Consumer spending for online content in the US grew to $987 million in the first half of 2005, an increase of 15.7 per cent over the same period last year. For the first time ever, in Q2 of 2005, quarterly sales of content topped half a billion dollars, according to a study commissioned by the Online Publishers Association (OPA).
Spurred by growth in online music sales, entertainment/lifestyles overtook personals/dating to become the leading paid content category, with consumers spending $264.8 million on the category in the first half of 2005. Personals/dating grew to $245.2 million in the first half of 2005, while business/investment content remained in third place with spending at $159.1 million.
Of the 11 categories tracked for this report, the top three � personals/dating, entertainment/lifestyles, and business/investment – once again accounted for just over two-thirds (67.8 per cent) of online content spending in H1 2005, up slightly from 67.3 per cent for the full year 2004.
"Consumers are turning to the Web for entertainment more and more, and as they do sales of content continue to rise," said Michael Zimbalist, OPA president. "We believe this trend will continue as new products such as the Video iPod and other mobile devices play greater roles in digital content distribution."
The entertainment/lifestyles category was by far the fastest-growing paid content category in the first half of 2005, up 44.8 per cent over the same period last year. However, after registering steady declines during the first half of 2004, the research category also surged back with a 33.8 per cent year-over-year increase, the second-largest percentage gain among all categories. Games and personal growth were also up significantly, by 22.5 per cent and 19.4 per cent, respectively.
Single purchase sales, as opposed to subscriptions, continued to rise. In the first half of 2005, single purchases accounted for 20.1 per cent of total online content sales, up from 15.4 per cent in 2004. Single-purchase sales in the entertainment/lifestyles category alone accounted for $114.9 million in revenue in the first half of 2005.
Out of a total US online population of 171.0 million in the second quarter of 2005, 19.4 million paid for online content, up 15.6 per cent from the 16.8 million who paid for content online in Q2 2004. The 15.6 per cent growth in paid-content consumers in Q2 2005 over Q2 2004 is substantially greater than the growth of the US Internet population during the same time period (11.9 per cent).
The information contained in the OPA's Paid Online Content U.S. Market Spending Report is based not on self-reported consumer surveys, but on actual observed purchases of content. comScore Networks calculated the results of the study by passively and electronically monitoring the actual purchase and usage transactions that took place during the analysis period within its representative panel of more than 1.5 million US online consumers.
The Online Publishers Association (OPA) is an industry trade organisation whose mission is to advance the interests of high-quality online publishers before the advertising community, the press, the government and the public. OPA members represent the standards in Internet publishing with respect to editorial quality and integrity, credibility and accountability. OPA member sites have a combined, unduplicated reach of 109.5 million visitors, or 65 per cent of the total US Internet audience.
Monthly subscriptions accounted for 60.4 per cent of total subscription revenues in H1 2005, up from 57.6 per cent in 2004. The annual-subscription share of total subscription revenues dropped one percentage point, from 32.7 per cent in the full year 2004 to 31.7 per cent in H1 2005. The number of US consumers paying for online content continues to grow while spending on online content per consumer holds constant quarter to quarter.
