More Indonesians have access to the Internet than to radio or newspapers

Internet reach in Indonesia has surpassed traditional media and ranks second only to TV according to a recent survey done by Yahoo! and TNS. The survey was conducted in several major and smaller cities across the country and announced on Tuesday.

Increasing availability of low-cost internet plans from mobile carriers and affordable internet-enabled smartphones have been fueling this growth in the past few years and contributes to the growing use of social media as well as adoption of electronic commerce.

At 89 percent, social networking tops the list of the most popular online activities with web portal visits following at 72 percent, search engine usage  grew to 70 percent, and news reading at 61 percent. It is perhaps a little bit surprising that social network did not achieve a higher result given how pervasive it is among Indonesian internet users.

The landscape has changed significantly since the survey was first conducted. In 2009, all of the above activities were represented by around 57 percent of respondents except news reading which was a lowly 47 percent.

The shift can easily be attributed to the growth of internet use among 15 to 24 year-old Indonesians who seek more entertainment, music, gaming, and discussion platforms online.

The research however also found that while Internet reach had grown larger among the younger population, middle aged Indonesians head to the Internet much more often.

Back in 2009, internet cafes were the dominant portals to the internet for many Indonesians, but with the advent of more affordable internet plans and mobile devices, visits to such locations had dropped from 89 percent to just 60 percent.

Internet use from mobile phone skyrocketed from 22 percent to 58 percent while home use doubled from 16 percent to 32 percent.

While the numbers may vary to some extent with the partial results from Nielsen's survey released earlier this month, the trends match quite closely. Both surveys found that mobile devices are significant drivers to the rise in internet use among Indonesians.

The Yahoo-TNS survey covered nearly three thousand respondents between the ages of 15 and 50 across all socioeconomic segments who have used the internet between January and March of this year.