65% of Internet Users Have Paid for Online Content, Tangible Goods in the Future?
A recent report from Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 65 percent of Internet users have paid to access or download some kind of online content, with music and software leading the way.
The survey of 755 Internet users between Oct. 28 and Nov. 1, found that 33 percent of respondents have paid for digital music online, 33 percent have paid for software and 21 percent have paid for apps for their cell phones or tablet computers.
A quarter of respondents said they have purchased one type of online content, while 21 percent said they have purchased two types. Fifteen percent said they have purchased three types, 11 percent said they have purchased four types, 12 percent said they have purchased five types and 7 percent said they have purchased 6 types of online content.
The average expense for Internet users who have paid for content was about $47 per month – subscriptions accounted for an average $12 per month and individual file access accounted for an average of $22 per month. However, Pew notes that high-end users pulled the average up, and the typical purchaser spends about $10 per month.
The report notes that 23 percent of respondents pay for subscription services, while 16 percent pay for downloading individual files and 8 percent pay for accessing streaming content.
Two-thirds of respondents said they used just one type of payment method, while 24 percent said they used two types.
“So far, all the material that is distributed by the internet is “intangible,” but some commentators have pointed to a future in which the internet, combined with other technologies such as three-dimensional printers, distribute tangible goods that can be assembled by the end user,” writes Jim Jansen, senior fellow at Pew Research Center.
The survey found that 65 percent of Internet users said they have paid for at least one of 15 different types of intangible content, which is about the same as the percentage of Internet users who said in other Pew Internet surveys (66 percent in May) that they have purchased tangible goods online.
Percentages of men and women Internet users who paid for online content were similar in for all content types in the survey, save for software, which had a bigger proportion of men who were likely to make a purchase.
There was no racial divide observed by Pew, and Internet users between 30-49 are the most likely to have purchased most kinds of content.
Source:
http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Paying-for-Content.aspx
