http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB20030923S0020
Internet Users Looking For Love Spend More For Content
September 23, 2003 (6:22 p.m. EST)
By Antone Gonsalves, TechWeb News
People looking for love on the Internet remained the biggest spenders for online content, helping to increase overall spending for information in the first half of the year to $748 million, a report released Tuesday showed.
Overall revenue from online content rose 23 percent in the first six months of the year, compared to the same period a year ago, with spending on personals and dating increasing 76 percent, the Online Publishers Association said.
People searching for a mate spent $214.3 million in the first half of the year, accounting for 30 percent of the total spend. Business and investment information was the second highest paid content category, followed by entertainment and lifestyles. All three categories together accounted for 65 percent of content revenue, up from 61 percent last year.
Personals and dating overtook business and investment as the No. 1 category in the third quarter of last year, and has held on to the top spot ever since. "In general, people are willing to pay for content that they feel passionate about and highly invested in, and is different from what they can find elsewhere," OPA spokeswoman Lisa Carparelli said.
The category that recorded the highest increase was personal growth. Consumers spent $41.4 million in the first half of the year, nearly doubling spending from $20.8 million a year ago.
Of particular good news for online content providers was OPA's findings that the growth in the number of consumers paying for content is 3 times more than the overall growth rate of Internet users. This means people already on the Internet are spending more on content.
"Consumers are becoming increasingly comfortable with paying for content online," Carparelli said. "And that's evident by the growth not coming from new Internet users, but from existing users who are becoming paid content consumers."
Spending on content dipped for the first time in the fourth quarter of 2002, rebounding by 10 percent in the first quarter of 2003 to $368 million, and increasing even more in the second quarter to $380 million.
OPA expects the current trend to continue, as publishers get better at packaging premium content for sale to consumers willing to pay for it. The New York Times, for example, has been successful in selling a premium crossword puzzle service.
"The market for paid content is maturing, but to call it fully mature would be premature," Carparelli said.
