More Teens Create, Share Online Content: 'Multichannel Teen' Emerges

Content creation by teenagers continues to grow, with 64 percent of online teenagers ages 12 to 17 engaging in at least one type of content creation, up from 57 percent of online teens in 2004, according to a report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, writes MarketingCharts.

Moreover, teens now have available to them a variety of social-communication means, and are using them more — so much so, that a new segment of super-communicators has begun to emerge, Pew said (see "Multichannel Teens" heading, below).

Fueled by new technologies, websites, and social networks such as Facebook and MySpace, large numbers of teens share and create materials online the study found:

• 39 percent of online teens share their own artistic creations online such as artwork, photos stories or videos.
• 33 percent of online teens create or work on webpages or blogs for others, including friends, groups they belong to or school assignments.
• 28 percent of online teens have created their own blog, up from 19 percent in 2004 - almost completely driven by the popularity of blogging among girls.
• 27 percent of online teens maintain their own webpage.
• 26 percent of online teens remix content they find online into their own creations.

Girls continue to dominate most elements of content creation:

• 35 percent of all teen girls blog, compared with 20 percent of online boys.
• 54 percent of wired girls post photos online, compared with 40 percent of online boys.
• Boys, however, do dominate one area - posting of video content online: Online teen boys are nearly twice as likely as online girls (19 percent vs. 10 percent) to have posted a video online somewhere where someone else could see it.

The report, Teens and Social Media, is based on a national phone survey of 935 youth ages 12-17 conducted in November 2006.

The survey found that content creation is not only about sharing creative output but also about participating in conversations fueled by that content:

• Nearly half (47 percent) of online teens have posted photos where others can see them, and 89 percent of those teens who post photos say that people comment on the images at least "some of the time."
• Teens who post videos report a similarly large incidence of feedback, with nearly three quarters (72 percent) of video posters receiving comments on their videos.

However, many teen content creators do not simply plaster their creative endeavors on the web for anyone to view; many limit access to content that they share:

• Some 66 percent of teens with social network profiles restrict access to their profiles in some way.
• 77 percent of teens who upload photos restrict access to them at least "some of the time."
• In contrast, 58 percent of adults who post photos restrict access to them in some way.
• A smaller percentage of teens who upload videos (54 percent) restrict access to them.

Social network sites affect teens' lives in other ways beyond providing space for content creation and feedback. For many teens they are now an integral part of the system of communication that they use to conduct the work of their lives.

Fully 41 percent of the teens who use MySpace, Facebook or other social network sites say they send messages to friends via those sites every day.

New Segment: 'Multichannel Teens'

The Pew Internet report highlights a new segment of "multichannel" teens - super-communicators who have a host of technology options for dealing with family and friends: traditional landline phones, cell phones, texting, social network sites, instant messaging, and email.

They constitute about 28 percent of the entire teen population and are more likely to be older girls. They interact with their friends at levels equal to or greater than other teens; and, as with all teens, email is a last resort.

How multichannel teens connect with friends:

• 70 percent talk daily with friends on a cell phone.
• 60 percent send text messages daily.
• 54 percent instant message.
• 47 percent send messages daily over social network sites.
• 46 percent talk to friends on a landline phone.
• 35 percent spend time with friends in person daily.
• 22 percent send email every day to friends.

In general, cell phones have a significant impact on communication choices among all teens.

Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of teens now have a cell phone; for teens who have them, they are the premier communication method for talking with friends. Among teens with cell phones, 55 percent say they use them to talk with friends every day.

About the study: The Parents & Teens 2006 Survey sponsored by the Pew Internet & American Life Project obtained telephone interviews with a nationally representative sample of 935 teens age 12 to 17 years old and their parents living in continental United States telephone households.

The survey was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International. The interviews were done in English by Princeton Data Source, LLC, from October 23 to November 19, 2006.

eMarketer's Predictions for 2008

DECEMBER 27, 2007

What will the new year bring?

Ben Macklin, Senior Analyst

Ad Spending
The Beijing Olympics and US presidential election will ensure that advertising spending will spike in 2008 across all sectors. The Olympics marks the "coming out" party of China. As was the case with South Korea in 1988, the games will be an important milestone for China's economic and political development. The competition will be fierce both on and off the sporting field as multinational organizations try to tap into China's growing middle class.

