The Internet's New Kids On The Block

By Emily Mitchell With Reporting By Michael McBride/Detroit

Only a few years ago, when Sunil Gupta, director of the University of Michigan's Hermes project, a study of commercial uses of the World Wide Web, talked to companies about marketing to seniors on the Internet, they were interested but noncommittal. They preferred to wait, they said, for "the right moment." Now, says Gupta, "it's come."

A study by Media Metrix found that last year, while 18- to 24-year-olds spent an average of 1,377 minutes a month using their home PCs, the 55-plus generation was logged on 2,299 minutes. Now businesses are rushing to tap what appears to be a market with unlimited potential. Microsoft is spurring the boom by cosponsoring, with the American Association of Retired Persons, a series of 500 free seminars around the country to introduce some 50,000 people over age 50 to the brave new world of computers and the Internet. Once online, these "newbies" are expected to start to spend real--not virtual--money.

"Seniors seem comfortable with purchasing online," says Joe Barone, whose Philadelphia firm VirTu Inc. built Independence Blue Cross a website www.site65.com with information about Medicare-insurance products and services. In the coming months, advertising and shopping will increase on the Net, notes Regina Joseph, senior analyst at New York City's Jupiter Communications. Total online shopping revenues for 1998 are projected at $5.8 billion, with advertising revenues expected to rise to $1.9 billion. In March, new-media phenom Yahoo launched Yahoo Seniors' Guide www.seniors.yahoo.com) an Internet resource with advertisers and a gateway to 13 areas of popular interest, including finance, health and travel--sites 50-plus users visit most frequently. Later this year American Airlines plans to provide travel packages specifically designed for seniors on its website. Net users clicking onto SeniorCom www.senior.com can find a range of products from Hold-Up Suspenders to hearing-aid batteries. "By the end of '98," predicts marketing professor Mohan Sawhney of Northwestern University, "you'll begin to see far more targeted commerce." Sites that are community centered, he says, will eventually attract clients "that will be the Procter & Gambles of the world." In some cases that is already happening. Last summer Mary Furlong, the founder of the nonprofit Senior Net educational centers, created the definitely-for-profit Third Age and thinks of it as "my grandmother's front porch," a place where people gather to hear news and swap information. With a database of more than 5,000 pages of free and discounted products and services and sponsors like Hallmark and Toys "R" Us, it's more like the mall of the future.

--By Emily Mitchell. With reporting by Michael McBride/Detroit