HANOI, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Vietnamese Internet users are spending more time on the Internet with a daily average of 43 minutes in 2008, almost double the time of 22 minutes in 2006, Vietnam News reported on Wednesday.

    The result was from a recent study carried out by market researcher TNS. The survey covered the country's sour biggest cities including Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Da Nang and Can Tho on 1,200 respondents.

    The monthly average expenditure on the Internet is around 10 U.S. dollars, the study showed.

    Men account for 56 percent of the Internet users, although they make up only 48 percent of the country's population.

    Up to 79 percent of the respondents in the 15 to 19 age group say they use the internet, while the rate for the 20-29 age group is 62 percent and for those above 40 is 19 percent.

    Home Internet access is becoming more prevalent than internet bar access. Around 66 percent of the respondents accessed the Internet from home in recent months.

    According to figures from the General Statistics Office of Vietnam, 6.7 million Vietnamese people out of the country's 85 million population have access to Internet by the end of 2008, The number was up 28.4 percent over the previous year.