According to a recent report from Yahoo! and Carat North America, teenagers
and young people in the US spend the greatest amount of time, on average,
each week with the Internet (16.7 hours) compared to other forms of media.
Harris Interactive and Teenage Research Unlimited surveyed 2,618 people
between the ages of 13 and 24 in June for Yahoo! and Carat and found
that respondents spend 13.6 hours per week watching TV and only 6 hours
per week reading books or magazines for pleasure.
The survey determined that the main reason cited among respondents
for spending so much time online was the quality of “control” the
Internet affords users. Users can personalize and manage their experience
online more so than with any other form of media.
As for the types of Web sites teenagers are spending time with, comScore
Media Metrix determined at the end of 2002 that teens between the ages
of 12 and 17 spend an average of 26.6 minutes each day with instant messaging
(IM) applications, 24.4 minutes per day with game sites and a whopping
41.5 minutes per day on sites with some sort of corporate presence.
eMarketer projects that by the end of this year, roughly 17% of US
Internet users will be between the ages of nine and 17 and about 29%
will be between the ages of 18 and 34. Are you properly addressing the
teen and young adult market online?