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Users’ Online Time Spent Mostly on Content - not Communications, Commerce

Internet users are spending nearly half their online time visiting content - a 37 percent increase in share of time from four years ago and nearly as much time as spent on communications and commerce combined - according to a four-year analysis of the Internet Activity Index (IAI) issued by the Online Publishers Association (OPA), reports MarketingCharts.

The IAI is a monthly gauge of the time that users spend with e-commerce, communications, content and search; it is conducted by Nielsen/NetRatings.

According to OPA’s IAI:

• Communications accounted for 46 percent of consumers’ time online in 2003, but a dramatic shift has taken place since then, with consumers now spending 47 percent of their time with content, compared with 34 percent four years ago.
• The 37 percent gain in share for content is followed closely by a 35 percent gain in share for search.
• However, the total time being spent with search remains relatively low, accounting for just 5 percent of internet users’ online time in 2007.

The IAI has identified a very significant and sustained trend in where consumers are spending their online time. “The index indicates that, over the last four years, the primary role of the internet has shifted from communications to content,” OPA President Pam Horan said.

The increase in content’s share of time has been fairly steady in the last several years, growing 10 percent from 2003 to 2004, remaining even between 2004 and 2005, growing 13 percent from 2005 to 2006, and growing 13 percent from 2006 to 2007.

MarketingCharts has more from the study.