Industry Survey Results: Impact of Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail

Industry Survey Results

Impact of Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail
Gartner Group research study June 14, 1999 - 1-800-468-8000
Data collection of more than 13,100 surveys via invitation from major ISP's.

1. ..with spam the recipient or ISP pays. These payments are in the form of additional bandwidth, disk space, server resources, and lost productivity. 2. Demographics of users:

1% under18
4% 19-24
27% 25-39
44% 40-54,
19% 55-69
3% 70+

3. Thirty percent have at least one child under 18 who uses the computer. 4. 62% said their primary use of the computer was personal. 5. Time on the internet per week:

27% up to 5 hours
29% 6-10 hours
45% 11+ hours

6. 64% of total responses said E-Mail is overwhelmingly the major activity on the Internet. 7. 13% spend time surfing 12% conduct research. 8. The heaviest ISP represented in the survey are: AOL, AT&T WorldNet Service, Concentric, Juno, MSN/Microsoft, and Netcom (Now Mindspring). Spam Statistics: (Gartner Group)

31% said they receive 11 or more pieces per week.
91% said they received at least one piece of spam per week.
The two most frequently received types of spam received were "get rich quick schemes" and "Adult"
23% of females found "adult" spam offensive.
18% of messages was software offers.
83% disliked spam.
End user does not apparently perceive a direct financial impact. Only 1 percent complained about cost.
42% said that the time it takes them to read and discard spam was their main reason for disliking it. (Direct cost to user could be considered "time is money".)
35% complained that spam constitutes an significant invasion of privacy.
15% found it offensive.
64% send complaints of about the spam to the sender.
53% send complaints to their own ISP.
34% send complaints to the senders ISP.
25% send to the Company advertised.
24% complain to friends and family.
10% complain to the government.
4% complain to other.
36% said they would switch ISP's in order to reduce the flow of spam.
91% said they were hooked on the internet and would not drop out.
24% would be willing to pay an incremental fee for a spam filtering service.
70% would be willing to pay $1 or more per month for this service.
40% favor banning spam.
25% want it regulated.
73.8% say ISP's should regulate it.
40% characterized the ISP's as doing a good job.

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