U.S. consumers spent $853 million on online content in the first half of 2004, led by growth in entertainment content — a 14 percent increase in spending over the same period last year, according to the Paid Content U.S. Market Spending Report, conducted by comScore Networks.
Entertainment/lifestyles — the fastest growing category — overtook business/investment content as the second largest paid content category, driven largely by growth in online music spending. Spending in the entertainment category grew to $182.8 million in the first half of 2004, a 78.3 percent increase over the same period last year.
Personals/dating held its position as the leading paid content category, with U.S. consumers spending $227.9 million in the first half of 2004. Spending in the business/investment category dropped 8 percent to third place, with $154.9 million this year from $168.5 million in the first half of 2003. Both of these categories have seen slight declines in each of the last three quarters since peaking in Q3 2003.
The declines in personals/dating reverse a two and a half year period of rapid category growth, signaling a maturing of the market and a normalizing after a period of intense publicity, according to the report. Approximately 16.8 million U.S. consumers paid for content in the second quarter, up from 16.0 million in the year-ago period. The report found that the growth in paid content revenue is based on the addition of new content buyers rather than any change in dollars spent per consumer.
The report is chock-full of interesting facts about the industry and definitely required reading.
