Two-Thirds Of Internet Users Have Paid For Content

Sixty-five percent of American internet users have paid for content, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The figure does not mean much if theses will not pay for content again and again.

“Music, software, and apps are the most popular content that internet users have paid to access or download, although the range of paid online content is quite varied and widespread,” Pew reports. Pornography was another category which yielded large number of downloads.

Music and software had 33% each of the paid download market. Apps were next with 21%. The popularity of the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) App Store probably accounted for a great deal of those application downloads. Games were next at 19% which shows how much of a challenge traditional video game and console makers face.

The problem with the trends in the survey, from the standpoint of companies that make paid download content, is that only half  (46%) of internet users downloaded one of two applications. Heavy users of paid content, those who downloaded six or more applications or content files, were only 16% of the universe.

Younger adults were more likely to buy content than people over 49 years of age. That supports other research that shows Americans past mid-life use the internet in a much more limited way than younger people do.

The Pew data is not as illuminating as creators of paid downloads might like it to be. The research shows that the number of people who are very active in paying for downloads is limited. Among those people, it is likely that their downloads are limited by discretionary income. People online also usually have a small set of interests. It would be rare to find someone who pays for dozens of categories of content. Most people’s tastes are less broad than that.

The prevalence of music downloads tells a great deal about the nearly universal appeal of the iTune store. Apple also drives app downloads to iPhones, iPods, and iPads. That means a single company is likely to account for a significant share of paid content activity online. People will only pay for so much music and so many applications for smartphones and tablet PCs. The paid content business online is still limited to a small population which cannot carry the load of what content providers hope is an expanding market.

Methodology: The PSRAI October 2010 Omnibus Week 4 obtained telephone interviews with a nationally representative sample of 1,003 adults living in the continental United States

Douglas A. McIntyre