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Peer-to-peer (or P2P) networks are used to download music, movies, images, games and software from the Internet. The number of people logged on simultaneously to popular file sharing networks approached close to 10 million in April 2004, a rise of 30% from the same period a year earlier, according to a pre-publication excerpt from the OECD Information Technology Outlook 2004. The included country-specific data for all 30 OECD countries reveals that users in the U.S. make up over half the total number of people using file-sharing networks, followed by Germany (10.2%), Canada (8.0%) and France (7.8%). The report also shows that usage of P2P networks is growing fastest in Europe and Canada. Whereas the share of P2P users from the United States as part of all OECD users is falling, the share of Germany, France and Canada is on the rise.
The report also concludes that in 2003, for the first time, people downloaded more video, image, game and software files than music in OECD countries. In 2002 music made up the majority (62.5%) of non-commercial content downloaded in these countries, with videos, games, software and images accounting for the remainder (37.5%). But in 2003, the downloading of video and other files grew to make up slightly more than half (51.3%) of the total, while music downloading fell to 48.6%.
Another conclusion was that this trend toward larger video and other files is strongest in Europe. Europeans are actually using file-sharing networks that make it easier for people to download larger files, such as movies and software. Last fall, for example, in Germany, video files made up over 35% of the total of downloaded content. In Italy, they made up 32.4% of the total and in France 26.1%. This compares with only 12% in the United States.
But the report also makes clear that the peer-to-peer technology should not be equated to the illegal downloading of music. It also points to the commercial opportunities behind this new technology by analysing new applications of legal file-sharing networks in research and business. These include Voice over the Internet (VoiP) technology, as well as applications in the banking and insurance industries, and government and academia.
The released section is taken from the OECD Information Technology Outlook 2004, to be published in December 2004.
For further information, journalists are invited to contact Spencer Wilson, OECD's Media Relations Division (tel. [33] 1 45 24 81 18) or Sacha Wunsch-Vincent of the OECD's Information, Computer and Communications Policy Division.
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