internet behaviors and attitudes project · 2018. 8. 17. · " 2" iia |internet behaviors...

Internet Behaviors and Attitudes Project

Commissioned by the Internet Innovation Alliance

August 30, 2017

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IIA |Internet Behaviors and Attitudes Project

TABLE OF CONTENTS I- Project Background and Methodology Overview II- Top Line Results and Key Demographic Cross-Tabs

A- Internet Activities Question: Part 1 B- Internet Activities Question: Part 2 C- Primary Email Service Question D- Internet Access Question E- ISP Expectations Question

III- Conclusion

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I-‐ PROJECT BACKGROUND AND METHODOLOGY OVERVIEW

Introduction and Project Objectives

CivicScience was enlisted by the Internet Innovation Alliance (IIA) in June of 2017 to conduct an objective, large-‐scale study of U.S. consumers and their online behaviors, means of Internet and email access, and Internet service expectations. CivicScience designed a questionnaire and sampling approach designed to achieve a high-‐confidence, representative view of the online U.S. adult population, with sufficient sample sizes to ensure statistically-‐significant cross-‐ tabulation by key demographic, geographic, and psychographic respondent profile attributes. Data contained in this report reflect consumer responses for the period of June 25 through July 10, 2017. Summary Findings

Americans rely on the Internet today for a broad number and type of activities, services, and overall information access. Of the fourteen general activity areas analyzed in this study, all but two are regularly or occasionally engaged in by 20% or more of the online U.S. population. Half are engaged in by 40% of the population or more. While there is some notable variability by demographic and geographic subgroup, namely age, race, and residential area, the incidence rate of these activities is consistent within a few percentage points across most groups. Similarly, in our analysis of means of Internet access, email services, and Internet service expectations, we see relatively consistent patterns of usage and sentiment across the full U.S. population and the subpopulations studied. As expected, older, minority, and rural respondents exhibit differences from other communities in terms of how they access the Internet and the services they use. Still, each of these groups uses an array of Internet services through high-‐ speed access either via their phones, tablets, or desktop/laptop devices. Finally, it is evident that American web users – across subgroups -‐ have growing expectations of Internet Service Providers, placing a premium on reliability and speed. About CivicScience

CivicScience is a polling and market research company, founded in 2007 and based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The company combines a proven web-‐based survey technique to achieve large, representative samples of the U.S. population, with a proprietary database technology to perform sophisticated computations and insight discovery within the company’s large respondent dataset.

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IIA |Internet Behaviors and Attitudes Project CivicScience provides syndicated and custom data, software, and related services to an array of private sector and non-‐profit customers, across numerous industries and fields of science. CivicScience is expressly non-‐partisan and otherwise unaffiliated with any organizations or political entities which would influence research design, analysis, or recommendations. About the Methodology

CivicScience administers a daily syndicated and custom ‘omnibus’ tracking survey, delivered to respondents in small increments over a large and diverse network of 1st-‐party and 3rd-‐party web and mobile applications. Individual sessions are brief, convenient, and engaging for the respondents – as compared to traditional, long-‐form telephone and online panel surveys. As a result, CivicScience overcomes declining response rates, which have plagued traditional survey methodologies in recent years, particularly among notoriously-‐hard-‐to-‐reach subpopulations like Millennials and minorities. CivicScience respondents participate voluntarily, in order to see results and/or to voice their opinion, with no financial or other extrinsic reward. This voluntary, non-‐compensated participation significantly reduces known respondent biases associated with reward-‐based panels or paid survey modes. Although respondents only answer a small number of randomized questions in a given session, CivicScience attaches subsequent responses to a unique, anonymous digital identifier to track respondents longitudinally, build respondent profiles, and enable cross-‐tabulation. All respondent attributes, including demographics, are directly reported via survey responses, with the exception of geo-‐location, which is ascertained via Internet Protocol (IP) Address look-‐up. (A more detailed explanation of CivicScience’s methodology, including links to related white papers, independent assessment, and scientific references is available by emailing [email protected]).

About This Study

To achieve the project objectives, CivicScience designed a five-‐question (*) survey delivered in one-‐question increments to a random quota-‐based sample of a minimum of 10,000 online U.S. adult respondents aged 18 and older. Quotas were established to build a respondent population matched precisely to the full U.S. population based on 2010 U.S. Census statistics for age, gender, and U.S. region. For the key demographic subpopulations (**/***) analyzed in

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this report, CivicScience performed basic and minimal reweighting to ensure precise alignment with Census norms. All questions and samples produced a margin of error of less than +/-‐ 1%.

