WWW: Beyond the Basics

2. Demographics and Demographic Tools

2.3 Web User Demographics

An inherent difficulty in collecting user demographics for the general web population is the Web's lack of a central control. There is no one common tool that is used by all web servers and/or clients to gather demographics of the user. HTTP logging, as explained in the previous section, provides limited demographics information. Those who collect demographics may not be willing to share their information with others. Currently, surveys are the most effective method of collecting information about the general user. Results of a few of the important surveys are presented here. Note that due to the limitations of surveying, these figures may not accurately reflect the real general web population; however, some insight is better than no insight.

Organizations and businessess first began to conduct general surveys a year after the introduction of NCSA's Mosaic. One of the largest, oldest and widely regarded surveyors, the Graphics, Visualization and Usability Center's World Wide Web User Surveys began its work on January 1994 (GVU Surveys). These Center was one of the first organizations to demontrate the Web as a powerful surveying medium. Surveys were done using forms; after the first survey, adaptive questioning was used. Since its inception, it has taken a total of five surveys. The sixth survey is currently being conducted. From these surveys, it can be observed that the characteristics of the web populations have changed.

2.3.1 Web User Evolution

The first survey featured the characteristics of the early web adopters; the users were mostly male (94%), relatively young (56% between 21 and 30), and living in North America (69%). They were mostly professionals (45%) or graduate students (22%), and had over ten years of programming experience (77%). These users had high income, with an average of $69,000 per year. These were the early technology adopters who were eager to learn new tools and held careers in the computer industry. The fact that 88% of the surveyed users used UNIX as their platform is another good indication that these were users who were involved in a computer-related industry or in an education environment. These early users were heavy web users too; 97% of them used the browser at least a few times a week.

The continuing surveys indicate that the web population has gradually become closer to the norm; the female web population ratio has gradually increased to 31.5%, the average annual income has decreased to $59,000 per household, and the users in other occupations, such as management, have gained a greater share. These trends indicate that the Web is gradually becoming more accessible to everyone. The table below shows the gradual adoption of the Web by groups who were not "technology developers/pioneers".

Surveys 1st Survey (Jan 94) 3rd Survey (April 95) 5th Survey (April 96)
Age 56% between 21 and 20 30% between 21 and 30 Average=33.0
Gender 94% male 82% male 68.5% male
Average Income N/A $69,000 $59,000
Main Profession N/A Computer-related 31.4% Education-related 29.6%
% in the U.S. 69% in North America 80.6% in U.S. 73.4% in U.S.

A prime factor in the popularity of the Web today could be its ease of use and installation; today's improved web browsers such as Netscape and Microsoft Internet Explorer do not require any technical knowledge for installation or for usage. Even children at the elementary level can point and click to "go places" on the Web. The main barrier to Web usage today is getting access to the Internet. Most users today access the Internet through home (55.4%) or work (34.3%). Those who do not have a computer at home or at work are left out from the information superhighway. Today, even that barrier is whittling away, as coffeeshops, software vendors and other shops in large cities are starting to provide fee-based access to the Internet. Other less expensive alternative ways to access the Web, such as set-top boxes, smart phones, palmtops and PDAs, are now being offered by companies in the communications industry.

For the moment at least, a telephone survey by Yankelovich Partners Inc. finds the biggest obstacle to going online for those without a PC are the cost of a computer and the perceived complexity of surfing the Internet. For those who do have PCs, only 10 percent use commercial on-line services, and another three quarters are seeking ISPs with a set rate for unlimited usage (Seminerio, 96).

2.3.2 Web Users Today

How many web users are there today? Who are they and what are they doing on the Web? This section describes first the general characteristics of the web users and their web activities.

User characteristics

Currently the latest GVU survey, conducted in April 1996, indicates that: Of those surveyed, a large of percentage of the users (43.1%), indicate that they have been on the Internet for less than a year. Out of this, a large number of them are females (56.6% of females are reported to be new users), and those in the over-50 age group (34.1% are new users). The increasing number of female web users is probably due to the increase in female college students, and the emphasis of educators on education tools on the Web, which is primarily a female dominated profession. Another group of new users are those in the age group of 19-25 who have been online for 1 to 3 years (41.1%). Students who are introduced to these facilities in college probably contribute to this large percentage.

Users were also surveyed on their opinions on web-related issues. An important topic that users felt strongly about was privacy. Anonymity was valued very highly among the respondents, and the complete authority to control demographic information came a close second. Most users, however, would most agree to part with personal information if "a statement regarding how the information would be used" or a statement regarding "what information was being collected" was provided. Note, however, that more than a quarter of users have provided false information! (GVU Surveys).

Web-related activites and demographics

Results from the 5th GVU survey had some interesting statistics: The numbers above are closely related to each other; it can be seen that some of the 55.4% who accessed the Internet from home and 7.86% who access it from other places contribute to the 57.7% who pay for the access themselves. Note also that the responsibility of payment percentages add up to greater than a hundred, which implies that users are either accessing the Web at more than one place, or sharing the cost of access. The fact that only 48.4% of users actually subscribe to on-line services is closely related to the number of users who access the Internet from home and those who pay for their own access. Online services provide a package of software tools to more easily access information, and give access to magazines, newsletters and forums online. It is interesting to note that 51% of users who subscribe to online services choose local service providers to the larger online services. America Online however, still has a very large share of the online service market, with 34.3% of the online service subscribers.

What do users do on the Web? A frequent activity is using the Web for references. 96.7% of those surveyed have used the Web for references. Another popular activity is looking up product or services information (92.4%). 74.4% of the users look up the weather on the Web, and only 53.6% of the users have actually purchased through the Web at least once. Other interesting user characteristics are:

With a majority of the respondents coming from either the U.S. (70%) or Europe (21%), one might think that the demographics may be biased towards users in the the two regions. However, studies on non U.S. users profiles by geographic region show otherwise (Granered 96). It was found that overall, the demographics of web users were very similar throughout every continent.

2.3.3 Classifying Web Users

Some attempts have been made to classify web users to determine what they do in the Web. According to Thomas E. Miller in his article Segmenting the Internet (Miller, 96), users of the Web are best classified into different age groups. How users perceive the function of the Web is based on when they are introduced to it, and the stage of life they're in. Based on the FindSVP's American Internet user survey (FindSVP, 96), it was found that younger users are more likely to socialize through email, on-line chat, and visit newsgroups. They are more likely to browse and experiment, instead of just searching for specific information. They are also more likely to browse the music and entertainment web sites, while their older counterparts are more likely to access online news and many other categories of online information. "This is partly due to the fact that younger users have more discretionary time, and more like to put priority on socializing."

Another interesting segment of users are those in the over-50 age group. From the GVU surveys, there is a distinct difference in their behaviour on the Web. They are more likely to access the Web from home (73%), and pay for their own access (81%). These users are more likely to use the online services (57%) than the average user (48.4%). They are also more likely to access economic/financial and government information on the Web than any of the other age groups. Users in this age group are also more likely to have shopped online than any of the other age groups (61.0% versus the average of 55.6%).

Other methods of classifying web users are through education level, gender, income, frequency of use, and purpose of using the Web.

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Copyright © 1996 Mei See Yeoh, All Rights Reserved

Mei See Yeoh <myeoh@vt.edu>
Last modified: Sat Oct 26 13:15:51 1996