Conducting online activities remains relevant in the second year of the pandemic, indicates CGI.br survey

Unequal access to devices continues to affect remote work and education in the country, reveals the 4th edition of the ICT COVID-19 Panel, launched this Tuesday (5)

In the second year of the pandemic, online activities remained present in the daily lives of Brazilians, staying at levels higher than those observed before the health crisis. The significant adoption of the Internet by different segments of the population was not able to eliminate digital inequalities in the country. The conclusion is from the 4th edition of the ICT COVID-19 Panel, a study by the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee (CGI.br), conducted by the Regional Center for Studies on the Development of the Information Society (Cetic.br) of the Brazilian Network Information Center (NIC.br).

Released on this Tuesday (5), the survey presents an overview of Internet use in Brazil during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conducted online, data collection took place in July 2021, shortly after the most critical moments of the pandemic impacts in the national territory, and at a time when a return to in-person classes and work was being outlined.

“The trend towards digitalization that we observed as an effect of the pandemic continued in the first half of 2021 in activities such as e-commerce and online public services, indicating that the transformations noted in the period may have a more permanent character in society. However, disparities remain a relevant point of attention for public policies. Even though classes C, D, and E have started to perform more activities over the Internet, this continues to occur at a lower level than observed in classes A and B. This scenario highlights the importance of public policies aimed at reducing these inequalities,” says Alexandre Barbosa, manager at Cetic.br|NIC.br.

E-commerce      
In 2021 there was a consolidation of online shopping habits. The practice of e-commerce remained at a level similar to that observed in 2020, higher than the pre-pandemic context. There was a change in the profile of goods and services purchased. In 2020, with social distancing measures, the use of e-commerce for purchasing items such as medication and food grew significantly. In 2021 there was an increase in the purchase of more durable goods, such as home appliances, clothing, and electronic equipment. “The basket of products acquired online became more diversified, and the emergency nature of online purchases made way for it to become a daily practice. The purchase of airline tickets, which had decreased substantially in 2020, for example, returned to levels similar to those verified in the pre-pandemic period,” highlights Barbosa.

An unprecedented fact presented by the panel was the rapid adoption of Pix, launched in November 2020. According to the survey, 72% of users who shopped online used this method for digital payment. “By mid-2021, it had already become the second most used payment method for online purchases, almost tying with the first, the credit card. And this happened across all social classes,” states Alexandre Barbosa, manager of Cetic.br|NIC.br.

Remote work
In 2021, the pandemic continued to transform the routine of many companies, with the maintenance of the remote work model. At the same time, it was possible to observe a return to the in-person modality among those who had previously worked remotely.

The conditions for remote work remain unequal among social classes. While among users in the AB classes, the primary device used to work remotely was the computer, the mobile phone was the most adopted in the DE classes. The survey also revealed the origin of the computer used for remote work: the majority who used a computer to work remotely already had this device (47%). However, while users in the AB classes purchased a computer during the pandemic in greater proportion, in the C and DE classes, the main alternatives were devices borrowed from friends and family or donated, respectively.

The survey also revealed that Internet users working through applications faced different conditions for Internet access to work. This category included both users who worked as drivers and delivery personnel and those who sold online. “Among the drivers and delivery personnel, 68% found connectivity difficulties in performing their activities, such as being in areas without coverage or exhausting the data package. A similar proportion (71%) of these users reported adopting coping strategies, like changing plans or providers, acquiring a second chip, or receiving company support to use mobile Internet for work,” reports Fabio Storino, research coordinator at Cetic.br|NIC.br.

Remote education     
Among Internet users attending school or university, 63% stated that the institution where they studied offered remote classes or educational activities, and 19% cited the offering of classes in a hybrid modality, reflecting the partial return to in-person classes in the first half of 2021. While among users in the AB classes, the computer was the most frequently used device to follow remote activities, in the DE classes, the majority followed classes via cellphone.

The lack of digital resources figured among the main aspects that contributed to students not being able to continue following remote activities. The main barriers reported by users for participating in the remote classes or activities offered by educational institutions were related to the difficulty of getting doubts clarified with teachers (41%), lack of motivation to study (41%), and absence or low quality of the Internet connection (38%). The lack of motivation was the barrier most mentioned by users in the AB classes (42%), while the difficulty in getting doubts clarified was more reported by those in the DE classes (40%).

Culture
According to the survey, in 2021, the proportion of Internet users aged 16 and over who watched videos, programs, movies, or series over the Internet reached 89%, compared to 74% before the pandemic, according to TIC Domicílios 2019 survey data. This increase was greater among those aged 60 and over (88%) and women (87%).

