In 2008 an enormous amount of files containing music, games, videos, audio books and software was legally purchased over the internet and downloaded. By the end of this year this number is to reach 49 million which would be a new record. Turnover generated through these downloads would equal 220 million Euros which is 27% more than in the year 2007. The above figures and forecasts are from a current study conducted by the GfK market research institute and the Association of Information Management, Telecommunications and New Media (BITKOM).
One factor favoring this development is fast internet access in an ever growing number of households. By using such a kind of internet access, large volumes of data may rapidly be downloaded onto personal computers. At the same time, there are always more different kinds of download products available at affordable prices. The average price for one download onto a personal computer in the period from January to September 2008 was 4.09 Euros (average price across all product groups). It is expected that the number of downloads is to grow even further. In future clients are expected to use mobile devices in order to download data from the internet. In some regions of Germany certain mobile phones and smart phones already transfer data at DSLspeed.
It is still mainly men who download files onto personal computers. Men account for 64% of all clients and women for 36%. The percentage of purchaser older than 40 years of age has increased. In the period from January to September this year they accounted for 29% of the total number of people downloading files from the internet which is an increase by 3 percent as compared to the same period in 2007. 