Politics Online
In the recent Australian election, a video appeared on YouTube that showed the prime minister-elect, Kevin Rudd, eating his ear wax. It didn't prevent him from winning the election, but it dogged him throughout the campaign. YouTube and the Internet in general will be an important battleground in the 2008 presidential election campaign in the United States. The influence of online-advocacy groups will continue to grow.

David Hallerman, Senior Analyst

Online Video
Internet video will produce more light than heat. That is, the array of video available online will jump dramatically both from professional content producers, such as TV networks, and from the growing panoply of amateurs. However, the heat of ad-spending dollars will remain small relative to the entire US online ad-spending universe.

Various large online video players, such as Google, Microsoft and the TV networks, will fortify their video offerings by buying small, ad-related companies.

Search Engines
At least one search engine will stop fighting the giant and farm out the bulk of its sponsored-link (a.k.a., paid-ad) results to Google.

A deal between Microsoft, Yahoo! or AOL (pick two of the three) will take place before the third quarter, but Google will still increase its share of ad revenues relative to those portals.

Online Ad Spending
Overall US online ad spending will be surprisingly resilient, even in the potentially recessionary economy. With money tight, marketing executives will continue to gravitate toward the Internet, looking for more measurable ad formats to buttress their positions.

Debra Aho Williamson, Senior Analyst

Social Networking
About 44% of US consumers will use social networking at least once a month. Although MySpace and Facebook will continue to dominate the market, changes are afoot that will extend social networking activities beyond a single destination site and into many other facets of the consumer Internet experience.

Profiles will eventually become portable, meaning consumers need only create one profile and be able to use it in many places on the Web. Small applications or “widgets” that today work with only one social networking destination site will be designed on an open platform, extending their reach. Activities such as online shopping, searching and even sending e-mail will be enhanced with social networking features.

Social networking will remain a key online activity regardless of the individual performance of MySpace or Facebook.

US ad spending on social networks will climb to nearly $1.6 billion in 2008, from $920 million in 2007. Although targeted advertising is getting the lion's share of attention and will continue to be a hot button in 2008, other forms of social network marketing, such as search advertising, widgets and e-commerce, will draw increased marketer interest. Additionally, self-serve advertising systems will create a new market for local and small businesses to promote themselves via social networks.

James Belcher, Senior Writer

Video Games
Old video games will get a second life thanks to software from Double Fusion and other firms that can place ads retroactively into old games, which will then be placed online for free distribution to players.

The same concept will apply to console games distributed online for Xbox and Wii, although other firms such as Microsoft-owned Massive will provide the technology.

Jeffrey Grau, Senior Analyst

Retail E-Commerce
Alternative online payment methods to credit and debit cards, such as PayPal, Google Checkout and Bill Me Later, will gain traction with Web retailers and consumers. Online retailers like these options because they save on processing fees, and research shows that offering several payment options increases conversion rates. Consumers like having more choices and feel more secure about making online transactions.

Multichannel retailers will begin rolling out "buy online, pick up in store" services in larger numbers. This option pairs the convenience of online shopping with the instant gratification of store shopping. Consumers like it because they can avoid shipping fees. A number of big name retailers, including Circuit City, JC Penney and Sears, offer this service.

Recently Wal-Mart announced a variation on that service just in time for the holiday season with its site-to-store option. Consumers who purchase online forego shipping fees by having their items shipped to a local Wal-Mart store for pickup in a few days.

John du Pre Gauntt, Senior Analyst

Mobile
Google will bid aggressively for 700 MHz spectrum in the United States to force mobile operators to partially or fully open their networks to outside innovation. Mobile marketing will have its first significant privacy meltdown. Global smartphone sales will become mainstream instead of occupying a niche.

Mobile marketing will execute its first million-dollar-plus campaign and local mobile search will become a huge battleground among Web giants, mobile operators and local directory publishers.

Karin von Abrams, Senior Analyst

Western Europe
The UK will remain at the top of the European social networking league. But the reach of social networking sites will peak at just over 80% of Britain’s online population for two reasons. First, most UK Internet users who want to share their lives online are already doing so; this leaves young people (kids and “tweens”) as the largest source of growth.

Secondly, there will be rising awareness and concern about the perils of sharing personal information online, as breaches of privacy and security—and the dangers of revealing too much—are publicized.

European consumers waiting for a robust variety of user-friendly, ad-supported content and services delivered to their mobile phones or PDAs will be disappointed. Operators and content owners will improve their offerings, and most mobile owners will be happy to see advertising in exchange for free content, but mobile ad formats will remain rather primitive.

