Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
be reached by 2015. What this means is that cyberspace is growing at an
astonishing rate even as Internet penetration reaches the four corners of the
earth. Now when I say Internet users, I don't mean those using the Internet
only to send and receive emails or read the occasional news and make one
or two transactions. I mean those cyber-residents that actively have a paral-
lel life on the Internet as they have in the real world. This means people that
use the Internet to search for and obtain information, compare products and
services, evaluate brand offerings, purchase items, access services, conduct
financial transactions, exchange information, dialogue with fellow users,
participate in online communities, upload content to express themselves, find
long-lost family and friends, partake in online dating (and even marriage!),
exist in virtual worlds through avatars, participate in e-learning programs,
conduct surveys, test concepts and use e-health facilities. This is a long way
from the email exchanges that was the principal role of the Internet when
it first appeared on our radar. These are the members of the e-culture, who
spend an average of 21 hours online every week and make hundreds of thou-
sands of transactions on the Internet every month.
A substantial number of these online users are high net-worth individu-
als like Suzy and Jacques. These wealthy (
nouveau riche
or not) individuals
who are active online are estimated to number 9.5 million, a mere 0.6 percent
of the cyberspace population but who generate annual transactions totalling
76.5 million. Their usage of the Internet is no longer in question but you may
be surprised to know that they are also active participants in social networks
and all other forms of user-to-user communities. In fact, recent statistics have
shown that one in four affluent consumers belong to at least one online com-
munity and approximately 38 percent of them log in at least once a week to
participate in the life of the online community. In the US, it is estimated that
60 percent of wealthy clients belong to an online community and more than
38 percent of these people belong to at least three social networking web-
sites. Another surprise is that 10 percent of them publish their own blogs. This
shows that current usage of the Internet as a medium for participation and
engagement is as applicable for the wealthy as for everyone else and shatters
any notion that wealth and technical skills are somehow mutually exclusive.
Predictably, younger wealthy consumers are the most avid participants
of online user platforms but adoption rates even among those older than
55 years of age are surprisingly high, having quadrupled between 2007
and 2008. The case is no more different in the US than in Europe and Asia
because wealthy clients can currently be found on every continent and even
in the most remote of places. Location has been rendered insignificant
because you only need to be “connected” to be virtually active.
Although the Internet has been in constant evolution and online behavior
has been in constant transformation, the core purpose of the Internet, which
is to converse, remains constant even as the technology, attitudes and behav-
ior evolve. It began with email exchanges, which is a form of conversation,
