ResourceBlog Article: New From Pew Internet: Nearly 2/3 of Internet Users Have Paid for Content

contact us \| suggestion \| cart

Receive the weekly sampler of posts and "Resource of the Week".
Subscribe »

My Account »

If you find ResourceShelf useful, please supply a testimonial »

Home > ResourceBlog > Article

« All ResourceBlog Articles

Thursday, 30th December 2010

New From Pew Internet: Nearly 2/3 of Internet Users Have Paid for Content

From a Pew Internet & American Life Project Report by Jim Jannsen:

Nearly two-thirds of internet users – 65% – have paid to download or access some kind of online content from the internet, ranging from music to games to news articles to adult material. Music, software, and apps are the most popular content that internet users have paid to access or download, although the range of paid online content is quite varied and widespread.

Access the Complete Report (HTML/Searchable) ||| PDF

Content Categories

In this survey we asked the following question: “Please tell me if you have ever paid to access or to download any of the following types of online content?” And we found:

33% of internet users have paid for digital music online
33% have paid for software
21% have paid for apps for their cell phones or tablet computers
19% have paid for digital games
18% have paid for digital newspaper, magazine, or journal articles or reports
16% have paid for videos, movies, or TV shows
15% have paid for ringtones
12% have paid for digital photos
11% have paid for members-only premium content from a website that has other free material on it
10% have paid for e-books
7% have paid for podcasts
5% have paid for tools or materials to use in video or computer games
5% have paid for “cheats or codes” to help them in video games
5% have paid to access particular websites such as online dating sites or services
2% have paid for adult content

And 6% of internet users said they had paid for another kind of content that had not been mentioned in the list of 15 we offered.

A Few Fast Facts

+ Typical user pays about $10 per month for online content.

+ "The majority of the internet users pay for subscription services (23%), versus downloading an individual file (16%), or accessing streaming content (8%). Most internet users who have accessed online content have utilized only one method of access and payment (66%).

Who Doesn't Pay for Content?

In analyzing the 35% of internet users who report not purchasing online content, notable findings are:

A higher percentage of non-white internet users do not purchase online content than internet users who are white.

A higher percentage of internet users 50 and older do not purchase online content relative to those in young age groups.

Much more material including many tables and graphs are available in the complete report.

blog comments powered by Disqus

« All ResourceBlog Articles

The FreePint Family is a family of resources to help information workers be more effective, raise the value of information in their organisations and contribute to success.

'FreePint... provides most of my professional development because it won't come through work and [other resources] just don't cut it.'

Read about the FreePint Family »

FreePint Shop: FreePint sells reports, resources and subscription products to support your information work and information-related decisions.

Latest: FreePint Research Report: Enterprise Market for Mobile Content 2012 (22 Feb 2012) | FUMSI Magazine: 50 (16 Feb 2012) | VIP Magazine: 99 (13 Feb 2012) | VIP Report: Product Review of Bibliogo (13 Feb 2012) | VIP Report: Product Review of Silobreaker Premium (13 Feb 2012)

Browse the FreePint Shop »

FUMSI Forum: Do you have a research question? Post it to the FUMSI Forum, where professionals share Q&A and useful tips on how to Find, Use, Manage and Share Information. It's free.

Latest FUMSI Forum postings: An unconference approach can revitalise meetings (20 Feb 2012) | Most Shared Content on Using Information (16 Feb 2012) | Information tribes - a FUMSI Editorial (16 Feb 2012) | Global thinking about local searching (13 Feb 2012) | Most Shared Content on Finding Information (09 Feb 2012)

Visit the FUMSI Forum and post »

VIP LiveWire: Offers commentary on emerging news stories of interest to premium content users, vendors and industry insiders.

Latest VIP LiveWire postings: Rating the raters? Follow the meerkat! (21 Feb 2012) | One all in NLA/Meltwater copyright battle (21 Feb 2012) | Opfine: "Real-time" financial, company and market sentiment: Part 2 (21 Feb 2012) | The VIP LiveWire has moved (20 Feb 2012) | Opfine: "Real-time" financial, company and market sentiment: Part 1 (20 Feb 2012)

Visit the VIP LiveWire »

Subscribe to the ResourceShelf Newsletter and receive the weekly sampler of posts and Resource of the Week.

Find out more »

ResourceShelf sponsored by:

Article Categories

Search News (9310)
Source File (9464)
Web 2.0 (2530)

All Article Categories »