Pew Internet, a research company that studies the impact the internet has on work and life, reports that visits to online classified websites rose by over 80% this year. They also found that 17% of internet users, or 25 million people, have sold things online. Those most likely to sell online are casual users with broadband connections. Of those, 26% are 29 to 40 years old, and 20% of the total are men. 21% of college students sell online.
With regard to podcast downloads, about 12% of internet users say they have downloaded a podcast to listen to later. 26 million Americans use the internet daily for news, and about 42% of Americans now have high-speed internet at home.
With the increase in high-speed access in the home and the rise in classified selling and buying, the prediction that this will be a peak online buying holiday season seems a reasonable speculation and that the online buying trend will continue to increase, particularly in retail, throughout 2007.
