Digital 2025: silver surfers, golden opportunities
Consistent data detailing the demography of the world’s internet users can be tricky to come by, but based on the data reviewed by the Kepios team, it appears that:
People aged 50 and above account for more than 30 percent of the world’s adult internet users.
People aged 60 and above account for more than 15 percent of the world’s adult internet users.
People aged 65 and above account for more than 10 percent of the world’s adult internet users.
But despite accounting for a sizeable share of the world’s online population, the marketing industry at best struggles to understand these older audiences, and at worst, it completely ignores them.
This is most clearly demonstrated in GWI’s research into how likely people are to feel represented in the advertising that they see and hear, which shows that just 1 in 25 people aged 65 and above – a meagre 4 percent – feels any such affinity.
And men in this age group are even more likely to feel alienated by marketing content, with just 3.6 percent of male respondents over the age of 65 saying that they feel represented in the advertising that they see and hear.
Meanwhile, older generations also feel that many businesses fail to recognise the needs of their age group.
For example, a study in the UK found that just 1 in 3 people over the age of 50 (34 percent) felt that retailers of home products cared about people of their age.
Silver generation, golden opportunity
But consumer spend data shows that marketers would be crazy to ignore these “senior” audiences.
For example, consumers aged 50 and above account for more than half (53 percent) of total consumer spending in the USA, and more than 40 percent of America’s consumer ecommerce spend.
Similarly, people in this age group account for 54 percent of total consumer spend in the United Kingdom.
And figures for the European Union are equally compelling, with data from Eurostat suggesting that people over the age of 50 also account for half of total consumer spending.
Meanwhile, GWI’s research shows that older generations are just as likely to buy online as younger people.
And in fact, while the geographic coverage of GWI’s survey for audiences aged 65 and above isn’t quite as extensive as the rest of its survey, the available data suggest that retirees are actually more likely than people aged 16 to 24 to make online purchases each week.
Older generations are also more likely to use online financial services.
This may be partly because older generations tend to be financially better off than people in their teens and early 20s, but it may also be because older people are more interested in actively managing their finances via digital channels.
Either way though, it’s clear that older generations are just as comfortable transacting online as younger people are.
So where are marketers missing out most when it comes to older generations?
Here are some of the things that stand out for us in the latest data.
In each case, note that the geographic audience of over-65s in GWI’s research is not the same as its coverage for all other age groups, but the findings remain compelling nonetheless.
Streaming platforms
Older generations spend the greatest amount of time watching television, but streaming platforms like Netflix only account for a small fraction of their total TV time.
More specifically, internet users aged 65 and above spend more than 4¼ hours watching TV each day, but streaming accounts for barely 40 minutes (15.6 percent) of that daily viewing time.
Older people are also less likely to say that they watch streaming platforms in general, with fewer than than 7 in 10 respondents in this age group (69.8 percent) answering in the affirmative, compared with an overall average of 91.9 percent.
Women aged 65 and above are even less likely to use OTT services, with just 67.7 percent saying that they watched streaming content within the past 30 days.
However – crucially – older generations don’t appear to be significantly less averse to paying for streaming platforms.
GWI’s data shows that 26 percent of internet users aged 65 and above pay for TV and movie streaming platforms each month, compared with an overall average of 31.5 percent across all age groups.
In other words, there appears to be a meaningful opportunity for streaming platforms to do more to engage older generations.
Digitally enabled mobility
It’s also surprising to see that so few people over the age of 65 have embraced online mobility services like ride-hailing apps.
It’s worth noting that this category includes bike and scooter hire apps, which admittedly may be less appealing to over-65s than they are to younger generations.
However, given that this category also includes apps that facilitate taxi and ride-sharing bookings, it seems as though services like Uber, Lyft, and Grab may be missing a valuable trick when it comes to older generations.
Indeed, GWI’s latest research shows that barely 1 in 14 internet users aged 65 and above (7.2 percent) used an online mobility service of any kind in the past 30 days, as compared with an overall overage of 34.4 percent across all age groups.
Video games
But perhaps the most surprising opportunity relates to video games.
Many marketers still cling to a stereotype of “gamers” as spotty teenage boys hiding out in their parents’ basement, but data tells a very different story.
Admittedly, teenagers remain the most avid gamers, with GWI’s data showing that a hefty 92.6 percent of internet users aged 16 to 24 play video games.
However, more than 7 in 10 internet users aged 55 to 64 (70.3 percent) say that they play video games, and well over half of online audiences over the age of 65 (55.8 percent) also say the same.
Gaming habits do vary by generation though, so it’s well worth doing some detailed research before jumping headlong into a gaming strategy.
For example, older gamers are less likely to use a console like a PlayStation or an Xbox for their gaming fix, instead relying on smartphones, PCs, and tablets for their video game activities.
Meanwhile, the types of video games that appeal to older generations can be quite different to those enjoyed by the stereotypical “gamer”.
For example, while GWI’s latest wave of research shows that “shooter” titles dominate the genre rankings for gamers under the age of 44, older generations are more likely to seek out puzzles, online board games, and action adventure titles.
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This article is a sub-section of our Digital 2025 Global Overview Report.
Click here to access the complete report, and to read our comprehensive analysis.
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