Anticipating information needs for senior portal contents Jongsoo Yoon a,1 , Tom E. Yoon b,2 , Joey F. George c,⇑ a 111, Gugal-dong, Giheung-gu, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do, College of Business Administration, Kangnam University, 446-702, South Korea b Metropolitan State College of Denver, Department of Computer Information Systems, Campus Box 45, P.O. BOX 173362, Denver, CO 80217-3362, USA c College of Business, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-1110, USA article info Article history: Available online 12 January 2011 Keywords: Internet portals Elderly population Korea abstract Many senior portals are expected to appear as the elderly population and the number of aged Internet users continues to increase. This study defines a senior portal as an Internet portal that is specific to seniors. The purpose of the study is to investigate what kind of content of senior portals is preferred by prospective users of senior portals, and to analyze the preference for contents. The study administered a survey to prospective senior portal users over 50 years of age who are residing in two large cities in Korea. This study found that content preferences vary according to the individual characteristics of pro- spective users. The findings of this study could help organizations to explore business opportunities, develop business models, and formulate business strategies that can differentiate them from their competitors. Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction It is well known that the populations of the world’s industrial- ized nations are aging rapidly, and this trend will continue for the next several decades (Anderson & Hussey, 2000). By 2020, more than 20% of the populations of France, Germany and Japan will be over 65 years of age, with the percentage in Japan being 26.2%. Canada and the UK are close behind, as the proportion of their populations over 65 will approach 20% (18.2 and 19.8, respec- tively). Aging populations, fueled by low birth rates and increased longevity, clearly have implications for industrialized societies, especially as they come to rely on social safety nets, paid for by fewer workers, as they leave the workforce and retire. Meanwhile, more and more of the elderly have turned to the Internet. While adults over 65 have traditionally lagged in their use of the Internet behind younger adults, they have recently started to go online in larger numbers (Jones & Fox, 2009; Nimrod, 2009). In the US, half of the Internet user population is between the ages of 18 and 44, but larger proportions of older people are going online. For exam- ple, only one-quarter of American adults between 70 and 75 years old were online in 2005, but by 2009, 45% of that age group was online. These two trends, taken together, pose new challenges for both businesses and governments, as older people begin to have more influence in industrialized economies and as they come to rely more on the Internet for key services (Godfrey & Johnson, 2009). Discovering why older adults are turning to the Internet in lar- ger numbers can help online businesses tailor their offerings to meet the demands of this age group. Governments can also benefit from understanding why and how this group uses the Internet, as they can use this information to better meet the needs of this group at less cost and improved efficiency. Many national govern- ments have already initiated programs to help the elderly benefit from their Internet use (e.g., Godfrey & Johnson, 2009). The more we understand how the elderly use the Internet, the more effective these programs can be. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, older Americans are not very interested in playing games on line, watching videos, downloading music, or using social network sites (Jones & Fox, 2009). They are, however, very interested in getting information about health and religion, and they are just as likely to use the Internet for e-mail, search use, and making travel reservations as any other age group. In fact, the elderly are just as likely to get health information from computerized sources as other age groups (Wagner & Wagner, 2003). Further, seniors are not necessarily hesitant to try new online technologies, as shown by studies of senior use of social networks (Nimrod, 2009) and video user-created content (Ryu, Kim, & Lee, 2009). As for the specific topics the elderly are interested in, a recent content analysis of se- niors’ online communities in Australia, Canada, the UK and US found most of the communication dealt with 13 specific topics: ‘‘Fun online,’’ ‘‘Retirement,’’ ‘‘Family,’’ ‘‘Health,’’ ‘‘Work and Study,’’ ‘‘Recre- ation,’’ ‘‘Finance,’’ ‘‘Religion and Spirituality,’’ ‘‘Technology,’’ ‘‘Aging,’’ ‘‘Civic and Social,’’ ‘‘Shopping,’’ and ‘‘Travels’’ (Nimrod, 2009). 0747-5632/$ - see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2010.12.005 ⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 850 644 7449. E-mail addresses: jongsoo@kangnam.ac.kr (J. Yoon), Tyoon@mscd.edu (T.E. Yoon), jgeorge@fsu.edu (J.F. George). 1 Tel.: +82 31 280 3739. 2 Tel.: +1 303 556 3005. Computers in Human Behavior 27 (2011) 1012–1020 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Computers in Human Behavior journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/comphumbeh