TOURBUS: Thursday, September 19, 1996

DRIVER: Bob Rankin

TODAY'S TOURBUS STOP:
Survey Results

Today we have the results from the recent TourBus Rider Survey.  I was
hoping to have this out earlier in the week, but the volume of response
required a little extra time to tabulate the results.

Thanks for your participation - we had a whopping 8376 responses!  I
was assuming we'd get about a 10% response rate, so that indicates
that we may have more than 80,000 riders on the World's Largest Bus.
Now I'll have to take a survey to find out what percent really took
the survey!  :-)

Our thanks to Beach Tech who processed the survey.  Beach Tech
provides EMAIL and WWW form based survey services, so if you ever need
an online survey, visit them on the Web at http://www.beachtech.com .
The full results in glorious tabular form are available on the Web at
http://csbh.mhv.net/~bobrankin/tourbus/results.htm for your viewing
pleasure, but if you prefer an "executive summary" with a twist,
read on.

(Oh, if you did not already respond to the survey it's not too late.
Visit the results page and find the link to take the survey.)
So without further ado (what *is* ado anyway?) here are the results.


In what country do you receive TOURBUS?

    USA: 64%  Canada: 7%  Great Britain: 6%  Australia: 3%  Germany: 2%
    The other 18% either didn't know where they lived or fell into the
    one percent or less categories.  Hey, where is France?

How long have you been using the Internet?

    This was a bit of a surprise.  The results showed that 57% of TOURBUS
    riders have been surfing for two years or more.  Just 23% qualify as
    newbies (less than a year online) and 20% have a year's worth of sand
    in their bathing suits.

A) What type of Internet connection do you have? (Modem Speed)

    Technology marches on - only 3% reported (or admitted) having a
    2400 bps modem, and 4% weighed in at 9600.  About a third have
    14.4's, another 42% have 28.8's and 19% are surfing at higher
    speeds (presumably while the boss is not looking).

    Users in Germany and Australia seem to cruise the infobahn just
    a little faster than those in the USA, but there is equality
    between the sexes.

B) What type of Internet connection do you have? (Service Provider)

    Over 80% responded that they see the Web in living color.  Text
    only users (BBS or shell account) made up 6% and worldwide 11%
    have only e-mail access.

    The number of "e-mail only" users outside the U.S. averages well
    over 20% in most other places, though.

  Describe your primary Internet usage.

    Hey... e-mail really is the killer app!  44% say e-mail is their
    primary online activity, and just 22% described Web surfing as
    their cyberspace raison d'etre.  Research, business and education
    focused users each claimed another 10% of the total.

Are you male or female?

    The answer here was a resounding "YES", which is comforting.  But
    5% of Argentinians were not sure.  Worldwide, it looks like we have
    68% Joe and 32% Jane.

    In the USA it's about 60/40 but Germany and the Netherlands have
    over 90% male users.  Italy came in at 99% male, so if you're
    online to meet Italian women, you'd better sell the modem and use
    that money for airfare instead.

What is your age?

    If you're a man, you are 42.  And all women in cyberspace are 50
    years old, statistically speaking.  If you want to live a good
    life, move to Argentina -- their average age came out to 102. ?!

    We don't have a breakdown by age group, but the worldwide average
    of 44 years tells me there are a goodly number of seniors online.

Level of education?

    We're a well educated group.  42% of netizens have a college
    education, and 46% claim advanced degrees.  Gee, I should've
    asked how many people are furthering their education with
    online courses...

TOURBUS will always be free.  But would you ever pay to receive
    information by e-mail that was relevant to your personal or
    business interests?

    A surprising 41% said they would pay for quality information
    delivered electronically.  Looks like now is the time to hang
    your shingle in cyberspace.

Speaking of online dollars and sense, today's TOURBUS sponsor has a
really cool site if you're in the market for almost anything!
*---BUY IT ONLINE ---------------(  http://www.BuyItOnline.com  )---*
Find EVERYTHING here:     Oh, give me a http://www.homebc.com/garrett
                  where the http://www.dfw.net/~buffalo roam, and the
http://www.deerbusters.com and the antelope http://www.playvideo.com
*---(  http://www.buyitonline.com  )--------------------------------*


This survey is particularly interesting to me.  Because we have TOURBUS
riders from 115 countries, I believe the 8000+ responses are in many
ways representative of the Internet population as a whole.  Feel free
to share this data with anyone who might be interested.

See you next time!   -- Bob