July 12, 2006 3:00 PM PDT
Podcasts popular with Trekkies, Mac users
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Macworld is the No. 1 most-visited content site by people who download audio podcasts, according to media research group Nielsen/NetRatings, while StarTrek.com is the most visited content site among video podcast downloaders.
The report (click for PDF) is based on an ongoing survey conducted from 2005 to the present, according to a spokeswoman for the company. The survey asks actively online U.S. adults to answer questions about their behavior "within the last 30 days."
Among those surveyed, 51.6 percent said they paid bills online, and 24.6 percent participated in online job hunting. E-mailing is still the most popular online activity at 92.7 percent, with news reading (71.5 percent) and weather checking (63.9 percent) in second and third place, respectively. Compared with those statistics, downloading podcasts is still a relatively unpopular activity.
Overall, 6.6 percent of adults said they had downloaded audio podcasts within the last 30 days, and 4 percent had downloaded video podcasts. Since the question has only been recently added to the survey, according to the Nielsen/NetRatings spokeswoman, there is no data available for 2004 to allow for a growth comparison. (Blogging came in even lower at 4.8 percent.)
"We can expect to see (podcast downloading) become increasingly popular as portable content media players proliferate," said Michael Lanz, a Nielsen/NetRatings analyst.
Internet users in the 18-to-24 age group are twice as likely to download audio podcasts than the average online adult. When it comes to video podcasts, however, the 25-to-34 age group downloads the most, and follow a close second for audio downloads, the report said.
The majority of people who download audio or video podcasts use Safari, hinting that Apple users may download the most podcasts. Firefox came in second overall. Internet Explorer came in a distant third among audio podcast downloaders, and AOL was third among video podcast downloaders.
Audio downloaders also seem to be interested in sneakers. According to the report, the No. 1 e-commerce site among audio downloaders was Niketown.com, not a music-downloading site as one might expect. (The site is Nike's official online store, not a Web site affiliated with the Nike+iPod playlists.) In fact, iTunes came in third. Apple's Web site was second.
The statistic is particularly interesting given the recent Nike+iPod sneaker launch. But is the coincidence a cause or an effect?
See more CNET content tagged:
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Apple Computer
CNET is just dying to put Apple news no matter how lame the
story is. Gee, what a very informative article.
Next I guess we'll here something about the Argo product.. X-
toy that Microsoft is putting out. Its great to see Microsoft in
action again.. X-Player or Argo is definitely going to help the
world move forward.. and I can't wait to add my money to the
billions of dollars Microsoft has in the bank.
Wait to go Microsoft!!! Yooohooo
thinkers, not wackos.
It is not surprising that a big fraction of podcast downloaders use
Macs, as users of other operating systems are often times too busy
rebooting to learn anything new ; )
Have a nice day!
http://www.techknowcafe.com/content/view/551/43/
Can't believe it took them this long to recognize podcasting popularity. Their next revelation article is going to be about how HTML is used to build websites.
It would be amazing, if true, that the majority of podcast
downloaders use Safari, but this statement is based on very
significant errors in interpretation of the statistics.
If you read the pdf of the actual report, what you see is that the
typical person who downloads podcasts is three times more
likely to use Safari than is the average web user. In the U.S.,
Safari has a bit over 3% share of average web browsing, so
roughly 10% of people downloading podcasts use Safari.
In contrast, 85% of web use is done with Internet Explorer, but
the proportion of IE use among people who download podcasts
is lower than average. Specifically, it about .88 of the overall
rate, according to the survey, so somewhere around 75% of
people who download podcasts use IE.
So the article is quite wrong.
Similarly, the article is completely wrong to report that Macworld
is the most popular website among people who download
podcasts. The more accurate interpretation is that people in the
group who download podcasts were 6 times more likely to visit
Macworld than people overall.
So, yes, Apple's efforts at bringing podcasts to wider use does
mean that Mac users are overrepresented among podcast
listeners, but the base population of Mac users is so small that
they are still in a minority even when overrepresented.
Finally, with respect to the Nike conclusion, it is completely
wrong to say that Niketown.com is the #1 commerce site for
podcast listeners. It is much more likely Amazon.com or some
other major retailer. How many shoes can one buy? The correct
conclusion is that the ratio of the rate of use of Niketown.com
among podcast listeners to the rate of use of that site by
average web users is higher than the respective ratios of
podcast/non-podcast listeners for the other web commerce
sites.
message upon submitting the first time.
I was very surprised and fascinated when I first read this article.
It would be amazing, if true, that the majority of podcast
downloaders use Safari, but this statement is based on very
significant errors in interpretation of the statistics.
If you read the pdf of the actual report, what you see is that the
typical person who downloads podcasts is three times more
likely to use Safari than is the average web user. In the U.S.,
Safari has a bit over 3% share of average web browsing, so
roughly 10% of people downloading podcasts use Safari.
In contrast, 85% of web use is done with Internet Explorer, but
the proportion of IE use among people who download podcasts
is lower than average. Specifically, it about .88 of the overall
rate, according to the survey, so somewhere around 75% of
people who download podcasts use IE.
So the article is quite wrong.
Similarly, the article is completely wrong to report that Macworld
is the most popular website among people who download
podcasts. The more accurate interpretation is that people in the
group who download podcasts were 6 times more likely to visit
Macworld than people overall.
So, yes, Apple's efforts at bringing podcasts to wider use does
mean that Mac users are overrepresented among podcast
listeners, but the base population of Mac users is so small that
they are still in a minority even when overrepresented.
Finally, with respect to the Nike conclusion, it is completely
wrong to say that Niketown.com is the #1 commerce site for
podcast listeners. It is much more likely Amazon.com or some
other major retailer. How many shoes can one buy? The correct
conclusion is that the ratio of the rate of use of Niketown.com
among podcast listeners to the rate of use of that site by
average web users is higher than the respective ratios of
podcast/non-podcast listeners for the other web commerce
sites.