This may look off topic to traditional bankers, but bear with me here. I cross post this from my Web Lifestyle blog, because this is a living demographic shift that we had better understand.

I work in the middle of online banking, and yet this post from Alexa (pasted below) is worth studying, and filing for reference next time you are in a planning session.

Alexa studies web trends. They deal in facts. Fact: MySpace is in the top 10 of all web sites in the world. The user base are all teenagers.

Now look at MySpace compared to CNN. MySpace have overtaken CNN just last month.

The issue isn’t that MySpace is bigger than CNN. The issue is that they are so diametrically different. You watch CNN (or BBC) and they watch MySpace. It doesn’t matter because MySpace overtook both last month. (Note MySpace is blue in both cases).

Just as us boomers see things different than our parents you can bet the MySpace generation will act similarly relative to us. The next generation expect a degree of informatlity, of randomness, and simplicity – just make it so!
We had better not be building the same boring bank web sites that we do today, and here are some examples.

Relevance to Bankwatch:

Today

• static pages
• bank defined
• Lowest browser level
• Assume dial up
• Replicate branch info

Future

• evolving screen (read Ajax and beyond)
• customer defined
• maximum browser level
• Assume maximum bandwidth
• Value add – eg free spending assessment *

* Wells Fargo already have this, today, 2006, with a view to GenYers needs. Don’t make me think about it- just give it to me!
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From my other blog www.2036ad.com

MySpace – the James Dean/ Mick Jagger of 2006

MySpace is fascinating, and this is one of the most prescient posts I have seen for a while. This from Alexa sums it up so beautifully:

If you go to MySpace, you will probably walk away with the impression that it is a joke… some kind of junkyard of personal pictures, blogs and random stuff clumsily plopped onto the Web. And, unless you are a studious observer of the Alexa Traffic Rankings, you would almost certainly walk away with the impression that it is no big shakes. But you would be dead-wrong.

If you are under 18, move on, because you already get it. Older than that, read on. Read that intro carefully, and consider how my parents felt about Mick Jagger, Eric Burdon, Dylan, and Elvis – well don’t even go there!

But consider today … who are we listening to on today’s TV ads. Cadillac/ Led Zeppelin being the archetypical example. Good grief there is no more irresponsible reprobate than Robert Plant, and the whole group had no respect for anyone around them, either in the music business, or their listeners .. but the music … hmmmm

Alexa Web Search

I think the lesson here is not to discount the kids. They will become the prime Internet demographic in the years to come and they will determine what’s hot and what’s not. Just like with soda, music and movies, the marketing dollars are more interested in my kids than me… and judging from MySpace, the marketers may be right. The kids are a major force on the Web.

So where am I going with all this. MySpace is not understood by those of you who are still reading. Those who get it have gone. So we had better understand what’s happening there, and consider that generation because believe it or not, they will be earning $100K per annum, buying homes, having families, and investing for retirement within 10 – 20 years.

Not a long time in the future in strategic terms, and the brands, sites that attract them soonest will win them. They are loyal, and have pack mentality. Consider the market share of Microsoft, Google, MySpace in their world.

Myspace has been in the news quite a bit lately, and for good reason. It has grown into a massive online phenomenon in just a little over 2 years. Take a look at this traffic graph and you can see its meteoric rise from absolute obscurity to Web powerhouse, ranking as one of the 10 most popular sites on the planet.

No, that’s not a typo. Myspace.com is ranked inside the top 10 sites globally.

That’s amazing stuff. But even more amazing is that we, and by “we” I mean most people reading this blog, had never heard of it until recently. Where did it come from?

If you go to MySpace, you will probably walk away with the impression that it is a joke… some kind of junkyard of personal pictures, blogs and random stuff clumsily plopped onto the Web. And, unless you are a studious observer of the Alexa Traffic Rankings, you would almost certainly walk away with the impression that it is no big shakes. But you would be dead-wrong.

So, how did MySpace get so popular? Kids. MySpace has tapped into a previously ignored market — a market much more active than previously assumed. Rupert Murdoch’s Newscorp must have run the numbers and saw a gold mine. They bought Myspace for $580 Million back in July of 2005.

I overheard somebody say that myspace.com actually has more page views per day than Google. I couldn’t believe it. If that were the case, then myspace would have to be worth billions… with a “b”. Turns out it wasn’t true. A quick check of Alexa’s PageViews graph comparing the two reveals that myspace gets a little more than 50% of the pageviews of Google.

PageViews Graph
PageViews Graph for MySpace.com and Google
I think the lesson here is not to discount the kids. They will become the prime Internet demographic in the years to come and they will determine what’s hot and what’s not. Just like with soda, music and movies, the marketing dollars are more interested in my kids than me… and judging from MySpace, the marketers may be right. The kids are a major force on the Web.

MySpace – myspace.com – site info