The technology to enable the seamless combination of attractive ads and content, and a convenient direct response from consumers, is still some way off.

UK online ad spending will pass £3 billion ($6.2 billion) and show healthy growth despite financial and political uncertainties in Britain and beyond. This will be the first major wobble in confidence to occur since the UK became a mature wired economy. In fact, the Internet will help Britons cope efficiently with a more challenging marketplace. Web users will spend more time online, exploring options and seeking value for their money. Advertisers that target this committed audience effectively will achieve solid returns on their investments.

E-commerce will also thrive, passing £50 billion ($100 billion) as more consumers avoid the stress of crowded transport systems and city centers to shop from home.

Across Europe, the social and cultural gap will widen between seniors (those 55 and older) who join the online population and those who don’t. Currently, older citizens in Spain and Italy are most likely to opt out of the Internet often because their lives revolve around other activities that are more important to them or because they have no affordable, reliable online access. Seniors who do use the Web will benefit much more from government and local information and services.

Online seniors also constitute an expanding and generally affluent market for certain goods and services, such as travel and financial products. The preferences and spending power of European seniors will emerge more clearly in 2008. Advertisers that identify and develop opportunities for this audience could reap big rewards.

Despite the hefty opposition from the European Union to its intended purchase of DoubleClick, Google will be shopping in Europe for complementary companies. So far, Google’s buys in the region have been largely under the radar (most are mapping and charting companies that can strengthen one of its less controversial offerings, Google Earth).

But it’s logical that Google, now entering the mobile arena, will also aim to take advantage of Europe’s enthusiasm for mobile devices and its wealth of expertise in this area. In 2008, look for Google to be eyeing up—and perhaps pouncing on—local talent.

Paul Verna, Senior Analyst

User-Generated Content
YouTube plays a decisive role in the 2008 US presidential election by, one, airing a user-submitted clip that seals the fate of a leading candidate or, two, setting the tone of the campaign through the site’s series of sponsored debates. Or both.

Online Music
Music labels and marketers step up their experimentations with new and emerging business models as the CD continues to fade into oblivion. Expect to see more ad-supported sites, monthly subscription services, full-track mobile download offerings and use of social networks as music discovery and sales tools.

Labels have no choice but to continue to relax their policies toward digital-rights management, inching the market closer to an unprotected MP3 standard.

Online Movies
US consumer spending on movie downloads doubles as digital services from iTunes, Netflix, Amazon Unbox, Wal-Mart, Movielink/Blockbuster, CinemaNow, Vongo and others start to migrate to the mainstream.

Americans more wired, new-media survey finds

Gail Schiller , Reuters

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - About 38 percent of U.S. consumers are watching TV shows online, 36 percent use their cell phones as entertainment devices and 45 percent are creating online content like Web sites, music, videos and blogs for others, according to a new-media survey from Deloitte & Touche.

The findings of the online survey of 2,081 Americans, conducted October 25-31, were provided to The Hollywood Reporter before their official release next month.

The "State of the Media Democracy" notes that in Deloitte's first edition of the survey just eight months earlier, 24 percent of consumers used their cell phones as entertainment devices, meaning that usage has soared 50 percent.

About 62 percent of "millennials" (consumers 13-to-24-years-old) are using their cell phones as entertainment devices, up from 46 percent in the previous study conducted February 23-March 6, 2007. And among Generation X consumers (25-to-41-year-olds), the number grew to 47 percent from 29 percent in the earlier survey.

About 20 percent of consumers said they are viewing video content on their cell phones daily or almost daily.

The percentage of consumers watching TV online jumped from the 23 percent figure reported in the previous study. Roughly 54 percent of those surveyed said they are making their own entertainment content through editing photos, videos or music, 45 percent said they are producing that content for others to see, and 32 percent said they consider themselves to be "broadcasters" of their own media.

"I think for advertisers one of the conclusions is you don't make decisions to advertise either on television or the Internet when you want to hit all the demographics, but rather you need to have a multiplatform strategy," said Ken August, vice chairman and national sector leader for Deloitte & Touche's media and entertainment practice, which commissioned the study. "It shouldn't be an either or proposition."

Among the study's other findings:

-- 54 percent of consumers said they socialize via social networking sites, chat rooms or message boards, and 45 percent said they maintain a profile on a social networking site.

