Little Difference in Traditional Media Use, while Young Adults Lead in New Media Use

Chart 1

• The urban survey in Peru interviewed 314 Peruvians in the 15-29 group, 234 Peruvians in the 30-44 group, 145 Peruvians in the 45-59 group and 56 Peruvians in the 60+ group. Chart 1 shows the breakdown of the surveyed urban population by age groups.
• Mobile phones and MP3s are more accessible to youth and access decreases as age rises. Household access to the internet seems to be largely unaffected by age.

Chart 2

• Household access to televisions and radios is high across all age groups(see chart 3).

Chart 3

Media Use

• In terms of weekly use as well, the youth in urban Peru are more likely to use mobile phones and internet on a weekly basis than the general population (see chart 4). Television and radio weekly use was nearly the same for all age groups.

Chart 4

• Youth are also most likely among all age groups to use internet and SMS texting (sending or receiving) to access news and information as compared to any other age group in Peru.

Chart 5

Internet Activities

• Brisk internet use in urban Peru (relative to use rates in urban centers of neighboring countries) is fueled in large part by the presence of cheap internet cafés or cabinas publicas, which have made the internet more accessible to urban youth. Eighty percent of urban youth surveyed said they have accessed the internet using these cabinas(see chart 6). Older respondents are more likely to access the internet at work or at home.
• The youth are more likely than other age groups to access the internet on their mobile phones, while it is still rather uncommon for older Peruvians. In additions, due to the cheap internet cafés called cabinas publicas, 80 percent of the youth and 64 percent of those 30-44 are able to access the internet outside of their homes.

Chart 6

• Peruvian youth show greater frequency and intensity in all types of internet activity than other age groups, as can be seen in Chart 7 and 8, specifically, accessing Youtube videos, downloading music and playing games online

Chart 7

Chart 8

• Specifically, newer Web 2.0 activities such as accessing social networking websites are far more common among youth than among older age groups. Blogging, on the other hand, seems more prevalent across all age groups. Financial transactions online are most common among middle aged Peruvians who might have more access to disposable incomes (see chart 9).

Chart 9

• The youth are most likley to visit blogs focusing on entertainment topics, while technology and personal blogs also were popular for younger urban Peruvians.

Chart 10

• For Peruvian youth, keeping in touch with friends/family seems more important, than joining interest groups, playing games or taking quizzes on social networking websites.

Mobile Phone Activities

• Eighty nine percent of urban youth in Peru have household access to a mobile phone, the highest rate of any age group. Eighty five percent of urban youth use mobile phones at least once a month. Charts 11 and 12 show the mobile phone activities of all age groups. Youth are far more likely to access the internet on their cell phones, download videos, listen to the radio and almost every other activity as shown.

Chart 11

Chart 12

Weekly Radio Use

• In particular, FM frequency is the most popular for all age groups. Convergence of mediums through activities such as listening to the radio on the internet, which is becoming more common in nations with greater connectivity, is yet to become very popular with older age groups. On the other hand, stations on the MW/AM frequency are more popular with older age groups.

Chart 13