Practically half of all consumers of online paid content come from households headed by a person aged between 25 and 44. A new report concludes that buyers of paid content tend to be younger, more upscale and from smaller households than the overall internet audience.
In the second of two studies focusing on US spending on online content, the
Online Publishers Association found that 49.7% of purchasers live in homes headed up by someone from the 25-34 or 35-44 age groups. By comparison, 44.3% of the internet audience live in such households.
Paying for online content is a popular activity in affluent homes with the survey showing that 24.8% of consumers have household incomes above $100,000. Some 45.3% of buyers live in one or two person households.
The spread of broadband has been a key factor in the growth of online content revenues. The OPA found that 59% of purchasers have broadband access. People who spend money on online content are 14% more likely to have broadband access than the average internet user.
Paid content purchasers tend to be particularly heavy users of the internet with figures showing that during Q1 2003 they spent more than twice as much time online as the average internet user and viewed more than double the number of pages.
The OPA calculates that spending on online content in the US rose by 23% to almost $750 million in the first two quarters of the year (see Online Content Finding Its Audience).