-- 85 percent of consumers still find TV advertising to have the most impact on their buying habits, but online ads are second best, with 65 percent of consumers saying they have the most impact, beating out magazines at 63 percent.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

Rich media trumps traveler reviews in influencing travel bookings

Dec 31, 07 | 1:57 am

When it comes to making travel purchasing decisions, most American travelers would rather see the options for themselves than simply act on the recommendations of others. In fact, travelers want to view the options in detail via pictures, online maps and video.

"For travel shoppers, seeing really is believing. The fact that travelers find these visual tools to be so influential suggests that online rich media, including content-rich, three-dimensional maps, will be an increasingly important part of the travel-planning process," said Cathy Schetzina, director, research at PhoCusWright. "Traveler review sites that incorporate these visual elements are likely to be more appealing."

The growth of Web 2.0 technologies has garnered a great deal of attention in the past several years and has been accompanied by a parallel phenomenon in travel, known collectively as Travel 2.0. The term Travel 2.0 was first coined by PhoCusWright Inc. in late 2004, and The PhoCusWright Travel 2.0 Consumer Technology Survey is part of the organization's ongoing efforts to trace Travel 2.0's development throughout the travel industry.

The PhoCusWright Travel 2.0 Consumer Technology Survey assesses a range of technologies, including social networks, rich media, blogs, RSS, podcasting, mobile technology, tagging and online maps. The survey's analysis identifies technology adoption rates, overall trends associated with various demographic factors, and patterns of influence during the travel shopping and buying process.

Also among its findings:

• More Americans have used Web 2.0 technologies overall than have used them in the process of shopping for travel.

• Most travelers visit between two and five Web sites when shopping for travel online, and comparing prices is by far the most common reason for visiting multiple sites. At the same time, travelers who visit the most sites are likely to be motivated by a desire to read traveler reviews, research destinations, and purchase tickets to events or attractions.

• Nearly everyone is familiar with online maps, but RSS and tagging go largely unnoticed. Fifty-nine percent of Americans are unfamiliar with RSS and 55% are unfamiliar with tagging.

• Half of people who read blogs read travel blogs.

Virtual World Marketing Gets Reality Check in 2007


It was a year of ups and downs for virtual worlds, as well as the companies that jumped on the bandwagon of creating virtual advertising and branded worlds. As 2007 began, the virtual world environment Second Life was riding high on a wave of interest from users and advertisers, but as time went on, many marketers and agencies began to question the return on investment of their virtual projects.

"2007, especially early 2007, was the year of Second Life," said Greg Verdino, chief strategy officer for Crayon, a marketing consultancy. "Late '06 through '07 was this interesting virtual world rollercoaster ride, where coming into '07 everybody thought they had to be in Second Life, and they didn't know why."

By March, Second Life had over 1.3 million users, and companies ranging from Microsoft to Starwood Hotels to Reuters had launched a presence in the world. But the success of their branding efforts fell into question, as advertisers had difficulty providing the metrics needed to measure success, or simply didn't approach the environment in the right way to promote a brand, Verdino said.

"A lot of the problems with marketing in virtual worlds stem from brands and their agencies thinking you can just parade into a virtual world and take it over as if you belonged there all along. The 'a-ha' moment happened in 2007 when some of the big early brands that entered the virtual space pulled out," he said. "People did a lot of stupid stuff in virtual worlds that they shouldn't have been doing."

Second Life continues to grow and attract the attention of major media firms and advertisers, including CBS and its CSI franchise. Greater competition is also cropping up from Web worlds oriented around specific demographics, especially children and teenagers. Coca-Cola funded PG-13 virtual realm There.com and CosmoGirl. Meanwhile Disney acquired kid-aimed virtual world Club Penguin and switched its own ToonTown offering to a subscription model. Nickelodeon jumped into the mix with Nicktropolis.

"The kid's space is exploding," said Sibley Verbeck, CEO of the Electric Sheep Company, a virtual worlds media and technology agency which recently reorganized to shift its strategy for 2008. "The non-kids space, for teens and adults, is growing quite a bit as well, and we're seeing [longer-term] projects and fewer quick hit marketing projects."

As the virtual worlds industry moves into 2008, Verbeck and others predict lessons learned from 2007 will mean fewer small and rushed campaigns will be created, and instead advertisers will look for opportunities to create larger projects tied to quality content.

