Survey: Global consumers skeptical of paid online content

Percentage of global consumers who say online content of any kind will have to be considerably better than what is currently free before they will pay for it, according to a Nielsen Analytics survey across 52 countries: 71

Percentage of people who would no longer use a Web site that charges them: 79

Percentage who think that once they purchase content, it should be theirs to copy or share with whomever they want: 62

Social media demographics
Median age for a Twitter user, according to a Pew Internet and American Life Project poll: 31

Median age for a Facebook user: 33

Median age for LinkedIn: 39

Online activity
As of the first week of June, number of tweets that had been sent by Twitter’s 105 million users, according to the findings of a Harris Poll: 15 billion

Estimated number of active users on Facebook – more members than the populations of Japan, Mexico and Russia combined: 400 million

Percentage of online Americans who use social media: 64

Facebook nation?
Percentage of the active U.S. Internet universe that is reached by Facebook, with an average usage of six hours a month per user, according to Nielsen’s 2010 Media Industry Fact Sheet: 56

Technology life spans
Percentage of people who do not expect their technology devices (mobile phones, laptops, digital cameras, printers) to last more than five years, according to a global survey on behalf of Lexmark International Inc.: 78

Percentage of respondents across 21 countries who think the materials used to construct devices could be made of better quality, suggesting that gadget failures ultimately lead people to abandon brands: 60

Percentage of people worldwide who feel guilty when they dispose of a device rather than seeking repair: 67

Percentage who admit they will trash an out-of-warranty device rather than having it repaired: 48

Not ready for e-readers
Percentage of consumers who said they would miss aspects of reading paper books if they switched to reading e-books, according to PriceGrabber.com: 41

Ranks of touch (36 percent), portability (13 percent) and making notes (13 percent) on the list of the top aspects consumers said they would miss most: 1, 2, 3

Point, click, shop
Reported holiday season retail e-commerce spending for the first 27 days of the November-December 2009 holiday season, according to ComScore, a leader in measuring the digital world: $10.57 billion

Percentage increase this represents versus the corresponding days last year: 3

Connected, but lonely
Percentage of Americans who say there is more loneliness in today’s society than there used to be, according to research by Kodak: 67

Percentage who feel it is easier to connect with friends and family today than it was five years ago as a result of increased use of e-mail, text and social networks to keep in contact: 80

In spite of this technology, percentage who think they have fewer meaningful relationships than they did five years ago: 60

Percentage of business leaders who say they spend three or more hours a day reading, writing, sending or receiving e-mail, according to a survey by NFI research: 45

Economic outlooks
Ranks of Voice Over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, providers, search engines, e-commerce and online auctions, online dating and matchmaking, and tank and armored vehicle manufacturing on the list of the best performing industries of the past decade (2000–09), according to IbisWorld: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Ranks of VoIP providers, retirement and pension plans, biotechnology, e-commerce and online auctions, and environmental consulting on the list of best performing industries in the coming decade (2010–19): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Company talks online
Percentage of Americans who said they have shared a negative product or service experience with others on Facebook, YouTube or another social networking site, according to a survey sponsored by the Chubb Group of Insurance Cos.: 20

Percentage of respondents who said their company had no policy for talking about the company on social networking sites: 64

Of the 36 percent who said their companies had a policy regarding talking about the companies online, percentage who said they were encouraged to talk about the company: 18

Communication trends
Percentage of Americans in the 18-to-29 age group who say that high-tech communications devices such as BlackBerrys and iPhones represent a change for the better, according to Pew Research: 72

Percentage of those ages 30 to 49 who agree: 62

For the public as a whole, percentage who say these hand-held devices are a change for the better: 56

John MacIntyre is a Nova Scotia-based author and former city magazine editor. His “Figuratively Speaking” column, launched in 1989, is published in more than 40 newspapers and magazines.[[In-content Ad]]