‘Silver Surfers’ Lead Online Growth

The number of people in the UK who use the Internet has grown by five percent over the last year – an increase of 1.9 million – with more than half of new users (53 percent) coming in the over-50s age bracket.

The size of the the UK’s online audience grew from 36.9 million people in May 2009 to 38.8 million people in May 2010, according to UKOM, a subsidiary of market research company Nielsen. The majority of online newcomers (722,000) were men over 50, and 15 percent (284,000) were women over 50.

“The Internet is getting older in more ways than one,” said Alex Burmaster, speaking on behalf of UKOM. “Not only is the medium itself maturing but the audience is shifting towards older age groups. The fact that one in four Britons who use the Internet today are 50 to 64 years old proves it is no longer the sole preserve of the young and technical literati.”

Health and travel top interests

The type of website that so-called “silver surfers” enjoy include a mix of health, video, community, travel, fashion, genealogy, cooking and greeting card sites. Health website RealAge was found to have the highest concentration of people in this age group amongst its visitors, followed by video site Flixxy and community site Saga.

“This age group have a wide appetite when it comes to the types of sites they are using to supplement the interests and needs they have in the daily lives,” said Burmaster. “Consequently, a number of brands across a range of industries, particularly travel, are showing the rest what a valuable medium online is when it comes to reaching a desired audience who haven’t grown up with the Internet.”

Other large growth groups included women aged between 21 and 34, who accounted for 14 percent of new British Internet users, and girls aged between 12 and 20, who accounted for 12 percent.

Digital inclusion

Last week, Lastminute.com founder Martha Lane Fox was asked by the coalition government to continue in her role as the UK’s ‘digital champion’, in order to help the country save costs by taking services online. Lane Fox has been one of the key drivers in bridging the digital divide between rich and poor, old and young.

“I hope that, where relevant, I can champion the use of digital technologies to improve government processes, improve services for us all and, crucially, to try and end the two-tier society that we live in, where so many are left out of all the exciting ideas and transparency that the new coalition want to realise,” she said.

Last January, the previous Labour government announced its Get Digital scheme, intended to provide residents of sheltered housing schemes with Internet access – in particular those over the age of 65.

“The Get Digital project will give older people in sheltered housing the skills to fully participate in modern technology and it’s exactly the right approach to make sure one of the most digitally excluded groups are not left behind,” Lane Fox said at the time.

The first 29 successful Get Digital Schemes are currently planning their programmes, and 25 are getting under way with the first stages.