Although Quebec has only 6 per cent of the world's French-speaking population, it produces 30 per cent of French Internet content.
Quebec's most popular search engine, La Toile du Québec, logged 3 million page views in January 1998 ? up from 1 million the previous January. It now indexes 20,000 sites operating within the province.
Because most web content is in English, Quebec has lagged behind the rest of Canada in Internet use. (In late '97, 40 per cent of Vancouver residents had used the Internet at least once, and 39 per cent of Torontonians; the figure for Montreal residents was 29 per cent.)
Seventy-four per cent of Quebecers agree that speaking only French is an obstacle to using the Net.
Source: Marketing magazine, Feb. 16, 1998
Quebec Culture Minister Louise Beaudoin estimates that about 10 per cent of Quebec households are plugged into the Internet.
Since Bill 101 also applies in cyberspace, online advertising in Quebec must conform to the province's language laws.
