Young and Savvy Older Folks
In a recent press release by NetValue they reported on a new study, "Retired and Wired" indicating that the online population of retirees jumped by more than 28.1% in
December to a total of 8.6 million unique visitors. This surge has the online retired population now representing 10.2% of the overall Internet population.
And, according to NetValue President Jim
Hatch, of the 63.3% male retirees who connected, 7.5% are under the age of 49. Retired no longer means 65 years of age and older. In addition, in December, they spent more time on the Internet than
any other "occupation" group… almost twice the number of days online and clicked twice as many banners as did students.
+------------------------+----------+----------+----------+ | | Retirees | All | Students | | | | Internet | | |
| | users | | +------------------------+----------+----------+----------+ | Days per user | 15.9 | 11.9 | 8.3 | | Sessions per user | 41,1 |
33.1 | 25.1 | | Unique pages per user | 513.2 | 483.4 | 334.8 | | Banner clicks per user | 3.0 | 2.5 | 1.5 | +------------------------+----------+----------+----------+
The Gambling sector was especially popular with retirees, attracting more than half of the online retired population
+--------------------+-----------+----------+ | | Retirees | All | | | | Internet | | | | Users |
+--------------------+-----------+----------+ | Gambling | 55% | 41 | | Music & Literature | 51 | 46 | | Entertainment | 40 | 43 | | E-cards
| 38 | 30 | | Automotive | 20 | | | Finance | 16 | | +--------------------+-----------+----------+
The study also
indicates retirees are catching up to the rest of the Internet population with a reach of 28.1% using the instant messenger protocol. Here’s how their usage varied:
+---------------------+---------+-----------+ | | Retired | All | | | | internet | | | | users |
+---------------------+---------+-----------+ | Chat | 4.1% | 6.1 | | Games | 6.4 | 5.7 | | News | 10.6 | 8.2 | |
Audio/video | 16.4 | 26.8 | | Instant Messaging | 28.1 | 34.5 | | Secured connections | 85.6 | 76.9 | +---------------------+---------+-----------+
Source (all data): NetValue, December 2000
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