I use the Internet every day. I even managed to do so while on vacation in Hawaii using my T-Mobile data driven Blackberry Pearl so I’m curious if more people are like me or if I’m the minority when it comes to web usage. Therefore, I was happy to hear that Avenue A | Razorfish surveyed 475 consumers across “all demographics” in July and that they made available their findings. I think they show the usual divide between what the loud techno-elite minority cares about, as compared to the quiet mass-consumer majority is still in effect. It also shows which parts of the web are catching on faster than others. Take a look:
Overall Stats
- Only 60% personalize home pages
- 47% never share bookmarks
- 44% never use RSS feeds
- 65% never use tag clouds
- Almost all read the “most popular” or “most emailed” items on sites
That being said, here are specific stats about a number of different categories and whether they are “big” or not.
Video: Big
- 67% regularly watch videos on YouTube, etc.
- 95% have watched online videos in the last 3 months.
- 49% have uploaded online videos in the last 3 months [shockingly high–almost makes us discount all findings, or at least conclude that this is a highly web-literate and young consumer sub-set].
- 85% have watched online movie previews in last 3 months.
- 71% have watched a TV show online in the last 3 months [more than we would have thought].
Online Music, Photos, Blogs: Pretty Big
- 42% regularly purchase music online
- 41% use photo-sharing sites
- 70% read blogs regularly
Online research when making product selection decisions: HUGE
- 92%+ use the web when making product buying decisions (research, reviews, retailer location, price comparison, etc.)
- 54% start their product research at a search engine
- 14% start it at a comparison shopping engine
- 30% start it at an e-commerce or retailer site
- 55% rely on USER REVIEWS most when choosing products
- 21% rely on EXPERT REVIEWS most.
- After product selected, most important criteria when choosing where to buy are PRICE (38%) and SITE REPUTATION (38%)
Mobile data services: Small
- 68% never use mobile phone to listen to music
- 76% never use mobile phone to watch video.
- 64% never use mobile phone to check headlines.