Original version is accessiable from: http://www.mediacentral.com/Magazines/MediaDaily/OldArchives/199606/1996061112.html
The adage about the Internet being "mostly male, mostly pale" still holds true according to a recent survey from the Georgia Institute of Technology, which found the average user of the World Wide Web is a 33-year-old white male with an income of $59,000.
That's a demographic in flux, however, as the survey noted the percentage of women using the Web was steadily increasing, up roughly 2% from 29% in a similar survey last fall. That increase has been even more dramatic in Europe, where the number of women jumped 45%, to 15.2% from 10.5%. "There's been a tremendous shift in age and gender, in the direction of greater diversity," noted Colleen Kehoe, a researcher on the project.
Kehoe told Media Daily that among the survey's more startling findings was the abrupt shift away from office and educational use towards home use. "The big story is where people are accessing the Web," she said. "Half the people we surveyed are home users, which is a big switch from two years ago, when the primary means of accessing the Internet was at work or from an educational institution." According to Kehoe, 48.5% of the 11,700 Web users surveyed accessed the Internet from home using local providers, versus 27.9% a year ago.
While the survey was not random, Kehoe said the results were sound because of the size of the group, and the fact that the baseline demographic numbers match up with similar surveys from research firms Find/SVP, and Nielsen Media Research. The survey, the latest of five from Georgia Institute of Technology, can be viewed on the Web at http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/user_surveys.
Cowles/SIMBA Media Daily 6/11/96
Copyright 1996 Cowles Business Media. All rights reserved.
Media Daily can be reached by e-mail, by fax at 212-683-3986 or by telephone at 212-683-3540 x416
