WHO IS THE WEB USER?

We have based the following information on the latest GVU user survey. The full GVU survey can be found at http://www.cc.gatech.edu/gvu/user_surveys/.

 

Web Demographics

Average Age
33.0 years old.

Gender
Male--68.5%
Female--31.5%
(from 71.7% and 29.3% in '96 respectively)

Geographic Origination
California--11.0%
Other U.S.--62.4%
Outside U.S. --26.6%

Number of Dependents
No dependents--61.7%
1 dependent--14.1%
2 dependents--16.4%
3 or more dependents--7.9%

Marital Status
Single--40.8%
Married--41.1%
Divorced--5.1%
Living with another--9.6%

Income
Average US$ 59,000 US
(down from US$ 63,000 in '96).

Occupation
Management--10.7%
Professional--18.9%
Educational--29.6%
Computer related--27.8%

Household Size and Accessing the Web Site
One--76%
Two--19%
Three or more--5%

Education
College or more advanced degrees--56.5%


WORLD WIDE WEB USAGE PATTERNS:
Number of Months/Years Using Internet
Less than 6 months--23.6%
Less than 1 year--43.1%
1--3 years-- 34.9%
over 3 years--22.0%

Frequency of Accessing the Web During A Typical Week
Less than once a day--18.5%
1--4 times a day--43.6%
4 or more times a day--37.9%

Time Spent on The Web During A Typical Week
0--4 hours--44.7%
4--6 hours--19.3%
7--or more hours--36.0%
10--20 hours--27.8%

Frequency of Accessing the Web Site During A Typical Week
n/a

Time spent on the Times Web Site During a Typical Session
n/a

Primary Place of WWW Access
Home--55.4%
Work--39.2%

Hours Per Week of "Personal" Computing
1--10 hours a week--58.5%
11--30 hours per week--32.4%

Hours Per Week of "Work" Computing
Less than 5 hours--25.1%
Over 41 hours--18.5%

Hours Per Week of "Fun" Computing
Less than 5 hours--42%
6--10 hours-- 27.6%
11--50 hours--28.9%

Frequency of Economic Information Use
Never use the web--38.0%
Use the Web a few times--24.8%

Frequency of Electronic News Use
21.8% report accessing electronic news on a daily basis.
22.1% access it on a weekly basis.
13.9% of respondents have never accessed electronic news.

Research Information
25.5% of respondents report using research information "a few times".

How Often Users Print/Save Documents
Few times a week--41.1%
More frequently--23.9%
Less frequently--35.0%

Frequency of Product Information Use
7.6% have never accessed product information on the Web.
30.1% access it on a weekly basis.
26.3% on a monthly basis.

Frequency of Reference Information Use
17.5% of respondents reported using reference information on a daily basis.
33.8% use it on a weekly basis.
3.3% have never accessed reference information on the Web.

Frequency of Online Shopping
46.4% have never used the Web for online shopping.
33.5% have used it a few times.

Frequency of Newsgroup Use
47.8 % reported that they have never or only accessed newsgroups a few times.
14.0 % report accessing newsgroups several times a week.

Problems Using the Web
Speed 80.9 %
Organizing retrieved information 33.6 %
Finding information 32.4 %
Getting lost in hypertext 5.4 %
Cost 9.2 %.

How Users Find Out About Pages
90.7% from other Web pages.
83.1% Search engines.
64.7% Print magazines.
58.5% Friends.
44.4% Usenet.
39.3% Newspapers