Gen Y Feels the Need for Speed

Gen Y Feels the Need for Speed

Broadband penetration increases to 70% among Gen Y

NEW YORK, Jan. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- 70% of online Gen Y's (15-22 year olds) accessed the internet with a broadband connection in Q4, an 11% increase over Q3, according to Bolt Media's Quarterly Tracking Study. Bolt surveys the online behavior of teens across many categories including Movies, TV, Beverage, Wireless, Spending, and Online Behavior. Of those teens accessing the internet through a broadband connection, 50% use a cable modem, 44% use DSL, and 6% access the internet thru a T1/T3 line.

The growing dominance of broadband is a driving force behind the increasing amount of time teens are spending online. For today's young people, half of whom spend more than 15 hours online each week, faster connections and load times dramatically enhance the user experience. "Kids who are online aren't just surfing the web. They're blogging, uploading photos and video, and downloading and sharing music," remarks Kevin Wicks, Bolt's Director of Entertainment Content. "Faster connections mean a higher volume and broader range of activity on the web."

This change in activity can be seen on Bolt and across the web. Bolt photos have seen a 27% increase in uploads per user between Q3 and Q4. Gaming sites, which require extended periods of interaction, report the second highest volume of activity among all genres, according to the Bolt Quarterly Tracking Study. While blogging ranks 6th among most frequented genres, blogging sites saw the most significant increase between Q3 and Q4 this year, with a 39% jump, bringing blogging penetration to 25% among teens.

Faster connections are also driving multi-tasking by the demo. 66% of teens report being online while watching television at least some of the time, while a remarkable 16% reporting they are online while watching TV almost all the time. Not surprisingly, with online usage on the rise, 55% of teens report that they are watching less TV than they were this time last year.

As time spent online increases and broadband continues to penetrate the market, teens and young adults have growing opportunities to make their media experiences more participatory. Through blogging, photos, online gaming, online video and other tools, Gen Y is accepting the challenge of creating their own programming.

About Bolt Research

Bolt Lab(TM) has built an opt-in research panel of over 1 million active members who are eager to participate in surveys. Our ongoing and trusted relationship with our members result in high-quality responses that are open and honest.

Every quarter, Bolt survey panelists (15-22 years old) respond to questions about Entertainment, Food, Electronics, Gaming, Internet, Spending, Wireless and general trends to give insight into the teen demographic.

A sampling error of +/- 4% (95% confidence level) is assumed for statistics based on the total sample of respondents. When differences are noted between groups these are based on statistically significant differences (p < .05).

About Bolt

Bolt is a media company that brings together 4.5 million high school and college kids each month at http://bolt.com/ . The company fuses journalism with consumer-generated content to catalyze conversations about things young people want and need to talk about -- music, movies, gaming, dating, activism and technology. At Bolt, our business is helping young people find each other and enabling brands to connect with our members. Founded in 1996, Bolt is headquartered in New York City.


Source: Bolt, Inc.

CONTACT: Jamie Weissbrot of Bolt Media, +1-646-230-4726,
jweissbrot@boltstaff.com

Web site: http://www.bolt.com/


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