TEXTO 2

Growing old in cyberspace

Senior citizens, long overlooked, are the latest target market on the Web

By Staff Writer Martha Slud

As more and more senior citizens go online, Web developers and marketers are beginning to pay more attention to what they can offer older people, and how to bring Internet service to a population that has been among the slowest to embrace the computer.

While their numbers are still relatively small, online seniors are an attractive target from a marketing point of view for several reasons. Many retired people are logging a significant amount of time each day on the Web; they are a well-educated population; and they often have discretionary dollars to spend on travel, financial services and other growing sectors of electronic commerce.

“No one’s really addressed seniors on the Internet, and really, why should they?" said William Belhumeur, president of San Francisco-based Seniors.com. “They’ve been attentive to the groups that have picked it up first; now’s really the time to start picking up the later adopters." (...)

But there still are numerous barriers to building up the senior market online, said Ekaterina Walsh, an analyst at Internet research firm Forrester Research. Some of the e-commerce categories considered most likely to appeal to seniors — such as online purchases of prescription drugs or groceries — are in fact the least likely sectors for new Web users to explore, she said.

“The problem is that with age, people become more pessimistic toward technology", she said. “It doesn’t mean that it’s not possible, but marketers who are looking at attracting this particular segment, should be very careful in emphasizing two things — ease of use and value." (...)

Several companies are trying to break through the technological barrier by bringing Web technology to retirement homes and other senior facilities, in hopes of providing easier, streamlined Internet access to older people. (...)

Andrew Egan, president of Adventura Publishing, which operates Senior-Citizen.com, predicted that senior citizen offerings on the Web are going to mushroom as older people get more comfortable going on the Internet. “I think you ’re going to see a lot of senior Web sites coming online", he said. “A lot of people are trying to capitalize on it."

(Extraído de CNN America, INC. 2001. http://cnnfn.com/2000/02/02/senior_living/q_retire_internet/)

The text suggests that its time to start being more attentive to the senior citizens who enjoy ______ online.