RelevantKnowledge and IDC Announce the First Results of their Series of Joint Reports, Web Usage Trends 1998
PR Newswire - June 22, 1998 08:20
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Report Examines Behavior of Home Web Users, Who Will More Than Triple in the United States by 2002
FRAMINGHAM, Mass., June 22 /PRNewswire/ -- According to the first in a series of four quarterly Web trends reports resulting from the joint venture between International Data Corporation (IDC) and RelevantKnowledge, Inc., the Web is a key medium for reaching home Web users who have the propensity to purchase online. The number of home Web users in the United States will increase from roughly 30 million to nearly 102 million by 2002, and IDC reports the percentage of those users who buy online will grow from 36 percent to almost 50 percent with spending increasing from $4.3 billion in 1997 to over $54 billion in 2002.
"The Web has reached critical mass," said Jill Frankle, program manager of IDC's Consumer Internet program. "IDC and RelevantKnowledge have given customers the ability to fully understand the people who use the Web and how they are changing. Whether a company sells directly to consumers or not, it needs to recognize the Web as a 'bona fide' distribution channel."
"Understanding the demographic distribution of visitors to different Web sites will make the difference in deciding where to spend Web advertising dollars," said Lisa Sharkis, director of product research, RelevantKnowledge, Inc. "The information presented in the RelevantKnowledge/IDC study allows marketers and advertisers the ability to find out what types of sites their target markets frequent."
The report, Web Usage Trends 1998, provides data and analysis of the demographic distribution of visitors to different sites defined by content or by usage. Key findings for the First Quarter of '98 include the following:
-- Nearly 63 percent of visitors to special communication sites and 60
percent of visitors to home and living sites are women.
-- Of commerce sites, classified/auction sites have the highest
composition of males 50 and older with 63 percent of total traffic.
-- Twenty-three percent of adult entertainment viewers maintain household
incomes of $75,000 and above.
-- Teenage girls' surfing habits bear a closer resemblance to adult
females than to teenage males in their surfing choices and habits.
RelevantKnowledge's latest quarterly U.S. Web enumeration indicates the population of Web users continues to be skewed toward males, composing 56 percent of the Web audience. In comparison, 48 percent of the U.S. population are men. In addition, the most highly represented age group for males on the Web are 18-34; the least-represented age group for males are 50 and older, with an eight percent composition of the Web universe. This contrasts with the overall U.S. population, in which 14 percent of males in the U.S. are over 50.
"Over time, we predict greater proportions of both males and females on the Web in the 50+ category as they turn to the Internet for health and medical information and in the longer term, for bill presentment and payment services," said Frankle. "This age group may also be coming online via non-PC devices, either in the form of NC devices such as WebTV or via digital cable set-top boxes."
RelevantKnowledge and IDC's Web Usage Trends, 1998 reveals traffic to commerce sites crosses all gender and age boundaries. Nearly a quarter of users who visit commerce sites have income above $75,000; 23 percent of this group are college educated. Although software still ranks as the number-one item purchased via the Web, other products such as books, hard goods, and clothes rank highly as well. The diversity of purchases online demonstrates that Web buyers are no longer only the technology-savvy who embraced the Web early on, but now more of a mass-market audience.
Web Usage Trends, 1998, (IDC #B16301) is a joint product between IDC and RelevantKnowledge, Inc. It examines not only the Web universe, including the Web user population and some of the top sites in cyberspace, but also usage patterns, behavior, and demographic profiles of different types of users. Specifically, users are grouped based on the amount of time they spent on the Web and are clustered by the types of sites they visited. In addition, other top sites these users typically visit are examined. IDC and RelevantKnowledge are dedicated to developing metrics for industry participants to better gauge changing usage patterns and the opportunities presented by these trends. The report is updated quarterly and is available for purchase by contacting IDC's Janis Dempsey, 508-935-4145 or by calling Rob Ward at RelevantKnowledge, 888-4RK-0001.
About IDC
Headquartered in Framingham, Mass., International Data Corporation provides IT market research and consulting to more than 3,900 high-technology customers around the world. With a global network of 375 analysts in more than 40 countries, IDC is the industry's most comprehensive resource on worldwide IT markets, products, vendors, and geographies.
IDC/LINK, an IDC subsidiary, researches and analyzes the home computing market, leading-edge technologies in telecommunications and new media, and the convergence of computing and consumer electronics.
IDC's World Wide Web site ( idc.com ) contains additional company information and recent news releases, and offers full-text searching of recent research.
IDC is a division of International Data Group, the world's leading IT media, research and exposition company.
About RelevantKnowledge
RelevantKnowledge (www.relevantknowledge.com, 1-888-4RK-0001) is the only company of its kind to offer a randomly selected, unified panel of business, home and college Web users, representative of the U.S. World Wide Web universe. The company's Web Report, Site Reports and custom analyses enable advertisers, advertising agencies, Web publishers, and industry and financial analysts to better refine site content, more accurately target ad messages and maximize media efficiencies.
The company was founded at the Advanced Technology Development Center on the campus of The Georgia Institute of Technology. Bringing together a team of experts from the fields of research, panel management, media, technology and advertising, RelevantKnowledge provides the standard for Web audience measurement and market insight. RelevantKnowledge is privately funded through capital investments by J.H. Whitney, Robertson Stephens, Unterburg Towbin and Sirrom Capital.
All product and company names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
SOURCE International Data Corporation
/CONTACT: Elizabeth Freedman of IDC, 508-935-4764, bfreedman@idc.com or
Michelle Beilsmith of RelevantKnowledge, 404-224-3311, michelle@rkinc.com/
/Company News On-Call: prnewswire.com or fax, 800-758-5804,
ext. 113987/
/Web site: relevantknowledge.com
/Web site: idc.com |