Note 1*: Internet Activities Question The first question in this report focuses on various activities Americans perform while online. Given that potential web activities are virtually limitless, we narrowed the answer options to a diverse and encompassing list of common activities; however, they are by no means fully exhaustive. Even with this narrower selection, we were left with 14 possible choices. In our experience, questions with an unwieldy number of answer options (8 or more) yield lower response (or higher drop-‐out) rates, potentially creating latent biases in the remaining sample. To guard against this risk, we opted to break the question into two separate check-‐box questions, each with 7 possible options.

Note 2**: Cross-‐Tabulation Sample Sizes Due to the nature of the CivicScience collection methodology, not all attributes are known about every respondent in our sample at any given time. For example, some respondents may have encountered our Internet Activities question prior to having answered profile questions about their residential area. For the purposes of this study, cross-‐tabulation tables only included respondents who had answered those key demographic questions AND the project research questions, within the study timeframe. As such, cross-‐tab sample sizes for the Residential Area question is smaller than our top-‐line samples, but still statistically-‐significant in scale and representativeness.

Note 3***: Cross-‐Tabulations Analyzed CivicScience maintains extensive demographic and psychographic profiles of the respondents who have answered our survey questions over time. For the purposes of this report, we focused on subpopulations where variability in Internet usage, means of access, and expectations were notable – namely respondent Age, Race, and Residential Area. We do not discuss Gender, for instance, where we found little relevant variability; however, those data are available upon request.

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II-‐ TOPLINE RESULTS AND KEY DEMOGRAPHIC CROSS-‐TABS Question 1 (Internet Activities 1) – Topline Results

Question 1 (Internet Activities 1) – Topline Results Summary

Among this subset of activities studied, five are performed “regularly or occasionally” by at least 21% of respondents. Shopping online, using social media, and relying on mapping or navigation services rank the highest in overall usage. Writing blog posts and selling items (as opposed to buying) online remain relatively small in incidence rate; though at 4% to 8% of the online U.S. population, respectively, represent as many as 8 to 16 million Americans.

June 25 – July 10, 2017 +/- 1% n = 10,089

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Question 1 (Internet Activities 1) – Age Cross-‐Tab

Question 1 (Internet Activities 1) – Age Cross-‐Tab Summary

The age-‐related skews in these results follow an intuitive pattern, with three out of seven activities seeing decreasing frequency among increasingly older age cohorts. Social media usage, uploading photos, and blogging all peak in usage among the youngest respondents and decline steadily among older groups. For the other four options, we notice a rough ‘bell curve’ with online shopping, online selling, restaurant reviews and reservations, and online mapping services. Each of these reaches their highest incidence rates among older Millennial and GenX respondents, while less common among the youngest and oldest cohorts.

June 25 – July 10, 2017 +/- 1% n = 9,789

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Question 1 (Internet Activities 1) – Race Cross-‐Tab Results

Question 1 (Internet Activities 1) – Race Cross-‐Tab Summary

Variability by race among these activities is minimal, primarily reflecting higher overall web usage among Whites and a current, temporal downturn in web usage among Hispanics, concurrent with depressed Hispanic consumer behavior resulting from the U.S. socio-‐political landscape. The lower usage rates of mapping services among Hispanics and Blacks is closely correlated to a similar finding among city/urban dwellers evidenced in the next section, as those minority groups are more likely to live in urban areas where distance driving is less common. Social media activity is highest among Blacks, while online commerce, both buying and selling, over-‐indexes most among whites.

June 25 – July 10, 2017 +/- 1% n = 9,789

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Question 1 (Internet Activities 1) – Residential Area Cross-‐Tab Results

Question 1 (Internet Activities 1) – Residential Area Cross-‐Tab Summary

Variances in these online activities among respondents in different types of residential areas are the subtlest of our three, highlighted cross-‐tabs. Social media usage, uploading photos, online selling, mapping services, and blogging vary by only a couple percentage points among our three main groups (City, Suburbs, and Rural). Online shopping is lowest among city residents where, presumably, physical stores are more readily available. Restaurant review and reservation services are lowest in usage among rural respondents, naturally, where the volume of restaurants and restaurant traffic is likewise lowest. (Note: When analyzing Residential Area, the “Other” group constitutes 3% of all respondents and includes people who live on military bases, college campuses, and other non-‐traditional areas. Given the small numbers this group represents, we give them minimal attention in our analysis).

