17 May, Vitebsk /Olga Bogacheva - BELTA/. The social role of ByNet is growing. This opinion was expressed today at the conference "Business Internet: Vitebsk" by the founder of the tut.by portal, owner of UP "Reliable Programs" Yury Zisser, BELTA correspondent reports. "The social role of ByNet is constantly growing. This is reflected in fundraising for victims, charitable activities, and the fight against injustice. A prime example is the official Twitter account @GUVD_Minsk of the Minsk police," Yury Zisser emphasized. Overall, Internet consumption in Belarus is steadily increasing. The best evidence of this is the profile of current World Wide Web users. "There are over 4.1 million Internet users in Belarus, including 528,000 in the Vitebsk region. The number of the latter has grown from 353,000 to 528,000 in the last year alone, comparing data for January of the current and previous year. The user audience has significantly expanded. If previously it mainly consisted of IT specialists aged 20-30, now it includes children, teenagers, and pensioners. By occupation, they are mainly specialists and students, but there are also workers. 33% of Internet users have higher education," Yury Zisser stated. At the same time, the advertising market in the national Internet segment, according to the expert, is currently shrinking due to the lack of competition among enterprises. "And if there is no competition, then advertising is not needed," he stated. Compared to the Russian Internet segment, these opportunities are significantly less utilized in Belarus. Speaking about the capabilities of Belarusian specialists in the field of high technologies, Yury Zisser expressed deep confidence in their high professionalism. "Our specialists are capable of creating their own Google, the only problem is how to recoup it later," Yury Zisser noted. -0-

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