On the wings of yesterday's AdRelevance discovery - online advertising by businesses targeting families grew while advertising by companies targeting children declined - today, possibly to support
yesterday's release, the parent companies of AdRelevance came out with their own research report. According to Jupiter and Media Metrix, contrary to popular belief, teens spend far less time online
on average - in both number and length of sessions - than adults do.
Researchers found that teens spend an average of 303 minutes online per month, compared with the adult average of 728
minutes per month.
Jupiter analysts believe that the low Internet use by teens is attributed to teens' active schedules, with school and after-school activities; necessity of sharing
online time at home with other family members; and the perception of the Internet largely as an entertainment and communication tool, not as a productivity tool. The report suggests that
businesses that target teens must keep in mind that this audience views the medium as an entertainment and communication tool - not as a productivity tool.
Researchers also found that although
teen boys and girls are represented online equally, there are significant differences in the way each group uses the Internet. From a gender perspective, teen boys focus on technology,
entertainment, and time diversions, seeking out games, building Web pages, downloading software and music files.
Teen girls are more goal-oriented in their surfing efforts; they gravitate
toward reading online periodicals, sending electronic greetings, doing homework, and taking part in communication. Teen girls also have a high affinity for off- line brands, both in media and
shopping. In addition, teen boys surf more actively than teen girls, visiting a wider number of sites. June 2000 Media Metrix data show that males averaged 301.2 unique page views, while females on
average viewed 271. Boys visited, on average, 47 domains, whereas girls visited 32.