June 25 – July 10, 2017 +/- 1% n = 7,079

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Question 2 (Internet Activities 2) – Topline Results

Question 2 (Internet Activities 2) – Topline Results Summary

Among this subset of activities studied, three are performed “regularly or occasionally” by at least 60% of respondents, while all are prevalent among 20% or more. Reading content is safely the most common activity between both Question 1 and 2, while web searching and research rank second and third respectively. Overall, at least 1 in 5 online adults engages in one or more of these activities on a regular or occasional basis.

June 25 – July 10, +/- 1% n = 10,113

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Question 2 (Internet Activities 2) – Age Cross-Tab Results

Question 2 (Internet Activities 2) – Age Cross-‐Tab Summary

Here we see a slightly different pattern from the age figures associated with our first selection of Internet activities. A subtle bell curve is evident for reading online content and booking travel, with those activities peaking among GenX respondents. Usage rates of editing/saving documents and other digital assets, as well as online language translation services, correlate inversely with age, peaking among our youngest respondents, and bottoming out among the oldest. Not seen in our first question, however, are activities like product research and list/artifact storage that vary by no more than 5 percentage points across all age groups.

June 25 – July 10, 2017 +/- 1% n = 9,786

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Question 2 (Internet Activities 2) – Race Cross-‐Tab Results

Question 2 (Internet Activities 2) – Race Cross-‐Tab Summary

Like with our age numbers, this list of activities shows only subtle variance among the different race groups. The most evident disparity is, again, with our Hispanic respondents, where we see overall lower usage for every activity but online translation services, which is an intuitive finding. Overall, Whites exhibit the highest rate of online usage in most categories, but only surpass Blacks by single-‐digit points in all categories but product research, where the gap is 10 points. Storing of lists/artifacts shows the most parity across all groups.

June 25 – July 10, 2017 +/- 1% n = 9,786

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Question 2 (Internet Activities 2) – Residential Area

Question 2 (Internet Activities 2) – Residential Area Cross-‐Tab Summary

Here we see more subtle variances by subgroup, with suburb-‐dwellers demonstrating highest overall usage patterns for every activity but online translation services. Rural respondents are the least likely to use online travel services, translation, document/photo storage and editing, and list/artifact storage. City dwellers are the least likely of three main groups to use online search or product research services, though these activities are still popular among a clear majority of this urban subgroup.

June 25 – July 10, 2017 +/- 1% n = 7,043

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Question 3 (Primary Email Service) – Topline Results

Question 3 (Primary Email Service) – Topline Results Summary

This result is fairly self-‐explanatory. Gmail is the clear leader in share among respondents, with AOL/Yahoo coming in a distant second. Cable TV and Internet Providers run neck-‐and-‐neck with Hotmail/Outlook, with 10% of respondents citing “Other.” Four percent of online adults only have an email account provided by their place of employment.

June 25 – July 10, 2 +/- 1% n = 10,053

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Question 3 (Primary Email Service) – Age Cross-‐Tab Results

Question 3 (Primary Email Service) – Age Cross-‐Tab Summary

Most evident in these results is the extent to which Gmail is the dominant provider among a majority of respondents under age 35, falling consistently among older groups. 65 and older Americans are the only group of all we studied, where Gmail is not the leading service. Cable/ISP-‐derived email services are most prominent among this oldest subgroup, declining steadily among increasingly younger respondents. Yahoo/AOL follow our slight bell curve, peaking among older GenXers. Hotmail/Outlook and “Other” show no clear pattern but also fall within a narrow percentage band across all groups.

June 25 – July 10, 2017 +/- 1% n = 9,144

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Question 3 (Primary Email Service) – Race Cross-‐Tab Results

Question 3 (Primary Email Service) – Race Cross-‐Tab Summary

Gmail remains the clear leader among all race groups, peaking among Hispanics and Blacks. Yahoo/AOL see their highest penetration among Blacks; Hotmail/Outlook among Hispanics; and Cable/ISP among Whites. The rate of work-‐account-‐only is consistently small across all groups.

June 25 – July 10, 2017 +/- 1% n = 9,114

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Question 3 (Primary Email Service) – Residential Area Cross-‐Tab Results

Question 3 (Primary Email Service) – Residential Area Cross-‐Tab Summary

These numbers follow expected patterns based on our earlier race and age proxies. Gmail peaks in popularity among city residents – similar to the ratio we saw among Blacks and Hispanics. Cable/ISP services peak in suburban and rural areas, while Yahoo/AOL and Hotmail/Outlook show only minimal variance across the three main groups.

