Consumer spend for online content in the US increased by 15% year on year in first six months of 2005, reaching $987 million, with quarterly sales topping half a billion dollars for the first time ever.
According to new figures from the Online Publishers Association (OPA), Entertainment/Lifestyles overtook Personals/Dating to become the leading paid content category, with consumers spending $264.8 million in the first half of 2005.
Personals/Dating rose to $245.2 million over the same period, while Business/Investment content remained in third place, with spend at $159.1 million.
Commenting on the findings, Michael Zimbalist, president of the OPA, said: “Consumers are turning to the web for entertainment more and more, and as they do sales of content continue to rise. We suspect this trend will continue as new products such as the Video ipod and other mobile devices play greater roles in digital content distribution.”
The Entertainment/Lifestyles was the fastest growing paid content category in the first six months of 2005, seeing an impressive rise of 44.8% over the same period in 2004.
Research enjoyed a resurgence in the first half of the year, seeing a 33.8% increase, the second largest percentage gain across all categories.
Out of a total online US population of 171 million in the second quarter of 2005, the OPA found that 19.4 million paid for online content, up 15.6% from 16.8 million in Q2 2004.
A recent study from Parks Associates forecasts content revenues to reach $9 billion by 2010, with consumer spending for online entertainment forecast to grow by 260% over the next five years
The Digital Lifestyles: 2006 Outlook report estimates that revenue will increase by $6.6 billion over the next four years, driven by innovations in digital entertainment platforms and content services.
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