Some 34 million Vietnamese have access to the Internet, and 57 percent of them take advantage of it to shop online, according to a report released Tuesday.

Vietnam E-commerce and Information Technology Agency (VECITA) reported that 36 percent of the country’s population, or 34 million people, use the Internet, 18 million of whom shop online.

If each online shopper spends some US$150 per year to purchase goods from online stores, the Vietnamese e-commerce market will be evaluated at $2.77 billion, according to research firm Visa.

Meanwhile, another estimate proposed by VC Corp suggests that the market is worth $2.2 billion.

The VECITA report has the lowest estimate, with each online shopper spending $30 a year, and a market evaluation of $550 million.

The report also indicates that 81 percent of Vietnamese Internet users go online on a daily basis, with a total online time of 5.6 hours per day, and 6.4 days per week.

This means these users spend as many as 36 hours per week in the virtual world.

Vietnamese citizens spend more time on the Internet than other traditional means of media, according to the report.

The time locals spend watching television is only 5.2 days per week, or 14 hours per week.

The number of newspaper readers is even lower. Only 36 percent of the population read newspapers and magazines every day, with an average reading time of 1.5 hours a day, and 4.1 days per week.

The lowest number is those who listen to the radio, which accounts for only 12 percent of the population with a total listening time of only 3 hours a week.