Many Internet users don’t want to pay for online content – report

Internet users are spending more time online than they sleep but a significant section does not pay and is not prepared to pay for online content, a survey by the World Economic Forum (WEF) has found.

“Shaping the Future Implications of Digital Media for Society” which surveyed over 5,000 digital media users from Brazil, China, Germany, South Africa and the United States, found that 41 per cent do not pay for premium entertainment, exclusive, specialized, news or editorial content.

The phenomenon is attributed to the oversupply of more free content than can be consumed in the digital media.

The WEF says the trend highlights “the continuing importance of advertising to finance digital media that is mainly free to the user.”

“Several studies on consumer readiness to pay for Facebook (in exchange for privacy or no advertising) for example, found little appetite for it,” it says.

Making reference to the Digital News Report 2015 by Reuters Institute, the report says that “news has also proved difficult to monetize in the digital space” and few of those not already paying would be prepared to pay anything for online news.

Compounding the problem of financing digital content is the trend of users blocking advertising, which the report describes as “a major challenge.”

However the report says that users of digital media are willing to pay for products that fulfil their needs and offer value that they perceive to be good such as unique and high-quality media content, business information to traders, and information relating to professions and hobbies.

By Emmanuel Odonkor

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