Who is reading ebooks? The answer might surprise you
I’ve always guessed that the main demographic for those who read ebooks would be the younger crowd. You know, those who are tech-savvy, have a lot of disposable income and like to have the latest and greatest of all the gadgets out there.
Well, I’m wrong. It appears that ebook readers are a little older, at least according to one article.
Risa Becker, vice president of research operations for GfK MRI, reports on a survey released in May: “We’re not finding the more-mature trend, and only a very slight tendency for men to own e-readers more than women.” Yet for certain readers, such as the Kindle, early users are more frequently female. Smythe said, “We’re seeing a greater percentage of women than men; a lot of women are taking to this.”
Becker said, “Women were 11 percent more likely than men to say they read an e-book, and men were 20 percent more likely to have read a magazine and 19 percent more likely to have read a newspaper.”
E-book users, Becker said, tend to earn more than $100,000 a year, be college-educated, and be very Web and social-media savvy: “These people do everything on the Web. They spend more than 20 hours a week on it.”
The article also says that up to 66% (depending on which study you look at) of ebook readers are over the age of 40. My first guess as to way ebook readers are a little older is because the younger crowd (those in their 20s and early 30s) simply don’t read all that much. But I could be missing the mark on this one as well.
Are you surprised by the above numbers? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.
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