Internet usage trend and postal service performance in Australia

This study examines several important factors of Internet usage and postal service performance in Australia from 2006 to 2010, using data from secondary sources. The results on Internet usage indicate increasing trends in domain name registrations, Internet user population, Internet usage duration, and e-commerce value. On the other hand, the results on postal service performance show stagnating trends in mail volumes, revenue, pre-tax profit, rate of return, and labor productivity growth during the same period. While we need more data to investigate systematically any causal relationships between the factors of Internet usage and those of postal service performance, the results taken together suggest that the increasing trend of Internet usage had some negative impacts on postal service performance. This study is expected to help understand the trends of Internet usage as associated with the performance of postal service and set the stage for the future of postal service in Australia and other countries.