Baby boomers spend the most time online


Details

Michelle Clancy

| 22 October 2015





Baby boomers spend the most time online outside of the office each week, not millennials, according to the 2015 State of the User Experience Report from Limelight.


The report found that time spent online in the past year has dramatically increased — with 45% of respondents spending more than 15 hours a week on their laptop, tablet or phone. And the power users are the boomers, individuals aged 51-69. More than half (51%) are online 15 hours per week, as opposed to Millennials — individuals aged 18-33 — at just 41%.

As the always-connected world continues to expand, so do expectations for the mobile Web — which now has surpassed desktop Web usage. Last year, users were asked if they would be willing to wait longer for a website to load on a mobile device, versus a laptop or desktop, and 44% said they would. This year, the results are startlingly different — only 35% said they would be willing to wait longer on a mobile device, and nearly 40% expect equally fast-loading sites, regardless of if the page is accessed from a mobile device or a laptop/desktop. Clearly, as adoption rates increase, so do expectations for the mobile Web.

Content, not e-commerce, rules the day: respondents listed 'social media sites,' 'reading news content' and 'watching video content' as their top three online activities, respectively, while 'reading news content' was the most popular in 2014. E-commerce finished in fifth place, behind researching products online. There is no question - users are consuming content more than shopping online.

Video is key for millennials: while social media remains the most popular online activity, millennials are spending nearly as much time watching online video — which is likely to increase as additional video and streaming options such as live sporting events are made more available.

Performance is still key to a great Web experience, but surprisingly, patience is an unexpected virtue: last year, the majority (52%) of participants listed a high-performing website as their most critical expectation, with just 41% willing to wait more than five seconds for a website to load. While performance was still critical in 2015, patience is on the rise for Internet consumption — this year, 52% would wait more than five seconds. Moreover, this year 33% said they would leave a website to buy a product from a competitor if the site loaded too slowly, down from 37% last year. Additionally, in 2015, 72% would be willing to give the slow-loading site a try in the future, up from 69% last year.

The report found that users want a personalised experience: last year, the report stated that the "value of Web experience personalisation remains to be seen" — as 37% indicated they did not want a website to remember them from a previous visit. This year, the results are dramatically different as just 25% don't want a highly-personalised experience.

"Ultimately, consumers want more from their online experience, particularly as the mobile Web and video continue their march toward ubiquity," said Jason Thibeault, senior director of marketing strategy at Limelight. "We have more options than ever — more content, more video, and more shopping. And while patience has increased slightly, people — whether they are millennials, gen X or baby boomers — all expect a personalised, highly-functioning Web experience. If not they will look elsewhere. With the explosion in content, branded entertainment, video and e-commerce, the stakes are higher than ever."