Silver surfersbuy more online than
younger internet users and form the biggest area of growth in
broadband usage.
Research carried out on 7,000 web users by the European
Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA) reveals that more than
half (53%) of all silver surfers now use
online banking and finance sites.
And 74% have
shopped online, buying an average of seven items and spending
£575 in a six month period.
This is well above the average online shopper, who spends £520
in the same period.
The survey found that 68% of all European internet users aged 55
years and older now use broadband.
Broadband adoption among silver surfers is growing at a faster
rate than the average European internet user - 26% year-on-year
growth compared with 14% for younger users.
This increase in
broadband penetration is leading to major changes in the way
this older generation are communicating and spending their leisure
time, said the EIAA.
The older generation spends an average of 8.8 hours online per
week - a rise of 18% since 2004 - and 78% of the time they spend
online is for personal reasons rather than for work.
The research dispels the myth that
social networking is only uesd by the young, with nearly one in
five silver surfers (18%) visiting sites such as
MySpace and
Bebo at least once a month.
This is not too far behind the younger digital generation
(16-year-old to 34-year-old internet users) - 28% of whom regularly
access social networking sites.
The European Interactive Advertising
Association >>
Harrods looks to integrate its online and in-store operations
>>
Retailers lead rise in IT spending growth >>
Gartner: retail IT must ramp up for Web 2.0 >>
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