Interesting stat from the Online Publishers Association (that’s right, the OPA). Clearly this is a self-serving and biased piece of data, if it’s true, however, it does explain a few things.
What’s the finding:
According to the OPA’s IAI, conducted by Nielsen//NetRatings, communications accounted for 46% of consumers’ time online in 2003. A dramatic shift has taken place since then, with consumers now spending 47% of their time with content, compared with 34% four years ago. The 37% gain in share for content is followed closely by a 35% gain in share for search. However the total time being spent with search remains relatively low, accounting for just 5% 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,” Horan said. “The index indicates that, over the last four years, the primary role of the Internet has shifted from communications to content.”
At a time when comScore and Nielsen are considering scrapping the pageview and replacing it with average time spent on a site, this finding is a shot in the arm of publishers…
Nowadays, according to some, publisher’s content plays second fiddle to user generated content, even though clearly advertisers don’t want anything to do with it. In fact, by 2010, UGC will account for $2.15B in ads, even though total online ads will be anywhere from $30B to $60B market.
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