U.S. online retail sales up 60 percent

Airline tickets, personal computers and hotel rooms led the way as U.S. consumers spent $28 billion on the Web last year, a study for the U.S. Census Bureau shows. The comparable figure last year was $17.3 billion, according to the study by Jupiter Media Metrix. Nearly a quarter of personal computer sales were conducted online, worth $5.1 billion. Airline tickets were the biggest category, totaling $7.8 billion. Online credit card company NextCard said its users showed a preference for New Year's resolution-themed sites. "Advice, health and beauty care information. Dietsmart.com and MyBeautyCenter.com saw significant gains," said Lisa Subramanian, vice president of e-commerce. "Netmarket, Omahasteaks, KBKids and Ashford.com saw the greatest declines, most likely due to drop-offs in post-holiday traffic," she said. The top five e-commerce sites used by NextCard members in January were Amazon.com , Half.com, Barnesandnoble.com, EBay.com and Buy.com. Japan's Toshiba Corp. is expected to announce a new Internet music download service Friday to be offered at http://www.du-ub.com/. Japanese divisions of EMI, Warner and Universal will support the project, according to the IDG News Service. Half a dozen singles by Japanese artists will be available initially, using a technical format permitting security, perhaps Microsoft's Windows Media combined with IBM's IBM Electronic Media Management System, the report continued. Du-ub.com will charge users $3 per song downloaded.