Hooked On Speed
Gen Y consumers want high-speed everything, and they're not slowing down any time soon. Is your Web site up to par?
By Julie Vallone
Faster than a speeding cable modem, more powerful than a 300 MHz
computer, it's . . . it's . . . well, it had better be
you if you're planning to lure the next wave of online
consumers to your Web site. That demographic, dubbed Generation Y,
includes recent college graduates and young twentysomethings
distinguished from previous generations of netizens by their
unprecedented demand for speed.
Fresh out of college dorms and other abodes that have been wired
to the hilt with high-speed Internet connections, they'll
accept nothing less than lightning-fast access to online
information and media. "They're very much into speed. They
were raised on it, so they expect it much more than [older]
adults," says Ekaterina Walsh, an analyst with Forrester
Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Once students graduate and leave their heavily wired
accommodations, don't expect their demands for high-speed
access and the big downloads to subside. For netpreneurs hoping to
attract this potentially lucrative market, be ready to provide
information, services and media quickly and efficiently and to
build or borrow the technology needed to do so.
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Julie Vallone is a San Francisco Bay area writer striving to
keep pace with the Web's young speed demons
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