Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore top the list of Asia-Pacific nations with access to the Internet at home but Australians and New Zealanders do much of their web surfing at work.
A study by Nielsen/NetRatings also showed that 429 million people have access to the Internet around the world. The United States and Canada lead the pack with a combined 41 percent share but Asia is catching up with a one-fifth stake.
"Generally, home access and use of the Internet is more firmly entrenched in the Asian countries than in the Pacific countries of Australia and New Zealand, where work-based usage is more commonly observed," Nielsen/NetRatings said in a statement.
In Singapore, shopping on the Internet is increasingly popular, with the number of users browsing online rising from 15 percent in the third quarter of 2000 to 19 percent in the first three months of this year.
The number of Singaporeans making online purchases rose from four percent to seven percent over the same period.
"More people are now going online to look for products to buy," Nielsen/NetRatings said.
"There is also a steady increase in the population who browse and subsequently convert that investigation into a purchase."
