Experienced Internet Users

The Internet has been around since the 1990's and can no longer be counted as an innovation today.  Obviously, the diffusion of the internet did not occur instantaneously.  Today, there are still more people who are just beginning to adopt the technology.  But with ten years of history, it is possible to speak of the Internet pioneers and to differentiate them from the newer users.

We will cite some survey data from the 2002 TGI Brasil study.  This is a survey of persons 12-64 years old conducted in Brazil during 2002.  Among the survey respondents, there were 3,664 Internet users, who project to 15.6 million users within the survey area.  Within this group of Internet users, about 2.4% of them said that they had been using the Internet at home AND at work for more than 4 years.  These people have used the Internet at home and at work for a long time, and we will call them the experienced Internet users.

Who are the experienced Internet users?

Here are the percentages of who belong to socio-economic class AB among the groups:

• 32.4% among all persons 12-64 years old
• 67.1% among all Internet users
• 83.0% among all Internet home users
• 70.3% among all Internet work users
• 93.1% among experienced Internet users

Here are the percentages of university degrees among the groups:

• 11.2% among all persons 12-64 years old
• 23.5% among all Internet users
• 27.6% among all Internet home users
• 42.3% among all Internet work users
• 72.6% among experienced Internet users

And here are the percentages of professionals/managers among the groups:

• 13.0% among all persons 12-64 years old
• 27.6% among all Internet users
• 35.3% among all Internet home users
• 46.4% among all Internet work users
• 72.1% among experienced Internet users

And here are the percentages of men between the ages of 20 and 54 years old:

• 33.4% among all persons 12-64 years old
• 35.2% among all Internet users
• 35.4% among all Internet home users
• 53.7% among all Internet work users
• 74.0% among all experienced Internet users

These results should be no surprising, since we are talking about people who could afford to buy a personal computer for home use and who holds a job for which the company felt that a computer was essential.  A more interesting question is about how the Internet is being used.  Whereas the experienced Internet user spends 42% more time per day on the Internet than the average Internet user, they have a different pattern of usage across the day.

In the first chart below, we show Internet usage at home by time of day.  Here, we are comparing the experienced Internet users against all of those who use Internet at home, however long they have been doing this and no matter if they have access at work.  The experienced user gets up earlier in the morning to access the Internet at home and then their usage falls below the average during the weekday.  Thereafter,  on weekday evening and throughout the weekend, they are heavier users of the Internet.

The next chart shows Internet usage at work.  During the weekday office hours (Monday through Friday, 8am through 8pm), the experienced Internet users spends more time on the Internet than those who used the Internet at work, no matter how long they have been doing this and whether or not they can access the Internet at home. 

The experienced Internet users have already engaged the Internet for several years, during which their work and personal lives have been changed as a result.

(posted by Roland Soong, 9/28/2003)