| According to a December 1999 Harris Interactive survey (http://www.harrisinteractive.com/), more than 50% of U.S. households have PCs and 90% of them use their PCs to go online. Almost half of all adults use PCs at work and, of those people, 79% go online at work. A Nua Internet Surveys report ( http://www.nua.ie/) for March 2000 estimates that there are 304.4 million people online worldwide. That's a lot of people surfing the 'Net ! And those numbers are growing very quickly. "Surfing the 'Net" Slang phase that means browsing the World Wide Web.
But who are these people? How much time do they spend online? And what are they doing when they go online? Tip If you're looking for up-to-date statistics about Web usage, here are three good places to start your search: -
MyComputer.com's Web Snapshot, http://websnapshot.mycomputer.com/ (see Figure 1.2) Figure 1.2. MyComputer.com's Web Snapshot is a good source of statistics about Internet users.  -
CyberAtlas, http://cyberatlas.internet.com/ -
Nua Internet Surveys, http://www.nua.ie/
Who Uses the Web One way to look at who accesses the Web is by demographics . Here are some recent statistics that help describe Web users in the U.S. Keep in mind that Internet usage is growing at an extremely rapid pace; you can see this in the differences in statistics for similar groups on different dates. -
Internet usage by age is as follows : 18 to 24, 17.5%; 25 to 24, 20.8%; 35 to 44, 24.8%; and 45 to 64, 20%. Source: Media Metrix (http://www.mediametrix.com/), December 1999. -
Elderly, poor, or least- educated people are less likely to access the Internet. Only 30% of people over 65 access the Internet, 32% with household incomes less than $25,000 access the Internet, and 33% of people who have not completed high school access the Internet. Source: Round Table Group (http://www.round.table.com/), April 2000. -
Internet usage by white, black, and Hispanic households is about equal with 57% of white and black households having Internet access and 62% of Hispanic households having Internet access. Source: Round Table Group (http://www.round.table.com/), April 2000. How Much Time Users Spend Online A December 1999 Media Metrix survey (http://www.mediametrix.com/) studied Internet access by age: Table 1.1. Internet Access by Age | Age Group | Time Online per Month | Unique Page Views per Month | | 18 to 24 | 348 minutes | 385 pages | | 25 to 34 | 710 minutes | 763 pages | | 35 to 44 | 617 minutes | 642 pages | | 45 to 64 | 584 minutes | 564 pages | What I find especially surprising about these stats is the average amount of time spent viewing each unique page. You can do the math yourself; just divide the number of unique pages by the number of minutes. The answer? About a minute per page. That's not much time to gather information. A more recent survey by Nielsen/NetRatings, Inc. (http://www. nielsen -netratings.com/) in March 2000 studied Internet access at work and at home: Table 1.2. Internet Access at Work and at Home | | At Home | At Work | | Number of Internet sessions | 19 | 43 | | Number of unique sites visited per session | 10 | 29 | | Number of page views per month | 670 | 1,407 | | Number of page views per session | 35 | 33 | | Amount of time spent online per month | 9 hrs, 43 mins | 22 hrs, 4 mins | | Amount of time spent per session | 30 mins | 31 mins | | Duration of page view | 53 secs | 56 secs | How Users Surf In April 2000, McKinsey and Media Metrix (http://www.mediametrix.com/) released a study that looked at online consumer behavior. The results of the study, titled "All Visitors Are Not Created Equal" separated Web users into six distinct categories: -
Simplifiers are users who access the Internet to make their lives easier. They usually use the Internet for a specific purpose, such as making a purchase or researching a topic. They want to get the job done quickly and easily. On average, these people spend only seven hours a month on the Web, but 49% of them have been using the Internet for at least five years . These people account for more than half of online transactions. -
Surfers are users who access the Internet for many reasons, including entertainment, information, shopping, or just seeing what's out there (exploring). These people account for 8% of Internet users but 32% of online time. They access four times as many pages as the average Internet user and move quickly from site to site, looking for new experiences. -
Connectors are relative newcomers to the Internet and are looking for reasons to use it. They make up 36% of Internet users and 40% of them have been online for less than two years. Most of these people use the Internet to communicate with other people via e-mail, chat rooms, and online greeting cards. -
Bargainers are users who use the Internet primarily for one purpose: to find bargains. They account for 8% of Internet users and spend less time online than the average user. -
Routiners go online for information. These people spend twice as much time online as the average user, but they visit fewer sites. They spend 80% of their time on "top ten" sites, especially those that provide news and financial information. -
Sportsters, which account for only 4% of Internet users, are basically the same as routiners, but they're more interested in popular sites with sports or entertainment information. They spend only seven hours online each month. Tip This detailed study goes on to provide specific information about the kinds of sites that attract each group and how organizations can market themselves to them. You can learn more on the press release page for the study: http://www.mediametrix.com/usa/press/releases/20000417a.jsp.
Based on this information, I'd have to call myself a simplifier. I use the Internet as a tool for getting my work done, buying things I can't buy locally (heck, I live in Wickenburg, AZ and there isn't much here), and gathering information I need to make decisions. Some E-commerce Stats E-commerce is one area of the Web that's constantly growing. Historically, there were three barriers to e-commerce: -
Consumer fears about getting ripped off by the seller. -
Consumer fears about credit card fraud. -
Consumer perception of convenience. E-commerce Electronic commerce; usually refers to buying and selling on the Web.
Here are some stats from an April 2000 Angus Reid Group survey (http://www.angusreid.com/) that looked at worldwide online shopping: -
40% of Internet users have made purchases online. -
25% of online shoppers have made impulse purchases online. -
50% of Internet users have researched goods and services online before making offline purchases. -
93% of online shoppers claimed they were either somewhat satisfied or extremely satisfied with their shopping experience. -
60% of online shoppers said convenience was the primary reason they shop online. -
A very small percentage of online shoppers said they were concerned about security issues. |
