Spam Study.

Americans waste an average of nearly three minutes each day
deleting spam--a loss of productivity calculated at more than $21
billion annually. That said, you might think that fewer and fewer
people would actually purchase products peddled by spammers. But
you'd be wrong.

According to a recent study by custom market-researcher
Rockbridge Associates, 4% of online adults purchased a product
or service advertised via spam. Based on the number of American
adults who are online, that's a marketplace five million strong,
which is more than enough to encourage spammers to continue
peddling their junk.

The $21 billion figure was calculated using the average time
users spend deleting spam and weekly wage statistics. It does not
take into account the time and money consumers spend downloading
and maintaining spam filters.

The data is from Rockbridge Associates' 2004 National Technology
Readiness Survey, now in its fifth year, which tracks behaviors
related to the Internet and helps identify emerging trends in
e-commerce.

The study does identify some markets that are ripe for the
picking. While e-commerce continues to grow--the percentage
of people buying items cheaper than $10 doubled from 2000 to
2004--mobile commerce hasn't truly taken hold. Only 2% of adults
who make online purchases away from home do so using a mobile
device such as a cell phone or PDA.

This remains the case, despite years of hype from content
providers and carriers alike. Part of the problem is the slow
process of getting an e-commerce application deployed on a
wireless carrier's service. Negotiations and roll-out can
take months or longer. And mobile commerce isn't the same as
traditional online buying. You're not going to buy a sweater or
a computer on a screen that's only a few inches in size.

The Virgin Group of companies has addressed this by selling its
own content--travel, shopping and music--on a carrier network
owned by the parent company. Carriers such as Verizon (nyse: VZ -
news - people ), Sprint (nyse: PCS - news - people ) and others
would do well to accelerate the rollout of ancillary applications
on their networks, as this would drive incremental revenue.

Further, the study notes the surge in online sales from consumer
to consumer, facilitated by auction sites like eBay (nasdaq: EBAY
- news - people ) or classified sites like Craig's List. In 2004,
nearly one-third of all online consumers brought a product from
another consumer.

There also exists an opportunity for established portals like
Yahoo! (nasdaq: YHOO - news - people ) to follow this route and
act as an intermediary between consumers. Similarly, smaller
local sites or direct marketers could facilitate transactions
between individuals.

While Rockbridge notes that e-health Websites were "one of the
first areas where the Internet made an impact on people's lives,"
only 6% purchased prescription drugs from U.S. retailers in
2004. Nearly 70% of online adults researched health information,
virtually the same, statistically, as in 2000.




http://www.forbes.com/technology/ebusiness/2005/02/15/cx_ld_ 0215spam.html


AC