4 ms·

What Do Rich People Do Online?

diziet 12y ago
This is not really a good summary of the question. For those interested in the question, I strongly suggest reading "Who Rules America" by G. William Domhoff http://www.amazon.com/Rules-America-Challenges-Corporate-Dominance/dp/0078111560/ http://www.amazon.com/Rules-America-Challenges-Corporate-Dom... The book in question also has a website: http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/ http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/
- Domenic_S 12y ago
  Am I missing something? That book seems very politically focused, and more about the power-elite structures than about what affluent people do online. The question's context is a fairly simple "...and how can we effectively market our goods & services to them".
  - dimitar 12y ago
    It is still probably more relevant than the article, which is about a group that the article considers not that rich and living from savings (essentially upper-middle class older people).
    - tinco 12y ago
      That makes no sense, they've selected a group that the article clearly considers rich, and is a large majority of the total amount of rich people.
  - diziet 12y ago
    It's not really politically focused as it is focused on it from an economic class perspective. While it surely does not dig into the exact question of what affluent people do online, it covers the actual economic and power based structure of america in much more depth.
- tinco 12y ago
  I doubt a book from 1967 has a very good answer to "What do the rich do online?".
  - diziet 12y ago
    The Publication Date for that edition is: July 16, 2009 I think there's even a 2013~ edition available now.
jmnicolas 12y ago
I'm surprised that the article don't mention watching porn. I doubt rich people are immune to the main internet activity of the masses.
- zaptheimpaler 12y ago
  The report lists activities that wealthy people have a higher than average propensity to exhibit (index of 100 is average). It makes sense that the propensity to watch porn wouldnt depend on whether you are wealthy or not. Also, here's a direct link to the report if you don't want to fill out a bunch of info - http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/corporate/us/en/reports-downloads/2014%20Reports/7323-finding-the-mass-affluent-online.pdf http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/corporate/us/en/reports-d...
  - lodewijkadlp 12y ago
    But perhaps the types and locations would be different. I think it's been avoided because you wouldn't advertise on pornographic sites anyway, and because people tend not to be very open about sex. Maybe that's the big hole in the market though, advertising on porn websites! Most won't even tell others "I found X through porn site Y"! Someone test this? Porn sites everywhere need your advertisement moneys haha
- Theodores 12y ago
  The rich are likely to be older and therefore statistically less likely to use porn. Rich people are also more likely to have been married for a long time and porn habits don't usually help keep things going. For these two reasons I would be very surprised if the rich were using the internet for porn more than the general population does, however, I am sure that there are plenty of idle rich that spend their whole lives wrapped up in some porn-fantasy.
  - jacquesm 12y ago
    > The rich are likely to be older and therefore statistically less likely to use porn. Right...
dimitar 12y ago
The article should be more accurately called "what do the mass affluent do online"; especially since two paragraphs talk about how the "mass affluent" are not that high income and older people living out of savings. I get it - a person who has property worth a half a million is arguably not rich in the USA, but that is a whole different (political in a wider sense) discussion and I didn't want it sneaking up on me like that. Edit: the "mass affluent" are essentially upper-middle class retirees and older workers who have some property and savings.
randallsquared 12y ago
"Once retired, the mass affluent also seem to replace the time once spent online doing business research with gambling, trivia, card games[...]." I'm not sure if this is meant to be taken literally, or in the same sense you'd say, "As people age, they stop liking rock music and replace it with big band".

This is not really a good summary of the question. For those interested in the question, I strongly suggest reading "Who Rules America" by G. William Domhoff http://www.amazon.com/Rules-America-Challenges-Corporate-Dominance/dp/0078111560/ http://www.amazon.com/Rules-America-Challenges-Corporate-Dom... The book in question also has a website: http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/ http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/

Domenic_S 12y ago
Am I missing something? That book seems very politically focused, and more about the power-elite structures than about what affluent people do online. The question's context is a fairly simple "...and how can we effectively market our goods & services to them".
- dimitar 12y ago
  It is still probably more relevant than the article, which is about a group that the article considers not that rich and living from savings (essentially upper-middle class older people).
  - tinco 12y ago
    That makes no sense, they've selected a group that the article clearly considers rich, and is a large majority of the total amount of rich people.
- diziet 12y ago
  It's not really politically focused as it is focused on it from an economic class perspective. While it surely does not dig into the exact question of what affluent people do online, it covers the actual economic and power based structure of america in much more depth.
tinco 12y ago
I doubt a book from 1967 has a very good answer to "What do the rich do online?".
- diziet 12y ago
  The Publication Date for that edition is: July 16, 2009 I think there's even a 2013~ edition available now.

jmnicolas 12y ago

I'm surprised that the article don't mention watching porn. I doubt rich people are immune to the main internet activity of the masses.

zaptheimpaler 12y ago
The report lists activities that wealthy people have a higher than average propensity to exhibit (index of 100 is average). It makes sense that the propensity to watch porn wouldnt depend on whether you are wealthy or not. Also, here's a direct link to the report if you don't want to fill out a bunch of info - http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/corporate/us/en/reports-downloads/2014%20Reports/7323-finding-the-mass-affluent-online.pdf http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/corporate/us/en/reports-d...
- lodewijkadlp 12y ago
  But perhaps the types and locations would be different. I think it's been avoided because you wouldn't advertise on pornographic sites anyway, and because people tend not to be very open about sex. Maybe that's the big hole in the market though, advertising on porn websites! Most won't even tell others "I found X through porn site Y"! Someone test this? Porn sites everywhere need your advertisement moneys haha
Theodores 12y ago
The rich are likely to be older and therefore statistically less likely to use porn. Rich people are also more likely to have been married for a long time and porn habits don't usually help keep things going. For these two reasons I would be very surprised if the rich were using the internet for porn more than the general population does, however, I am sure that there are plenty of idle rich that spend their whole lives wrapped up in some porn-fantasy.
- jacquesm 12y ago
  > The rich are likely to be older and therefore statistically less likely to use porn. Right...

dimitar 12y ago

The article should be more accurately called "what do the mass affluent do online"; especially since two paragraphs talk about how the "mass affluent" are not that high income and older people living out of savings. I get it - a person who has property worth a half a million is arguably not rich in the USA, but that is a whole different (political in a wider sense) discussion and I didn't want it sneaking up on me like that. Edit: the "mass affluent" are essentially upper-middle class retirees and older workers who have some property and savings.

randallsquared 12y ago

"Once retired, the mass affluent also seem to replace the time once spent online doing business research with gambling, trivia, card games[...]." I'm not sure if this is meant to be taken literally, or in the same sense you'd say, "As people age, they stop liking rock music and replace it with big band".