UK 'less likely to pay for online content'

UK consumers are less likely to pay for online content than their global peers, with 81 per cent going elsewhere if a free site starts to charge for content, suggests new research from KPMG.

Monday, 26 July 2010

Three-quarters of UK consumers would prefer to receive online advertising if it meant they did not have to pay for content, the survey found.

Another 48 per cent would allow information from social networking sites such as Facebook to be tracked if it resulted in lower costs for content.

Globally, 43 per cent of consumers are willing to pay for content and 59 per cent of internet users in the Asian-Pacific region would do so.

However, only 19 per cent of UK consumers would be willing to do so.

Tudor Aw, head of technology at KPMG Europe, said: "UK consumers still haven't come around to the idea of paying for digital content and are clear that they will move to other sites if paywalls are put up."

The Times newspaper introduced a paywall to its website on July 2nd and has experienced a decline in its readership by as much as 90 per cent since.