A Demographic and Psychographic Profile of Heavy Internet Users and Users by Type of Internet Usage

Abstract

With the penetration rate of the web approaching 70 percent, profiles of general web usage are less important. Web marketers must begin to focus on the profile of heavy web users and users by type of web usage. This article develops a demographic and lifestyle profile of heavy web users (those using the web for 20 hours a week or more) based on a survey of over 5,000 respondents. It also identifies six key web usage categories Web Generalists, Downloaders, Self-Improvers, Entertainment Seekers, Stock Traders, and Socializers and develops a profile of each.This may be the first study providing a detailed demographic and lifestyle description of both heavy users and web usage types. The profiles should be useful to web marketers for selecting media and setting the tone of their marketing effort in targeting these groups.The author would like to thank Dr. Joseph Plummer, executive vice president for research and insight development at McCann-Erickson for contributing the data for this article, as well as Susan Nathan and Karen Ring at McCann for their help in making the data accessible. He would also like to thank Caresse Sakagawa, his research assistant at the Stern School, for conducting the analyses in the article.