Among leading
early adopters, gays

Internet savvy but underreported web user group

By Toni Fitzgerald
    
   The image of early adopters always has been one of hip, young, fairly well-educated people. Add gay to that list of characteristics.
   According to new research, gay men and women go online more frequently, more savvily and for longer stretches than their heterosexual counterparts.
   Gay consumers frequent shopping, banking, entertainment and especially community sites. They’ve been going online longer than straights, on average. And they’re more likely than others to adopt new technology as it’s introduced.
   Unfortunately for marketers, this is an area that’s long been overlooked, or more accurately, underreported.
   There’s been limited research into the sexual orientation of internet users. But now that some of the more straightforward, obvious demographics, such as age and race, have been broken down in terms of internet usage, gay or straight has become an interesting new area.
   For the first time, Forrester Research’s annual Consumer Technographics Benchmark Study asked respondents to identify sexual orientation. The study includes roughly 60,000 households, and led Forrester to release a report entitled “Gays Are the Technology Early Adopters You Want” last week.
   The report finds that 80 percent of gay men and 76 percent of lesbians are online. That’s higher than the 70 percent of straight men and 69 percent of straight women who use the internet.
  The gap in internet adoption is large. Twenty-nine percent of gays have been online for seven years or more, compared to 18 percent of straights.
   This adoption extends to speed and hardware, too. Gays are one-third more likely than heterosexuals to have broadband.
  Gay men in particular favor new gadgets. They are more likely to own portable MP3 players and browser-enabled cell phones.
   They also are two times more likely than straight men to own a personal video recorder. Not surprisingly, considering the expense of all this technology, gays tend to have a higher income than straights.
   Online communities attract a larger percentage of gay web users. Forrester found that gays used text chat, instant messaging and personal web pages in greater numbers than straights as well.


    

Top 25 parent companies
Through July 13

#

Parent

Unique Audience (000)

Reach %

Time spent per person 
(hh:mm:ss)

1

Microsoft

49,078

57.1

0:38:00

2

AOL Time Warner

48,509

56.4

2:01:59

3

Yahoo!

40,579

47.2

0:47:24

4

Google

16,851

19.6

0:07:46

5

eBay

14,742

17.1

0:42:03

6

Amazon

9,357

10.9

0:09:46

7

United States Government

8,863

10.3

0:10:59

8

RealNetworks

7,934

9.2

0:14:08

9

Terra Lycos

7,644

8.9

0:09:36

10

USA Interactive

6,856

8.0

0:14:27

11

WhenU

6,696

7.8

0:05:08

12

Sharman Networks

6,538

7.6

0:48:24

13

Excite Network

6,390

7.4

0:21:05

14

Walt Disney Internet Group

6,219

7.2

0:15:27

15

About-Primedia

5,970

6.9

0:07:23

16

Viacom International

5,827

6.8

0:14:38

17

EarthLink

5,321

6.2

0:45:12

18

Landmark Communications

5,212

6.1

0:07:17

19

United Online

4,901

5.7

0:53:20

20

AWS Convergence Technologies

4,273

5.0

0:11:07

21

InfoSpace Network

4,139

4.8

0:09:55

22

Overture Services

4,044

4.7

0:04:31

23

The Gator Corporation

4,022

4.7

0:01:37

24

Network Associates

3,858

4.5

0:06:57

25

CNET Networks

3,835

4.5

0:07:58

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings,


Top 25 brands
Through July 13

#

Parent

Unique Audience (000)

Reach %

Time spent 
per person (hh:mm:ss)

1

MSN

41,726

48.5

0:36:00

2

Yahoo!

40,576

47.2

0:47:24

3

AOL

37,699

43.8

2:26:24

4

Microsoft

33,854

39.4

0:10:43

5

Google

16,851

19.6

0:07:46

6

eBay

14,285

16.6

0:40:55

7

Amazon

9,037

10.5

0:08:14

8

Real

7,885

9.2

0:14:11

9

Lycos Networks

7,303

8.5

0:09:55

10

WhenU

6,644

7.7

0:05:10

11

Netscape

6,580

7.7

0:12:02

12

KaZaA

6,538

7.6

0:48:24

13

About Network

5,499

6.4

0:07:23

14

MapQuest

5,126

6.0

0:07:31

15

EarthLink

4,864

5.7

0:48:16

16

Weather Channel

4,814

5.6

0:06:50

17

CNN

4,355

5.1

0:08:11

18

WeatherBug.com

4,248

4.9

0:11:10

19

Gator Network

3,876

4.5

0:01:37

20

McAfee

3,811

4.4

0:06:58

21

eUniverse

3,730

4.3

0:07:57

22

AT&T

3,698

4.3

0:16:43

23

Apple

3,697

4.3

0:04:40

24

EA Online

3,543

4.1

1:12:12

25

Classmates.com

3,473

4.0

0:06:09

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings,


Top 25 advertisers 
(excludes house ads)
Through July 13

#

Company

Impressions (000)

1

Homestore, Inc.

1,411,300

2

Expertcity, Inc.

1,325,246

3

Intuit, Inc.

1,047,570

4

NetFlix.com, Inc.

975,517

5

SBC Communications, Inc.

529,011

6

Apollo Group, Inc.

512,774

7

j2 Global Communications, Inc.

497,688

8

Amazon.com, Inc.

456,828

9

Citigroup Inc.

419,263

10

Classmates Online, Inc.

402,409

11

USA Interactive

383,568

12

Dell Computer Corporation

349,226

13

Scottrade, Inc.

312,260

14

Ameritrade Holding Corporation

285,893

15

Sabre Holdings Inc.

245,766

16

Orbitz

215,377

17

Bank One Corporation

207,157

18

Ameriquest Mortgage Company

203,211

19

CoolSavings, Inc.

199,421

20

Official Auctions.com

189,245

21

MLB Advanced Media, L.P.

180,991

22

Atkins Nutritionals, Inc.

166,009

23

eBay Seller

164,931

24

eBay Third Party Auction

164,831

25

DaimlerChrysler Corporation

160,902

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance,


Top 25 advertising sites
 (excludes house ads)
Through July 13
#

Company

Impressions (000)

1

Yahoo!

9,084,331

2

MSN

2,412,969

3

iWon

781,011

4

eBay

709,943

5

AOL.com

649,041

6

Netscape

407,382

7

ESPN.com

367,941

8

Juno

322,867

9

MSNBC

311,932

10

The Weather Channel

308,075

11

CNN

264,494

12

Excite

264,166

13

MLB.com

254,166

14

Classmates

222,015

15

CBS MarketWatch

215,810

16

AT&T Worldnet

179,127

17

Pogo

177,034

18

NetZero

142,979

19

Realtor.com

130,879

20

The Weather Underground

130,040

21

The New York Times

126,504

22

Webshots

124,240

23

USA TODAY

92,446

24

Lycos

86,964

25

MapQuest.com

86,921

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance

 

Average use
Through July 13

   

Current Week

Last Week

% Change

Number of Sessions/Visits per Week

9

9

0

Number of Domains Visited per Week

20

19

5.26

Time Spent per Week

7:44:49

7:19:05

5.86

Time Spent During Web Visit

0:50:04

0:48:43

2.77

Active Digital Media Universe

96,136,474

92,824,237

3.57

Current Digital Media Universe Estimate

179,856,247

177,547,152

1.3

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings

   

July 22, 2003© 2003 Media Life

-Toni Fitzgerald is a staff writer for Media Life.


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