Study finds Web users distrust online content, won’t pay for microblogging

July 28, 2010

 “Millions of Americans use Twitter — just don’t ask any of them to pay for it.” That’s the message from researchers at USC Annenberg’s Center for the Digital Future after conducting their ninth-annual “Digital Future Study.”

The researchers found that 49 percent of U.S. Web users indicated using microblogging services like Twitter before, but a surprising 0 percent said they would stop using the medium if charged.

“Such an extreme finding…underscores the difficulty of getting Internet users to pay for anything that they already receive for free,” said Jeffrey Cole, director, Center for the Digital Future at USC Annenberg. “Online providers face major challenges to get customers to pay for services they now receive [at no cost].”

The study also delved into gauging online issues such as trust and news readership.

Just 56 percent of respondents ranked newspapers as “important” or “very important” sources of information (down 4 percent since 2008), yet 78 percent said that they go to Internet sources for the same content.

Meanwhile, 68 percent of participants indicated that half or less of online information is reliable, “a new low level” for the research project. Twenty-two percent of users indicated that only half or less of information on websites they regularly visit is reliable.

“This survey is identifying growing concern about reliability of the technology and user trust in it,” Cole said. “Have we reached the point at which users are going into ‘online overload?’" — Philip Volmar
 

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