia is still far behind Australia, where 89 percent of the people use the Internet daily. Eighty percent go online daily in Japan and 78 percent are daily users in the United States, RIA Novosti said.