Over 7 million Romanians are currently active in social media, but only 8% of the population uses e-commerce, according to Diana Voicu, State Secretary within the Ministry for Information Society.

“less than half - or 42% of Romania’s population doesn’t understand the benefits of using the Internet. This percentage represents a very big challenge for us within the Strategy for the Digital Agenda until 2020. Over 7 million Romanians are active on social media, work together, and it would be a mistake to ignore their capacity to contribute to government initiatives. At an international level, there is an ecosystem in which citizens can take over government initiatives and come up with responses,” Voicu said, cited by local Agerpres.

In terms of cyber security, most of Romania’s population doesn’t use e-commerce, as they are afraid of fraud.

“Only 8% of the population uses e-commerce, and this small percentage is triggered by Romanians fear that the transaction might be  subject to cyber fraud,” she said. the official added that there are authorities in Romania meant to make sure such incidents are avoided.

Three quarters of Romania’s capital inhabitants are on Facebook.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com