Internet Penetrates Over Half of U.S. Adults
The Internet was used by more than half of the U.S. adult population last year as some 16 million new users ventured online in the last six months, according to a study released Sunday.
In addition, nearly three-quarters of children ages 12 to 17 had Internet access, said the Pew Internet & American Life Project, which has been tracking Internet usage and habits since March.
It also said the online adult population has hit 56 percent, totaling 104 million adults.
The study further found continued gains among women, minorities and adults in households earning $30,000 to $50,000. Another strong group consisted of parents with children still living at home.
Successful Advertising Online
"Direct Marketing Industry Online: Perspectives on 2001", a recently published study from Millard Group and ActivMedia Research, explores various strategies employed by Web marketers to encourage online customer loyalty. These strategies include search engine and directory positioning, opt-in news lists, direct mail and catalogues, trade shows and display ads.
According to the study, there is a significant correlation between the incidence of using e-mail techniques and the level of repeat business enjoyed by direct marketers. Those sites seeing a high level of repeat business are much more likely to have tried e-mail marketing techniques than low-repeat business sites.
In addition, the study reports that direct marketers seeing a high level of repeat purchases online spend much more money than comparable business with lower repeat sales.
Looking at the Online Population
Retirees have become a larger part of the online population, growing 28.1 percent in December to a total of 8.6 million unique visitors. This surge now has retirees making up 10.2 percent of the entire online population, according to recent figures from NetValue.
"We not only saw a significant spike in the number of retirees in December, but also the frequency in which they connected," a NetValue spokesman said. NetValue found that retirees connected to the Internet an average of 15.9 days in December, about 1.2 days longer than the previous month and longer than all other occupation groups. "And don't think retirees, those who define their occupation as 'retired' means 65 years of age and older. According to our NetValue study, of the 63.3 percent male retirees who connected, 7.5 percent are under the age of 49," he added.
The study also showed the retirees spent almost twice the number of days online and clicked twice as many banner advertisements ad did students. Students are typically considered the most active Internet users.
Gambling was especially popular among retirees, attracting more than half of the online retired population, while Grab.com attracted almost 2 million users among the group.
Another Look at M-Commerce
Entertainment via the mobile phone will overtake information and communication to become the most lucrative mobile content revenue stream globally in 2005, predicts Datamonitor.
While network licenses and rollout are expected to be expensive, these moves will bring increased bandwidth and transmission speed to mobile date service, extending the scope for advanced mobile content applications. In "Global mContent Markets: Paving the Way for Mobile Commerce," Datamonitor analysts predict that mobile content revenue will exceed $31.7 billion in 2005, blasting past the $2.4 expected this year. By 2005, $11 billion of that revenue is likely to be generated by wireless games.
"There is no one killer application," points out a company analyst, "consumers need a wide range of compelling content in order to be attracted to mobile data services. Funky, personalized color applications, with plenty of interactive features delivered just when and where one want it will make it a killer."