20% OF WEB USERS HAVE PAID FOR CONTENT

By: Jonathan Angel Top Choices: Adult, Business, Premium News/Music


(Adweek Magazines' Technology Marketing) The only content users
will pay for on the Internet is porn. Right? Actually, while
"adult" content does dominate, there's plenty of other material
that will induce users to get out their wallets.

That's a key finding in a survey conducted by Mass.-based Lyra
Research, and released Tuesday by the publication
Content Intelligence.
The survey of 1,047 users showed that 19% of
them said they had paid for Web content at some time.
Extrapolated over the US Internet population of approximately 104
million, that equates to about 20 million "paying customers."

Of those who paid for content, 45% said it was adult in nature.
However, 27% cited "industry-specific business sites"; 20% cited
premium news, music or video sites; and 18% cited online database
services. About 5% of users cited access to paid genealogy sites,
while ConsumerReports.org made almost as strong a showing. But
only 3% of users said they had paid for premium sports sites.

Key reasons for paying for a site were: the site was the only
place where they could get what they wanted (43%); or they paid
because they were curious about the content (39%). Commenting on
the survey's findings, John McIntyre, managing editor of Content
Intelligence, said, "the research shows that as the length of Web
experience grows from one year to four, the likelihood of buying
content more than doubles. This is good news for the future of an
industry that has endured a tidal wave of failed business
models."



Copyright 2001, Editor & Publisher.