1% of Internet Users download podcasts…every day
November 22nd, 2006 by Lloyd Gofton
According to the latest US research from Pew Internet & American Life project just 1% of Internet users download podcasts on a daily basis.
However, 12% of Internet users confirmed they had downloaded a podcast at least once, a decent improvement on April’s survey, which showed a 7% usage.
The survey includes a whole host of stats on podcasts, as overviewed below (thanks to Barrons Online for the list), showing age is not a factor, nor is income, but if you are male and have been using the Internet for more than three years you are more likely to download podcasts.
- Roughly 15% of Internet men have downloaded a podcast, versus 8% of Internet women.
- Long-time Internet users (online six years) are more than twice as likely to download podcasts than those online three years or less- 13% and 6% respectively.
- Age is not a factor: 14% of those 18-29 have downloaded a podcasts, versus 12% of 30-49 year-olds, and 12% of 50-64 year olds. The total drops to 4% for the 65+ group.
- Podcasts user span income groups: 12% of those in householders with under $30,000 in income, 13% for those with income of $75,000 or more; and similar numbers for those in between - 14% in the $30,000 to $49,999 group, and 12% in the $50,000 to $74,999 group.
- There are plenty of choices: The survey says there were under 1,000 podcasts to choose from on the podcast directory site Podcast alley in November 2004, compared with 26,000 podcasts and more than 1 million episodes now.
So what are we to read into these figures? Other than podcasts are on the rise, if still at an early phase and not yet widely used daily.
It seems Podcasts have managed to cross the economic and age divide, a recognised achievement of social media and a positive reflection on access to information via the web.
