According to the latest "Online Paid Content U.S. Market Spending Report," from the Online Publishers Association (OPA), published by comScore Media Metrix, the average consumer spent more than $100 last year on online content, creating a $2 billion market in 2005.
"All signs point to very strong and steady growth for paid online content," said Pam Horan of the OPA. "In each of the last five years, we've seen record revenues and record numbers of consumers paying for content. With only 12% of the total Web population purchasing online content, an enormous opportunity for growth continues to exist."
Spending on entertainment and lifestyle content grew to $574 million, up from $413 in 2004, and surpassing spending in all other categories, including dating, which was the former leading category. Spending for online personals and dating did reach $503 million, up from $469.5 million in 2004.
The top three categories — entertainment/lifestyles, personals/dating and business content/investment — accounted for slightly over two-thirds (68%) of all online content spending.
The 2005 growth rate for the entertainment/lifestyles category, 38.8%, was the highest year-on-year percentage increase for all categories but most also posted gains.
On the other hand, sports content experienced a surprising 2.7% decline in 2005 after a strong increase of 38% in 2004. Community directory content revenues also fell (by 7.3%). General news content experienced the largest fall in revenue, decreasing by 10.5%.
Looking at the overall growth rate for content by category from 2001 to 2005, all but one category — credit help — grew. In fact, the greeting card category grew by over 2,000%.
Driven by single music download buys, single purchase sales hit a record high of $442.2 million in 2005, up 61% from 2004. Yet, even with the growing popularity of single purchase sales, subscriptions easily remained the dominant pricing model, accounting for roughly four-fifths of total online content spending
