Money, Money, Money

kiwis are flocking to online shopping and gaming, according to our latest survey.There once was a time when people would run screaming from the thought of using their credit card over the Internet. The idea of typing in your details and sending them out into the Internet ether was unthinkable for most people. My, how times have changed. Online shopping portals like Goodbooks.co.nz, Fishpond.co.nz and, of course, the wildly popular auction site TradeMe, are providing Kiwis with more and more opportunities to shop from home (and find online bargains in the process).The 2009 NetGuide Telecom Survey shows that people are no longer shy of using the World Wide Web for a host of commercial purposes. More than half of the people who took the survey said they had shopped online in the last 30 days alone. While TradeMe was far and away the most used site for online purchases, other popular sites included iTunes, Amazon.com, Mighty Ape, 1-day.co.nz and Ebay.It’s not just shopping that had Kiwis getting out their credit cards either; online gambling sites are proving increasingly popular as well.When it comes to gambling, Lotto is the clear winner for an online punt. Twenty-two percent of the survey’s participants said that they played Lotto online, whereas only one percent play poker, five percent use the Internet to bet on the races and one percent visit online casinos.