There are more than 18 million Internet users in Japan, according to an April 1999 study by Nikkei NetBusiness. Women account for 35.6 percent of these users, and 21.7 percent of all users have experimented with e-commerce. The findings are based on two surveys: a postal survey of 6,700 Japanese Internet users between the ages of 15 and 59, with a response rate of 73.6 percent, and a Web survey. The Web survey alone found that women accounted for half of all users and that almost half of all users have engaged in e-commerce. The postal survey found that the average user shopped online 2.82 times per year, while the Web survey said this figure was 3.76 times per year. The postal survey found the average value of an online purchase to be US$282; according to the Web survey, the average value is over US$325.