Skip to main content

More Evidence of TV's Disconnect with Youth

Like television for a previous generation, the Internet is quickly becoming the principal mode of information and communication for today's youth. Young people now turn to the Internet to read the news, chat with their friends, play games, download music, and to shop.

To better understand how this generation views the Internet, and to explore how these views vary across cultures, IDC, in conjunction with RKM Research and Communications, recently completed an innovative study of 15- to 24-year olds in the United States, Brazil, and Russia.

The implications of the strength of the Internet versus television as a communication medium are significant for media and advertisers alike as they try to find a balance between the more static pushed content and user-generated or user-controlled content.

Using both explicit and implicit measures of attitude and behavior, IDC measured the strength of association between the Internet, television, and key positive and negative attributes among youth of the three countries. In general, the study found relatively strong associations between television and the negative concepts presented (e.g., inconvenient, boring, etc.).

In contrast, the associations with the Internet tended to be positive (e.g., fun, necessary, etc.), although weaker than the associations between television and the negative concepts. Translation: young adults apparently have a very strong negative opinion regarding the current state of traditional broadcast television. Meaning, all the more reason why forward-looking IPTV services should not attempt to merely imitate this legacy TV consumer experience.

"The growing acceptance of the Internet as a central fixture in the lives of young people has significant economic implications, provided that future Internet adopters continue to view the Internet as safe," said Carol Glasheen, vice president of IDC's Quantitative Research Group. "Much of this success will depend on the ability of advertisers and marketers to understand and address the perceptions and concerns of the current youth population."

In comparisons across the three countries, Brazilian Internet-savvy youth use the Internet more on a daily basis than do American or Russian youth, although American youth are more likely to use the Internet every day. Nearly all Russian Internet-savvy youth use the Internet to obtain news, while they tend to shop online less than their Brazilian and American counterparts.

Among the implicit findings, American Internet-savvy youth have generally weaker associations with the Internet than do Brazilian or Russian youth, suggesting that American youth may actually take the Internet for granted.

Popular posts from this blog

Digital Talent Demand Exceeds Supply in Asia-Pac

Even the savviest CEO's desire for a digital transformation advantage has to face the global market reality -- there simply isn't enough skilled and experienced talent available to meet demand. According to the latest market study by IDC, around 60-80 percent of Asia-Pacific (AP) organizations find it "difficult" or "extremely difficult" to fill many IT roles -- including cybersecurity, software development, and data insight professionals. Major consequences of the skills shortage are increased workload on remaining digital business and IT employees, increased security risks, and loss of "hard-to-replace" critical transformation knowledge. Digital Business Talent Market Development Although big tech companies' layoffs are making headlines, they are not representative of the overall global marketplace. Ongoing difficulty to fill key practitioner vacancies is still among the top issues faced by leaders across industries. "Skills are difficul

Mobile Device Market Still Awaiting Recovery

The mobile devices market has experienced three years of unpredictable demand. The global pandemic, geopolitical pressures, supply chain issues, and macroeconomic headwinds have hindered the sector's consistent growth potential. This extremely challenging environment has dramatically affected both demand and supply chains. It has led to subsequent inflationary pressures, leading to a worsening global cost of living crisis suppressing growth and confidence in the sector. In tandem, mobile device industry stakeholders have become more cautious triggering market uncertainties. Mobile Device Market Development Operating under such a backdrop, the development of mobile device ecosystems and vendor landscapes have been impacted severely. Many of these market pressures persisted throughout 2022 and now into 2023, borne chiefly by the smartphone market. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, worldwide smartphone shipments in 2022 declined 9.6 percent Year-over-Year

Open Banking Usage to Grow by 470 Percent

The Open Banking business model has been advantageous for Third-Party Providers (TPPs), helping them to extend their offerings into other areas of financial services with new capabilities. Open Banking is also advantageous for traditional banking institutions, despite the perceived loss of custodianship over their data, by providing greater accessibility to more bank services. Furthermore, Open Banking can help serve Mobile Internet providers that are able to leverage it to create tailored services according to customers’ preferences and/or economic limitations. Open Banking Market Development Since traditional banking services are made more convenient by TPPs via greater data access, customers can proactively manage their finances and shape the development of new financial offerings. This is particularly noticeable in the realm of Digital Payments, where retail merchants and customers transact through eCommerce, which has the greatest number of use cases for Open Banking. These includ