Turnover in downloads booming

The turnover generated by the downloading of music, audio books, videos, games and software increased to 118 million Euros over the first three quarters in 2007. By the end of this year the German Association for Information Management, Telecommunications and New Media (BITKOM) on the basis of a survey by the GfK market research institute forecasts an all time record high of 168 million Euros. If this was to be true, it would correspond to an increase by 28% in comparison to 2006.

About 60 million Euros worth of turnover were generated by the downloading of music in 2007 which therefore remains the most important segment with regard to downloads. At the same time the importance of other segments such as software or games is increasing as well, says Prof. August-Wilhelm Scheer, BITKOM chairman, at the occasion of presenting the study findings.

However, not only is turnover growing but also the number of units sold. Over the first three quarters of 2007 28.9 million music files, audio books, videos, games and software were legally downloaded onto personal computers in Germany. For the end of this year BITKOM expects 41 million downloads which would be 32% more than in 2006 (then 31 million units). The fourth quarter is traditionally the one in which most turnover is generated due to Christmas sales.

The high turnover is particularly due to the demand by men who are currently responsible for two thirds of all legal downloads (65%). 45% of all download clients are from the age bracket of those younger than 30 years. However, downloads is not just something which is popular among the young generation only. Thus, 27% of all purchasers is nowadays at least 40 years old. There is a particularly strong growth in the age bracket of those aged above 50 in which the share in the overall number of downloads grew to 10% over the last months.

Direct debit entries are the most common payment method for purchases over the internet. 38% of Germans have at least once made use of this payment method when online shopping. Also popular are payments on account (29%), by credit card (20%) and by payment on delivery (17%). Special online payment methods such as Paypal or T-Pay are among the top 5 too and have already been used by 11% of German online shoppers. GERMAN

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