Young consumers spend mega bucks on web

Young people use the internet as a source of entertainment and to communicate with their friends rather than as an aid to education, according to analysts at Forrester Research.

In the US alone, 15 million people aged between 16 and 22 years are online and have a combined disposal income of $46bn. And 40 per cent of those buy $1.5bn worth of goods over the web each year.

Some 73 per cent of the 15 million kids online say they go on the web to be entertained, while only 10 per cent use the internet to help them with their schoolwork.

Young consumers are very loyal to their brands and don't like to try new names, according to Forrester. Coca-Cola topped two polls as the most desired brand and the product kids are most likely to buy. Yahoo and Intel came second as third in the most desired category, while Pizza Hut and McDonald's took the runner up positions in the most likely to buy poll.

However, the higher the ratings brands received, the less likely kids are to visit their websites. For example, young consumers said they never visited Coca-Cola's site despite the soft drink being their favourite brand.

Conversely the brands that achieved the lower ratings in the two polls were the sites most young people visited. For example, Apple Computer was number 51 in the survey of favourite brands but was the seventh most visited site by young people.

According to Forrester, the results led Coca-Cola to redesign its website from one featuring gimmicks aimed at young visitors to being an information site for investors and potential employees.

The majority of young people online listen to music on the web and 60 per cent have downloaded MP3 music files, while 44 per cent said they chat online every week. Of the 68 per cent of kids that have broadband access, mainly from computers at school, almost half watch streaming video or play multiplayer games online.

But traditional media will retain their allure, according to Forrester analyst James McQuivey. "The web actually stimulates offline use," he said, adding that nearly nine in 10 young consumers prefer listening to music on CD players, and more than half think consoles are the best systems on which to play games.