Hitwise Intelligence - Sandra Hanchard - Asia Pacific

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Gen Ys - Online Habits and Who's Influencing Them

June 18, 2008

Recently I spoke on a panel at FST Media's Technology & Innovation conference, where there was a focus on disruptive technologies in the banking and financial services sector. One of the questions I found intriguing was, "What would a Gen Y CIO look like in 2020?"

Let's have a look at what Gen Ys are doing online now to give us clues as to what they'll be doing in the next decade, if it's indeed possible to speculate that far ahead. Using Hitwise Demographics data, the below table highlights industries that are attracting a high percentage of their traffic from 18-24 year olds. (Note that a demographic search by traffic percentage reveals niche advertising opportunities).

My immediate impression is that we have Gen Ys engaged with online industries that affect diverse areas of their lives. This ranges from the social (close to 1 in 4 visits to Weddings online are from Gen Ys), to Education (23.9%) and Employment (19.5%). They're highly engaged with the Internet as a communication and networking channel, demonstrated by their usage of web-based Email (18.9%) and Social Networking (17.8%). Mobile Phones and Telecommunications feature amongst the top 20 industries, signifying that 24/7 connectivity is a natural part of their lifestyle. They're also big consumers of online entertainment, accounting for 17.6% of visits to the Multimedia industry.

This overview doesn't necessarily answer the question of what a Gen Y CIO would look like however. During the panel I speculated that a Gen Y would be leveraging social technologies for product development. Difficult to prove, so I thought I'd at least have a look at what Gen Ys are reading, in particular the tech publications that are influencing them.

Here's the top 20 News & Media – IT Media websites attracting the highest volume of visits by 18-24 year olds in Australia. The below table ranks websites by volume to help find maximum traffic opportunities for engaging with Gen Ys. Percentage of traffic for each site is listed next to it to indicate the best opportunities for niche traffic. For example, Digg is attracting the highest volume of traffic from Gen Ys, while sites such as Ars Technica, Overclockers Australia, Wired News, Mac Rumors and PC Magazine have a high percentage of their traffic from 18-24 year olds.