Net is mainstream, broadband will get there
David Weinberger links to a Neilsen/NetRatings study of Net usage (see the chart), quoting:
US households making annual salaries of between $100,000 and $150,000 represent the fastest growing income group online, rising by 20% between September 2001 and September 2002. Following close behind, reports Nielsen, is the income group of those making between $150,000 and $999,999, increasing by 14% over the same period of time.
It is important to note, however, that Nielsen finds the income group with the largest unique audience online is actually that with annual household salaries between $50,000 and $74,999, with roughly 37.3 million people as of September 2002.
The reason usage is increasing faster in the high-income housing is that this is where broadband is most widely used. It changes a household's network usage radically--I found this in 1996 when I put a T1 into my home; suddenly my kids thought the computer was better than the TV.
The largest part of the Net, that is the largest addressable audience is a solidly middle-class group that increased its usage more slowly, but in the same pattern that the typical U.S. household followed early adopters onto the Internet a seven and eight years ago. The message: Broadband is inevitable.
Wondering what the top 25 sites last week, according to Neilsen/NetRatings were....
Posted by Mitch Ratcliffe at October 31, 2002 11:39 AM | TrackBack