African American Web Usage Outpaces National Average

  • by September 17, 2001
The Nielsen//NetRatings Internet ratings report for the month of August 2001 reveals that nearly 8.2 million African American surfers logged on the Internet from home this past August, as compared to 6.9 million surfers the previous year. Year-over-year growth of African American Web surfers surged 19%. The overall online population registered a 14% growth rate during the past year.

African American Web usage outpaced the average national usage. In August 2001, African Americans spent more than nine hours and 41 minutes surfing the Web, spiking 22% from the previous year. By comparison, the average surfer spent more than ten hours and 22 minutes online during the month, jumping 12% since last year.

African American surfers viewed 662 pages and logged an average of 16 sessions in the month, rising seven and 14% respectively from August 2000. The overall Web population accessed 712 pages, posting a decrease of 1%. Surfers logged on the Internet an average of 20 sessions, an increase of 11% year-over-year.

"African Americans account for more than 8% of the online population, but according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the group represents nearly 13% of the overall U.S. population," said T.S. Kelly, director and principal analyst, NetRatings. "Compared to the number of African Americans reflected in the total U.S. population, representation of the African American group on the Internet has room for growth."

According to NetRatings, 6 out of the top 10 sites visited by African Americans in August were entertainment media sites. Sites such as BET.com, Aaliyah.com and NBA.com were among the top 10.

In addition, African American community site BlackPlanet.com claimed the No. 1 spot as the top site with the highest concentration of African American surfers.

"As the online presence of various ethnic groups continues to grow, marketers and online services will benefit from engaging these constituents," continued Kelly. "By understanding what draws various ethnic groups such as African Americans to the Web, marketers can leverage the growing diversity of people online to extend the reach of their service, product and brand."

Additional August 2001 Nielsen//NetRatings Data

Top 25 Sites by Property (Combined Home & Work)


+----------------------------+----------+----------+
| Property | Unique | Time Per |
| | Audience | Person |
| | (000) | hh:mm:ss |
+----------------------------+----------+----------+
| 1. AOL Time Warner | 76,945 | 1:17:45 |
| 2. Yahoo! | 68,459 | 2:27:04 |
| 3. MSN | 64,159 | 1:54:47 |
| 4. Microsoft | 40,599 | 0:13:59 |
| 5. Lycos Network | 31,338 | 0:20:25 |
| 6. Excite@Home | 26,861 | 0:44:34 |
| 7. Amazon | 25,568 | 0:19:13 |
| 8. About-Primedia | 24,708 | 0:15:03 |
| 9. eBay | 24,072 | 2:11:49 |
|10. Walt Disney | 22,033 | 0:50:03 |
|11. CNET Networks | 19,986 | 0:18:12 |
|12. InfoSpace | 19,481 | 0:13:08 |
|13. eUniverse Network | 18,492 | 0:24:04 |
|14. Google | 17,389 | 0:32:24 |
|15. Vivendi Universal | 17,347 | 0:19:59 |
|16. ClassMates Online | 16,618 | 0:11:02 |
|17. AT&T | 13,765 | 0:27:37 |
|18. Ask Jeeves | 13,629 | 0:09:44 |
|19. Viacom International | 11,759 | 0:24:44 |
|20. CitySearch/Ticketmaster | 11,670 | 0:20:28 |
|21. GoTo.com | 11,573 | 0:05:38 |
|22. Real Networks | 11,260 | 0:11:06 |
|23. iVillage | 10,851 | 0:20:44 |
|24. EarthLink | 10,774 | 0:22:36 |
|25. Weather Channel | 10,677 | 0:14:56 |
+----------------------------+----------+----------+

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, August 2001

Average Web Usage Combined Home & Work Month of August 2001


+------------------------------+--------+--------+-------+
| | Home & | Home & | % |
| | Work, | Work, |Change |
| | August | July | from |
| | | | July |
+------------------------------+--------+--------+-------+
|Number of Sessions/Month | 34| 33| 3|
|Page Views/Month | 1,196| 1,170| 2.2|
|Page Views/Surfing Session | 36| 36| 0|
|Time Spent/Month |18:12:23|17:35:57| 3.5|
|Time Spent During Session | 0:31:59| 0:32:05| -0.3|
|Duration of a Page viewed | 0:00:54| 0:00:53| 1.4|
|Active Internet Universe | 112.6| 112.6| 0.1|
|(actually surfed) | million| million| |
|Current Internet Universe | 172.8| 171.6| 0.7|
|(Estimate had access, but did | million| million| |
| not necessarily go online) | | | |
+------------------------------+--------+--------+-------+

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, August 2001
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