A new study has revealed that Internet users would not like to pay for online services like Twitter.
The study of the Internet on Americans by the Center for the Digital Future found that 49 per cent of Internet users said they have used free micro-blogs such as Twitter.
But
when asked if they would be willing to pay for Twitter, zero per cent said yes.
"Such an extreme finding that produced a zero response underscores the difficulty of getting Internet users to pay for anything that they already receive for free," said Jeffrey I. Cole, director of the Center for the Digital Future at USC Annenberg’s School for Communication & Journalism.
The current study found that half of Internet users never click on Web advertising, and 70 per cent said that Internet advertising is "annoying."
Yet 55 per cent of users said they would rather see Web advertising than pay for content.
“Consumers really want free content without advertising, but ultimately they understand that content has to be paid for -- one way or another," Cole said.
However, there are other hitches - large percentages of users who express deep distrust in online information, surprising gaps in Internet use within some age groups, low percentages of users who said that the Internet gives them more political power, and continuing declines of users who say that online technology makes the world a better place.
"Conventional wisdom could have suggested that with such a high level of Internet penetration and several years of use, views and behavior about online technology might be stable – or stagnant.
"Yet beginning with our first Digital Future Study in 2000, and in every year since, we have found extraordinary levels of shifting views, new and evolving attitudes about technology, adoption of new media, and casting off of old methods as part of involvement – or not being involved -- in the online experience," said Cole.