Paying for content
Paying for Content
Online consumer spending on Internet content jumped 23% in the first half of this year to $748 million, according to a study by the Online Publishers Association. The number is encouraging news for Internet businesses, because it shows a continued willingness by consumers to pay for content. The top categories are Personals/Dating (up 76%), Business/Investment and Entertainment/Lifestyles. These three categories account for 65% of all online content spending. General News grew 14% to $39.2 million. One of the interesting findings is that the spending increase is due to customer conversion and not just growth of the Internet audience. “There is unquestionable opportunity for content providers to convert additional Internet users to paying customers,” said Michael Zimbalist, executive director of the OPA. Despite the growth in the General News category, I caution against viewing this as a green light to charge for news content on a local television site. There may be highly specific forms of content for which consumers will pay at the local level, but overall, it’s a bad idea. It’s the quickest way I know to drive users (Pomos especially) elsewhere.
