Two in three malaysiakini readers are university degree holders and hail from either Kuala Lumpur or Selangor.

In the second major survey done by the three-year-old website, 65% of the 720 respondents say they have a university degree, with 19% master's and 5% doctorate holders.

Another 21% possess either a professional diploma or other similar qualifications. The remaining 14% are students.

"The survey reveals that malaysiakini readership is highly educated with 86% of the respondents holding either a professional qualification or a university degree," said the o­nline news daily's chief executive officer Premesh Chandran.

Nine out of 10 subscribers are aged above 25. Interestingly, 38% of the respondents are 46 and above.

Regular visitors

The study also found that 87% of the daily's subscribers are male.

"Our subscribers are overwhelmingly males, but when the survey results were segregated along gender lines, we noticed that our female subscribers tend to be younger than our male subscribers, and most were professionals or students, and were not well represented in the higher echelons of the corporate sector," said business development manager Charmaine O­ng.

Most subscribers are regular visitors - 67% visit malaysiakini daily with 24% logging o­n more than o­nce a day. Another 24% check out the website a few times a week.

Many malaysiakini readers are working professionals such as doctors, lawyers and accountants (28%), while the rest hold relatively high posts in the corporate and government sectors - managers (12%), executives (11%), directors (10%).

Nine percent are senior managers and 4% are either chief executive officers or presidents of various corporations.

This survey, conducted over a six-day period early last month, disclosed similar results to the survey done in October 2001.

In that survey, based o­n 1,500 respondents, 88% were male and 87% aged 26 and above.

Predominantly local Malaysians

According to the latest survey, malaysiakini subscribers are also predominantly based in Malaysia - 81% say they live in the country.

Others are from Asia Pacific (excluding Malaysia and Singapore) (5%), United States (4%), United Kingdom and Ireland, (3%); Australia and New Zealand (2%); and Singapore (2%).

Most of the subscribers are in the Klang Valley (68%), followed by Penang (6%), Johor (3%), Perak (3%) and Sarawak (3%).

"We believe that Klang Valley residents tend to be more connected (to the Internet) and Internet-savvy, better educated and English-speaking when compared to residents of other parts of Malaysia," said O­ng.

She said a significant majority of the survey respondents believe malaysiakini is free from either government or opposition influence.

About 88% say malaysiakini is an independent daily, while 11% think it is pro-opposition, and 1% say it is pro-government.

Word of mouth

Most heard about malaysiakini from family members, friends and colleagues through word of mouth (34%), other websites (23%), and newspapers and magazines (21%).

When asked about a price hike, most subscribers (66%) say they are willing pay RM120 a year for malaysiakini versus the current price of RM100 a year.

However, the survey did not give 'no price hike' as an option and the RM120 a year option was the lowest price hike suggested. The other possible choices were RM150 (21%), RM200 (8%), RM250 (1%) and RM300 (4%) a year.

"The number of subscribers who supported a price hike decreased drastically as the proposed price hike increase. However, there was a slight uptick in the number of subscribers who would support the RM300 option from the RM250 option," said O­ng.

As motivation to pay more for malaysiakini , a majority of our subscribers want an improvement in the quality of existing content. Other choices include faster download speed and a wider variety of content to include for example, sports, fashion, health, and more news in Bahasa Malaysia.

Problems identified

About 59% say they faced 'no problems' when subscribing to malaysiakini , while others complain of a difficult payment system (19%), technical problems (14%), no access to e-coupons (10%) and unclear instructions (8%).

While a large majority do not encounter problems, the website is concerned about those who have complained of difficulties in the subscription process.

"We will be looking into all the problems mentioned by our subscribers to improve our service," said CEO Premesh.