The number of Internet users in Bulgaria has reached 46% of the country’s population by the end of November 2009.

This data has been provided during the Webit METRIX Conference in Sofia on Thursday by e-Academy, the Bulgarian organizer of the event.

Thus, according to e-Academy, the number of Internet users in Bulgaria has grown by 24% over the last year, and Bulgarians spend online about 20% of their time dedicated to being in contact with the media.

Internet ads are the third most trusted influencer for Bulgarian consumers after the recommendation by a friend and TV commercials. However, only 3,2% of the total budget spent on advertising by companies in Bulgaria goes to online ads.

Over 50% of Bulgarian users of Internet have made at least one purchase online. This has been announced by Monika Lasota, Director of business development at the Poland-based Gemius SA, which is the largest online research agency in Central and Eastern Europe, as cited by Tech News.

According to Gemius, the Czech Republic is doing best in Eastern Europe in terms of online shopping – 70% of the Czech Internet users shop online; the figure is lowest for Lithuania – 29%.

Gemius data also shows that Internet Explorer still remains the most popular web browser in Bulgaria with a share of 49%. Mozilla Firefox is a close second with 44%. Opera comes third with 5% of the Bulgarian market.

The situation with the browsers is similar in the other countries in Eastern Europe where Internet Explorer usually has a share of about 50%, and Mozilla Firefox – about 30%. Hungary, Poland and Latvia are the exception because Firefox enjoys shares of about 50% there compared to about 45% for IE. Russia is the only one where Opera has the strongest position – 24%, followed by IE – also about 24%, and Firefox with 20%.

About 5% of the total advertising spending of the companies in Eastern Europe are reported to go to online advertising.

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