SpectatorBytes

Yesterday, as part as our annual gathering of portfolio companies, I had the opportunity to meet a group of high school and college students from the Los Angeles area. There were about 15 kids between the ages of 16-20. 65% boys and 35% girls. The session was focused on learning about their media consumption habits, in particular their online activities. The session was loosely structured as a Q&A panel.

The findings were pretty interesting:

- None of the kids knew what Twitter was. However, when the concept was described to them, some of them thought it sounded cool. It is likely that some of them will give twitter a try.

- All of the kids were using Facebook pretty regularly. The majority indicated that they use it on a daily basis. They find it a good way to know about their friends and stay in touch. They did not mind the ads on Facebook. They understood that ads were needed to pay for the service. Also, they were pretty concerned with privacy. All of them seem to be pretty knowledgeable about keeping their profiles private. Facebook mail was not used as the main mail service. All the students had mail accounts in other services.

- Several of the kids also used MySpace but they did not use it as much. One of the teens said: “My Space is played out.” Another one expressed frustration with the abundance of advertisements on the service. However, several still feel it was entertaining and good to learn about music.

- They traditional portals did not do well. AOL was only mentioned once and it was in reference to “AOL instant messenger”. Yahoo mail was used only by a couple of kids. Yahoo was not mentioned after that. None of the kids used Hotmail. All the kids had a GMail account.  It seems that Google is winning the mail wars.

- The kids seemed to go to category specific sites to find their content. They usually learn about those sites from friends.

- A segment of the kids are still willing to buy music. Though, all of them know and use sites where they can download music illegally. One of the students expressed that she  buys music from niche/unknown artists but not from popular ones.

- Most of the kids indicated that they used Pandora to listen to Music on their computers. Only a couple use Last.fm.

- All kids are watching video online. They indicated that they did not mind ads (pre-rolls) when they are watching TV-like content (e.g.,  The Daily show or The Colbert Report). “They need to get paid” said one of the students.

- They use YouTube to listen to music and to watch funny videos. Anime videos were highlighted by some of the kids as a popular category.

- Hulu was only known by three students. However, those that knew about Hulu found it to be a good service.

- In terms of devices, cell-phones took the day. Computers were a second choice. They still enjoy TV but mostly for sports. Only one kid had an iPhone.

- Most of the students still check out the print version of newspapers. However, if their parents were not subscribers, they would probably check the news online rather than pay for a print copy. They all used the online site of the LA times.

- A few of the kids were into virtual worlds. None of them had purchased virtual goods. However, they expressed willingness to pay for these services if required. One of the kids indicated that he spent 82 hours per week on Gaia (He had calculated the number).

- Most of the kids were into video games. Several had multiple consoles. They particularly enjoy playing with other people online via the console. Madden was really popular with the boys. World of Warcraft also got some mentions.

- They all use Google to search. They think Google is great service because it can help them find even the most obscure things. However, one of the kids stated that it can still be improved as in some cases Google was not able to disambiguate.

- None of the kids knew CNet. Only one kid knew about Digg.

Every time I attend one of these focus groups, I find them pretty useful. These provide a window into what the next generation of users finds compelling in terms of products and services. It also offers a good measure about brand relevance.

I need to attend these panels more often.

Update: Need to learn how to properly spell Twitter instead of Tweeter (oh boy)