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People are definitely willing to pay for it – online content, that is. Several forecasts late last year had predicted that the area would grow, and the new U.S. Market Spending Reporter released by the Online Publishers Association found that paid content spending increased by 95 percent in 2002 versus 2001. In total, U.S. customers spent $1.3 billion for online content last year. Interestingly, the numbers dipped from third to fourth quarter, going from $361 million to $338 million. That suggests that some customers used their online budgets for holiday purchases instead of online gaming, personals or the like, although economic ills may also have factored in. Yet fourth-quarter paid content spending still showed a larger year-over-year growth than e-commerce, 49 percent versus 23 percent. Personals/dating has become the largest paid content area, with more than three times its 2001 total of $72 million. Business/investment is second, followed by entertainment/lifestyles, the three of them accounting for 63 percent of total online spending. The number of consumers paying for content during the fourth quarter increased from 10 million in 2001 to 14.3 million in 2002. Forty-one percent of sales were from annual subscriptions. Micropayments ($5 or less), although representing just 1 percent of total sales, had a growth rate of 707 percent.
Another 9/11 will cripple companies, report warns
Should another Sept. 11 or something worse occur, many U.S. companies will be unprepared to deal with it. So says a new survey released by Gartner Dataquest last week, which found that more than 30 percent of businesses will lose critical data or operational capacity in the event of a disaster. Twenty-four percent of Gartner respondents blamed insufficient security and disaster measures on a lack of funds. Even among those who have a plan, 37 percent of IT managers said that they don’t have the money to push the plan to a “satisfactory level.” Forty percent of respondents said they’re therefore relying on a best-guess scenario to determine risks rather than commissioning expensive formal assessments. The 205-manager survey was carried out on the web in November 2002.
Record number of eyeballs watching TiVo
TiVo experienced record growth last year. The company expects even more for 2003, predicting last week that subscription levels would reach 1 million this year. During the fourth quarter TiVo increased its user base by more than 20 percent, with 115,000 new customers signing up. That gave the digital recorder company 624,000 total subscribers. The company predicted that it will add 450,000 to 650,000 new subscribers during the next fiscal year (February to January). Overall, TiVo reported a 64 percent growth rate for 2002. Though the first quarter is traditionally the company’s slowest, TiVo predicted 55,000 to 65,000 new subscribers. New partnerships with Samsung, Toshiba and Philips should help drive subscriptions, the company said. Researcher Screen Digest predicts that by 2006, 15 million U.S. households will have TiVo or a similar digital recording device.
New: Buy a computer to match your couch
Still thinking of your computer more as a necessity than an accessory? Perhaps Shuttle Computer’s new gadgets can change your mind. The Taiwanese company is aiming for computer chic with its new line of PCs featuring different colors and sleeker designs. Shuttle, and others in Taiwan, are struggling amid a massive buying slowdown. Their new strategy is to attract new customers as much for the look of the computers as the technology, which has not been an effective selling point in the past year. Shuttle is marketing its new line as a second computer for home use, sort of an entertainment center suitable for the living room. The model is somewhat similar to the iMacs that, with their see-through and rainbow-colored units, helped lift Apple in the 1990s. After an early run of XPCs, shoebox-sized aluminum PCs, Shuttle says its next design will be leopard and zebra cases.
March 10, 2003© 2003 Media Life
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