• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, May 18, 2004

Teen Influencers to Sway 22 Million Teens by 2008

In a new study by Jupiter Research, reported by eMarketer, 22 million teens online by 2008 are expected to be a formidable market. And, the report concludes, that 17% of teens are "teen influencers," a group that is highly active online, style conscious, popular and exerts a strong sway over friends and family. These influencers are older and wealthier than the average teen, spend 8 hours a week on the Net (one hour more than the average) and are 53% female.

US Teens Ages 13-17 Online (millions)

• 2004 18
• 2008 22

Source: Jupiter Research, May 2004

Jupiter noted that the Internet is not necessarily the best marketing route to connect with teens. The average teen spends 7 hours a week on the Net, but 10 hours a week watching TV.

Teen Time Online vs. Watching TV (hours per week)

• Watching TV 10
• Internet 7

Source: Jupiter Research, May 2004

The biggest areas teens differ from adults when online is in their use of instant messaging (IM) and Weblogs. Yahoo!, AOL and Microsoft have all attempted to bring more advertising into their IM applications, but ads are limited to small banner ads near user's buddy lists and pop-up ads.

Weblogs are sites owned or run by individual users which are often highly idiosyncratic journal-based pages that are updated with no regular schedule, and subject to the whims and opinions of the users. This tends to make them a less than attractive opportunity for marketing.

Online Activities of US Teens (% of respondents)

• Regularly use instant messaging 71%
• Regularly use Weblogs 30%

Source: Jupiter Research, May 2004

You can find out more here at eMarketer.