Broadband Dominates U.S. Web Usage

When the first issue of CDN was published 10 years ago, "broadband" was an unknown word in the American vocabulary. Today it dominates the online scene. According to the latest research from Nielsen/NetRatings, more than two-thirds of all active U.S. Web users now connect via broadband. Some 68 percent of Web users were broadband surfers in February 2006, equal to 95.5 million people, up from only 33 percent of the online population three years ago. Climbing broadband usage has translated into more time spent online, clocking in at 30.5 hours per month in February 2006, compared to 25.5 hours per user during February 2003. Not surprisingly, broadband is driving increased usage of video sharing sites. MSN Video led the market with 9.3 million unique visitors in February 2006, up 44 percent over last year. New players YouTube and Google Video are shaping up as major players too, attracting 9 million and 6.2 million unique visitors, respectively. Three of the top online advertisers in February 2006 were cable industry competitors. VoIP player Vonage Holdings Corp. topped the list, spending a whopping $23 million. Netflix was second at $16.7 million while Verizon came in fifth with $11. 2 million in spending. For the full news from Nielsen/NetRatings, see http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/pr/pr_060314.pdf