Business information provider eMarketer has released a new report titled 'Social Network Demographics and Usage.' eMarketer estimates that 57.5 percent of Internet users will use a social network at least once a month in 2010. Usage of social networking sites is seen to have risen sharply in 2009 due to the ever-increasing popularity of social-networking site Facebook.
According to Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, social networks, reaching more than 50 percent of the total US Internet audience, have become an essential part of the Internet experience. By 2014, nearly two-thirds of all Internet users, or 164.9 million people, will be regular users of social networks, says the report.
Last year, the social network audience widened sharply beyond the base of teens and young adults who initially popularised the activity. This year, 59.2 percent of adult Internet users are expected to visit social networks monthly, up from 52.4 percent in 2009.
By 2014, these changes will become more pronounced. More than one-half (56.8%) of 55-to-64-year-old Internet users will visit social networks regularly that year, up from 34.3 percent in 2009. Even seniors 65 and up, only 14.1 percent of whom used social networks in 2009, will get in on the act, reaching 37.9 percent penetration in 2014.
The full report also answers key questions such as how many people use social networks; whether Facebook, the Internet juggernaut, will grow even larger; what are the primary activities of people on social networks; and how consumers use mobile devices and location-aware services to enhance their social networking experience.
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