Nearly Half American Internet Users are Content Creators

44% of US Internet users have created content for the online world through building or posting to websites, creating blogs and sharing files, though blogging accounts for no more than 7%.

In a national phone survey between March 12 and May 20, 2003, the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that more than 53M American adults have used the Internet to publish their thoughts, respond to others, post pictures, share files and otherwise contribute to the explosion of content available online. Some 44% of adult Internet users have done at least one of the following:
* 21% of Internet users say they have posted photographs to websites.
* 17% have posted written material on websites.
* 13% maintain their own websites.
* 10% have posted comments to an online newsgroup. A small fraction of them have posted files to a newsgroup such as video, audio, or photo files.
* 8% have contributed material to websites run by their businesses.
* 7% have contributed material to websites run by organisations to which they belong such as church or professional groups.
* 7% have webcams running on their computers that allow other Internet users to see live pictures of them and their surroundings.
* 6% have posted artwork on websites.
* 5% have contributed audio files to websites.
* 4% have contributed material to websites created for their families.
* 3% have contributed video files to websites.
* 2% maintain blogs, according to respondents to this phone survey. In other phone surveys prior to this one, and one more recently fielded in early 2004, Pew found that between 2% and 7% of adult Internet users have created diaries or blogs. (In this survey, 11% of Internet users have read the blogs or diaries of other Internet users. About a third of these blog visitors have posted material to the blog.)

Most of those who do contribute material are not constantly updating or freshening content. Rather, they occasionally add to the material they have posted, created, or shared. For instance, more than two thirds of those who have their own websites add new content only every few weeks or less often than that. There is a similar story related to the small proportion of Americans who have blogs.

The most eager and productive content creators break into three distinct groups:

* Power creators are the Internet users who are most enthusiastic about content-creating activities. They are young – their average age is 25 – and they are more likely than other kinds of creators do things like use instant messaging, play games, and download music. And they are the most likely group to be blogging.

* Older creators have an average age of 58 and are experienced Internet users. They are highly educated, like sharing pictures, and are the most likely of the creator groups to have built their own websites. They are also the most likely to have used the Internet for genealogical research.

* Content omnivores are among the heaviest overall users of the Internet. Most are employed. Most log on frequently and spend considerable time online doing a variety of activities. They are likely to have broadband connections at home. The average age of this group is 40.

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