3 January 2008
According to recent research by Nielson Online, more and more older people are using the Internet with the over 55 year-olds now representing nearly one in five of Internet years.
Nielsen Online has released figures that represent the changing age make-up of the UK Internet population amongst the 100 most popular brands in the UK.
Between October 2006 and October 2007 the share of the UK Internet population made up by under 25-year-olds has decreased from 29% to 25%, meanwhile the share of over 55-year-olds has risen from 16% to 19%. Evidence showed that the average age of the UK Internet population has risen from 35.7 to 37.9.
Analysing these changing age trends amongst the 100 most popular brands identified that high street retailer Marks & Spencer has the oldest average online age at 46.5, while the website that had the youngest UK online audience was online games portal Miniclip, with an average age of 28.1.
Alex Burmaster, Internet analyst at Nielsen Online, comments:
When looking at how a particular audience is composed by age, a change in share - even by just a few percentage points - actually represents quite a fundamental shift. Age compositions tend to evolve subtly over a number of years so to see such large changes in the course of just a year shows that the Internet population is undergoing a significant ageing process. It will be very interesting to see whether this trend continues over the next 12 months and, if so, whether the types of services and products offered and marketed online adapt to reflect this changing population. New online offerings and technology are usually targeted at the young, but it’s possible brands could be missing a trick if they continue down this path in the future.
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