Most internet users in Bangladesh and India avail themselves of the internet facility for searching jobs, according to a survey conducted by Washington-based Pew Research Centre, reports UNB.

The majorities of internet users in Bangladesh – 62% and India 55% -- say they have looked for a job online in the past year, the highest rates among the 31 countries surveyed that have enough internet users to analyse.

Indians and Bangladeshis use the internet for job hunting and very few people in India and Bangladesh use the internet -- only 20% and 11% respectively. ‘But among those who do, job searching is a popular activity.’

The Pew Research Centre surveyed thousands of people across 32 emerging and developing nations about their technology use and how the rising influence of the internet affects their daily lives.

The Pew Research Centre is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other data-driven social science research.

Many people worldwide are skipping the fixed telephone line that many Americans grew up with, and this fact is most apparent in many emerging and developing nations.

Only 1% of the population in Nigeria, Ghana, Bangladesh and Uganda say they own a working landline telephone in their household, while 89% in Nigeria, 83% in Ghana, 76% in Bangladesh and 65% in Uganda own cell phones. This compares with 60% landline penetration in the USA.

Chinese internet users love to shop as about half of online Chinese (52%) have used the internet to buy products in the past 12 months.

Given the size of the online Chinese marketplace, this goes a long way in explaining the meteoric rise of commerce giants such as Alibaba and Baidu.

Among Lebanese who use social networks, an astounding three quarters of them say they use the platform for discussing politics.

Similar levels of political participation occur among social network users in Egypt (66%) and Jordan (63%).

Across all the countries surveyed with sufficient numbers, only a median of 34% say they talk politics using social media, including 16% of Filipino and Vietnamese social networkers and 19% of Indonesians.