Monday, July 26, 2010

Study: Users Not Willing To Pay To Use Twitter, Other Online Services

A study released Friday by the Center for the Digital Future, at the USC Annenberg School of Communications, finds that zero percent of Twitter users polled in the study would pay for Twitter. According to the study, it found that 49 percent of Internet users have used micro-blogging services like Twitter, but found that there was zero percent of users polled were willing to pay for such a service directly. The study said there was a "strong negative reaction" to paying for online services, despite users also finding Internet advertising, "annoying."

The findings came as part of the Center's 2010 Digital Future Project, a long term study of Internet users and non-users. Among other findings, is it found the Internet is used by around 82 percent of Americans, and that users spend an average of 19 hours per week online. 100 percent of users under age 24 are on the Internet. The study also found that the Internet ranked the top, above both television and newspapers, as their primary source of information, at 78 percent relying on the Internet, versus 68 percent for television and 56 percent for newspapers.

Despite the reliance on the Internet, the study also found that 14 percent of Internet users believe only a "small portion or none" of the information found online is reliable, and sixty one percent believing that only half or less of online information is reliable, one of the lowest levels of trust since the long term study started. The project has been ongoing since 2000.

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