As baby boomers move from being soccer moms and PTA parents into the roseate troisième age, today's "Business Meets the Age Boom at the Electronic Frontier" conference concluded that we may need to rethink our ideas about aging and technology and install an ISDN line in the cabin on Golden Pond.
"I can't tell you how many times I would go to a conference and set up a computer and then be put next to a bathtub with metal rails," says Mary Furlong, CEO of Third Age Media, which launched a site for seniors this June. "There is this concept that seniors are frail and sedentary ... [but] they're into e-trade, travel sites, and The Wall Street Journal online. This is about the fact that the Rolling Stones are in their 50s."
Sponsored by the American Society on Aging, the conference brought together the Net's experts on communities, hoping to bridge businesses and booming online neighborhoods. Keynote speaker Arthur Armstrong, author of Net.Gain: Expanding Markets Through Virtual Communities, joined Tripod president Bo Peabody, Peter Levitin from New Jersey Online, IBM VP for global workforce diversity Ted Childs, and a host of health-care and business people looking to make a home for the 50-plus demographic online.
But while virtual communities are a seductive "market," Armstrong warned that it may take nearly 10 years before they can be profitable. Projecting that these communities will generate some US$90 million in revenues in the next five years, Armstrong added, "For major corporations, that could be a rounding error."
His pessimism, however, was counteracted by new findings that savvy seniors are online in unprecedented scale, and may lead the charge toward profit-engine communities.
The survey, conducted by Excite and Third Age Media, paints a portrait of unexpectedly savvy older surfers. While the survey indicates that the 50-plus demographic comprises only 14 percent of the total audience, 83 percent of online seniors log in daily, just below the 85 percent quotidian connectivity of the 24-49 group. The seniors who are online are not only well-educated (more than 50 percent have graduate degrees), but experimental. According to the survey, 67 percent of 50-plus Web surfers get online to "try something new," compared to 59 percent for the 24-49 slice.
"You can't teach an old dog new tricks? That's a joke," says Third Age spokeswoman Karen Orton Katz.
The market of surfing seniors is a gold vein just waiting to be tapped, says Katz. "If you want to reach rich older adults, the Net is the place." According to survey, the 50-plus group is the wealthiest group online, earning $60,400 on average, compared to the $53,200 pocketed by those between 24 and 49. More tellingly, one out of three Third Agers online earns more than $70,000, a stunning disparity with the average income of seniors offline, which hovers at $38,000. Because more than half the online homes are comprised of just two people, they have significant amounts of disposable income available, says Katz.
With those figures in mind, Furlong believes Third Age will become a "case study" for the premises of Web marketing bible Net.Gain, an "affirmation" of the ability of sites to build communities and profit. To that end, Third Age will institute a "buyers club" for its members early next year, giving them discounts on purchases in specific fields like technology and medicine.
From the Wired News New York Bureau at FEED magazine.