The survey also detected a recovery trend in using the Internet for participation in in-person cultural activities, a sector strongly impacted in 2020 due to sanitary measures. Among those who bought tickets online for events such as shows, cinema, theater plays, or exhibitions, 73% did so for events streamed online and 69% for in-person events.

Telehealth
About a quarter of Internet users aged 16 and over had a medical consultation or with a health professional online. Among those who used online consultations, 69% declared having done so in the public network – via the Unified Health System (SUS) – and 53% in the private network.

The majority of patients who had up to elementary (94%) and high school (79%) education did teleconsultation in the public network. Among those with higher education, 75% resorted to the private network. Regarding social class, the majority of users in the AB classes (74%) used this service in the private network, while the majority in classes C (80%) and DE (85%) accessed it via SUS.

In all strata surveyed by the research, the most used means for conducting teleconsultations were messaging applications (59%), at significantly higher levels than specialized apps from the public network (35%) or private health plans (34%).

Public services online        
According to the survey, public health was the most accessed category of public services via the Internet in 2021. Services such as booking appointments or other services offered by the public health system were performed by 53% of Internet users, a proportion that remained high across almost all analyzed strata, especially among users aged 60 and over (57%). This increase coincided with the start of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign throughout the national territory, initially targeting the elderly population.

"The data presented by the ICT COVID-19 Panel are extremely relevant for understanding the context of Internet use by Brazilians during the pandemic. From the survey, which reaffirms CGI.br's commitment to society, we have a snapshot of this moment that brought significant challenges to the country, highlighting the importance of public policies for digital inclusion," reinforces José Gontijo, coordinator of CGI.br.

Methodology
The ICT COVID-19 Panel is an online survey aimed at investigating the activities carried out by Internet users aged 16 and over during the pandemic. Conducted between July 15 and 30, 2021, through an Internet user panel, the present edition included 5,552 interviews.

The estimates presented in the current edition of the ICT COVID-19 Panel represent the entirety of the Internet user population aged 16 and over in Brazil. Due to the increase in the scope of the population represented by the survey, the data are not directly comparable with previous editions, which partially represented this population. Additional tables for conducting temporal comparisons are available on the website of the survey (https://cetic.br/pt/pesquisa/tic-covid-19/indicadores/).

To check the publication of the 4th edition of the ICT COVID-19 Panel, access: https://cetic.br/pt/pesquisa/tic-covid-19/publicacoes/. The online launch event of the study is available in full at https://youtu.be/NoOGLQqPySU.

About Cetic.br
The Regional Center for Studies on the Development of the Information Society (Cetic.br), of NIC.br, is responsible for the production of indicators and statistics on the access and use of the Internet in Brazil, disseminating periodic analyses and information on network development in the country. Cetic.br is also a Regional Study Center under the auspices of UNESCO and completed 16 years of activity in 2021. More information at https://cetic.br/.

About the Brazilian Network Information Center – NIC.br
The Brazilian Network Information Center — NIC.br (https://nic.br/) is a private, non-profit civil entity responsible for operating the .br domain, as well as distributing IP numbers and registering Autonomous Systems in the country. NIC.br implements the decisions and projects of the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee - CGI.br since 2005, and all the resources raised come from activities that are of an essentially private nature. It conducts actions and projects that bring benefits to the Internet infrastructure in Brazil. NIC.br includes:  Registro.br (https://registro.br), CERT.br (https://cert.br/), Ceptro.br (https://ceptro.br/), Cetic.br (https://cetic.br/), IX.br (https://ix.br/) and Ceweb.br (https://ceweb.br), as well as projects like Internetsegura.br (https://internetsegura.br) and Portal de Boas Práticas para Internet no Brasil (https://bcp.nic.br/). It also hosts the W3C Chapter São Paulo office (https://w3c.br/).

About the Brazilian Internet Steering Committee – CGI.br
The Brazilian Internet Steering Committee is responsible for establishing strategic guidelines related to the use and development of the Internet in Brazil, coordinating and integrating all Internet service initiatives in the country, promoting technical quality, innovation, and dissemination of offered services. Based on the principles of multistakeholderism and transparency, CGI.br represents a democratic Internet governance model, praised internationally, where all sectors of society participate equally in its decisions. One of its formulations is the 10 Principles for Internet Governance and Use (https://cgi.br/resolucoes/documento/2009/003). More information at https://cgi.br/.

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