June 25 – July 10, 2017 +/- 1% n = 6,480

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June 25 – July 10, 2017 +/- 1% n = 10,121


Question 4 (Internet Access) – Topline Results

Question 4 (Internet Access) – Topline Results Summary

We crafted this question and answer options this way, anticipating that a large number of respondents –particularly older ones – may not know exactly how they access the web. We believe that this accounts for the majority of respondents who answered “Other.” Overall, we see that broadband, DSL, and satellite comprise 55% of all respondents. 36% of respondents access the web primarily by way of their smartphone, with many of those likely relying on wireless access via broadband, DSL, or satellite. Dial-‐up remains alive with just 3% of online Americans.

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June 25 – July 10, 2017 +/- 1% n = 9,711


Question 4 (Internet Access) – Age Cross-‐Tab Results

Question 4 (Internet Access) – Age Cross-‐Tab Summary

These results highlight two very clear trends: Smartphone reliance peaks among the youngest respondents, decreasing steadily among increasingly older age cohorts. In fact, smartphone reliance among 18 to 24-‐year-‐olds is over five times higher than that of respondents aged 65 and older. Conversely, broadband reliance is a virtual mirror image. DSL is most prevalent among older GenX and Baby Boomer respondents, while dial-‐up and satellite are distributed fairly evenly across all groups.

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Question 4 (Internet Access) – Race Cross-‐Tab Results

Question 4 (Internet Access) – Race Cross-‐Tab Summary

Hispanic and Black respondents, like the younger age cohorts in the earlier chart, rely on smartphones for web access at a significantly higher rate than other groups. The disparity between smartphone and broadband access among Hispanics is particularly pronounced. Dial-‐ up also ranks highest among Hispanics but still at only 8% of the population.

June 25 – July 10, 2017 +/- 1% n = 9,706

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Question 4 (Internet Access) – Residential Area Cross-‐Tab Results

Question 4 (Internet Access) – Residential Area Cross-‐Tab Summary

City dwellers and “Others” report higher usage of smartphones to access the Internet than other means, while broadband is dominant among suburban and rural dwellers. As expected, satellite and DSL are more common means of accessing the web among rural respondents.

June 25 – July 10, 2017 +/- 1% n = 6,873

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Question 5 (ISP Expectations) – Topline Results

Question 5 (ISP Expectations) – Topline Results Summary

A large majority of consumers expect both speed and reliability from their Internet service provider (ISP), while over half expect their ISP to provide security and protection from intrusion attacks. One-‐third of consumers believe ISPs should provide email and web hosting services.

June 25 – July 10, 2017 +/- 1% n = 10,059

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Question 5 (ISP Expectations) – Age Cross-‐Tab Results

Question 5 (ISP Expectations) – Age Cross-‐Tab Summary

These numbers remain very consistent across age cohorts. Older age groups are more likely than the others to expect their ISP to provide email and web hosting services, as well as security. The youngest age group is the most likely to expect “Other” services from their ISP.

June 25 – July 10, 2017 +/- 1% n = 9,664

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Question 5 (ISP Expectations) – Race Cross-‐Tab Results

Question 5 (ISP Expectations) – Race Cross-‐Tab Summary

Again, these numbers are relatively consistent across groups. White respondents have the highest overall expectations of their ISP. Hispanics demonstrate the lowest expectations when it comes to security and other services like email and web hosting.

June 25 – July 10, 2017 +/- 1% n = 9,664

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Question 5 (ISP Expectations) – Residential Area Cross-‐Tab Results

Question 5 (ISP Expectations) – Residential Area Cross-‐Tab Summary

Here we see that suburban respondents show the highest overall expectations for their ISP, with a very slight decline among rural and urban respondents. Urban respondents are the least likely to expect their ISP to provide email and web hosting services. The numbers are remarkably similar among all groups, otherwise.

June 25 – July 10, 2017 +/- 1% n = 6,929

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IIA |Internet Behaviors and Attitudes Project III-‐CONCLUSION The data collected for this project represent a straight-‐forward and unsurprising view of Americans’ online habits and attitudes. As one would expect, the Internet is broad in its reach and applications, while consumers have heightened their expectations of Internet services and service providers. Although behaviors and attitudes vary among consumers of different age, race, and residential area cohorts, they follow predictable patterns and, overall, demonstrate more commonalities than departures.

CONTACT: John Dick, CEO, CivicScience [email protected] (P) 412-‐559-‐9032 6101 Penn Ave Pittsburgh, PA 15206

internet behaviors and attitudes project · 2018. 8. 17. · " 2" iia |internet behaviors...

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