As the Internet has evolved as one of the most powerful communication media and tremendously penetrated into every corner of our social, economic, and political life, Internet -related research has been flourishing. In Macau, the Macao Internet Project (MIP) is the unique of its kind to systematically and longitudinally investigate the development of usage of the Internet. The project became one of the WIP partners in 2001 and has been funded by the Research Committee of the University of Macau since then.

It was found that most Internet-related literature has the following features: (1) using the questionnaire survey method; (2) most results are descriptive and lack of in-depth interpretation; (3) generalizations are made from single study; (4) directly adopting traditional media research models, (5) the adoptions of the diffusion and uses and gratification approach (Rogers, 1995; Lin, 2001; Atkin, et al., 1998). In response to these features, the MIP has been designed as a longitudinal study in line with other WIP partners’ research design and has been trying to answer research questions set for the following different but interrelated areas: diffusion, usage, ICT indicator construction, digital divide, e-government and e-commence, Internet impact, non-users, and perception of the Internet. This introduction aims at providing a brief description of the research methodology and depicting the characteristics of findings in the above-mentioned research areas.