THE PROSUMER – Interactive media usage and it’s consequence

 

Influence of Web 2.0 on the consumer’s behavior

Nowadays, “prosumers” represent a new category of potential customers. The term prosumer is a combination of two words – producer and consumer- that perfectly describes the millions of participants in the Web 2.0 revolution.

In the article ”Prosumers: A New Growth Opportunity” the author explains the new phenomenon of consumers who  are defined as  someone who blurs the distinction between a “consumer” and a “producer”.

Alvin Toffler used the term in his 1980 book “The Third Wave”. Web 2.0 enables consumers to become producers by their selves. Today’s consumers can be consumer and provider at the same time. That means he is no more passive but takes actively part in generating contents in the media.

 

Characteristics of a prosumer

The spread of high-speed-Internet-access and the enormous popularity of community platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, MySpace or StudiVZ let the companies start thinking about how to address these potential customers most efficiently.

After the article of ”Prosumers: A New Growth Opportunity” prosumers are characterized as following:

• “They need to be connected to work and family—anytime, anywhere.
• They want simple-to-use, seamless solutions.
• They are interested in entertainment, and spend more than the average consumer in this category.
• They want to access files at home as easily as they do at work.
• They are mobile, and usually own several devices such as a mobile phone, iPod, and laptop computer.
• They are frequent, intensive users of the Internet and mobile technologies at work and home.”

To read more about the article ”Prosumers: A New Growth Opportunity”