Commerce on the Internet's World Wide Web is growing and increasingly attracting a "mainstream" clientele, a survey released this week by Nielsen Media Research and CommerceNet indicated.
The survey, the second sponsored by the organizations, also found up to a 50% increase over seven months in the number of North American adults with Internet access - 22% to 24% of the population in March and April when the latest survey was done.
More than half the Internet users were new since August-September 1995, and they fit less into the "early adopter" mold. They are half as likely as veteran Internet users to be computer professionals.
"The user profile is normalizing and becoming closer to the total population," said Asim Abdullah, executive director of CommerceNet, a 150- member consortium exploring Internet business opportunities. "The Internet marketplace is about to cross the chasm from early adopters to mass deployment."
Viewing Internet usage as "increasingly mainstream," Nielsen Media vice president David Harkness said, "we should expect to see further potential for electronic commerce."
Of the Web users, 16% in March-April were buying products on-line, up from 11% in the 1995 survey. The proportion selling products on the Web grew to 30%, from 24%.
Early Internet adopters tended to be male, higher-income, and highly computer literate. Newer users are closer to demographic averages.
Longtime users buy and sell on the Internet more than newcomers. But they also use the Internet more for other business purposes, such as getting product information, collaborating, and publishing.
Among all Internet users, "Web commerce" was the only business application with a greater response in March than the preceding August. Declining categories included getting product information, collaborating, and publishing.