"People jumped in without a strategy or a plan; there was no quality content to tie to a brand, so user [went] in and moved on," said Christopher Sherman, executive director of Virtual Worlds Management, a media company. "Now you're going to see content tied to the brand, and high quality content coming out of Disney and Warner Bros and the CSI stuff. Just like any advertising medium you have to tie your brand to quality content. The risk will be much lower for the advertisers and the brands because people that are experienced with creating content are getting into the space."

And as in 2007, dollars and cents will shape the virtual world campaigns of 2008, said Verbeck.

"You're going to see a lot more and wider variety of businesses making money off virtual worlds," he said. "Too much was done over the last year and a half that didn't involve money, and that's why you've seen a down side."

Mobile Leads Online Ad Spend in Japan

JANUARY 2, 2008

Handsets are primed for marketers.

In 2007, the Japanese online advertising market was estimated to be worth between $3.4 billion (Dentsu) and $4.1 billion (PricewaterhouseCoopers). By 2011, Dentsu projects that Japan’s online ad market value will be $6.8 billion; PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts a somewhat higher $7 billion.

Japan’s leading advertising agency, Dentsu Group, tracks the island nation's online advertising market in three segments: search ads, mobile ads and fixed Internet ads, a category that lumps together banner, e-mail, rich media, streaming video and (non-search) text advertisements.

By Dentsu's reckoning, search spending accounted for 27% of Japan’s online ad marketing in 2007, a figure significantly lower than in the United States (40%) and the United Kingdom (60%). By 2010, Dentsu predicts search will reach just 30% of Japanese online ad spending.

Dentsu also estimated that Japan’s mobile ad market grew by 42.5% in 2007. Mobile advertising is expected to remain the fastest-growing segment through 2010. Dentsu forecasts double-digit growth for the entire Japanese online ad industry to 2011, when growth is expected to slow to 9.6%.

Online advertising grew from 3% to 6% of all ad spending between 2004 and 2006, according to Dentsu research.

Shop by phone gets new meaning

Teen-agers at a Metropark in San Francisco from left, Britany Ernst, Christopher Tan, Christine
An iPhone screen displays an offer for a CD, bearing the store's name, seen in the background.

By Jayne O'Donnell, USA TODAY
Alan Brody, a 15-year-old jazz drummer and high school freshman, doesn't have the interest or time to hang out in shopping malls. So he browses the Internet on his cellphone, using a search service that has helped him find everything from Hanukkah gifts to computer software.

Brody, of Arlington, Va., also does mobile searches for his 55-year-old mother, and would send her pictures of items he sees in stores, except Sandy Brody says she "wouldn't know what to do with them."

"This manages the time looking, so I don't have to spend three hours shopping," Brody says of the Slifter service he uses on both his phone and home computer.

YOUNG SHOPPERS: How they use technology

Parents may often shop at the same stores as their children these days, but few shop anything like their kids do. Teens and twentysomethings are twice as likely as their elders to use mobile devices for tasks other than talking. And they are far more likely to opt in for text promotions, mobile coupons and mobile search services.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Teens

The mobile facility of their young customers has also left retailers with a lot of catching up to do. Some major retailers, including Nordstrom (JWN) and Macy's (M) in some regions, don't have their full store inventories available for mobile searches, and some products pop up as available only online. Mobile coupons can't be scanned at the registers, which slows down the process. And shoppers using mobile devices often can't complete a transaction with a brick-and-mortar store on the devices.

"The kids, especially these 'digital millennials,' are out in front of the retailers," says Laura Evans, retail practice chief for the digital marketing agency Resource Interactive. Evans' company coined the term digital millennials to describe the technology savvy of Generation Y, generally considered those born between 1982 and 2000.

The 14-to-24-year-old members of Gen Y, those most invested in digital technology, "expect on-demand experiences," says Evans. "Part of 'on demand' is 'I can access retailers anytime, anywhere, and that's not limited because I'm not sitting at my computer.'

"They are definitely more comfortable with technology and are definitely pushing technology," she says. "They have used it since the beginning of their lives."

It's not that stores aren't trying to go higher-tech. Mobile retailing site mPoria is rapidly signing up retailers, going from eight to more than 130 since the start of 2007. Mobile couponing company Cellfire's discounts can now be used at more than 250 merchants, including retail and restaurant chains, up from 10 in January.

While mobile company Slifter helps shoppers find items in a geographic area, NearbyNow helps them search anywhere in its 200 member malls. All the mall retailers are part of NearbyNow for at least basic searches — for brands of jeans, but not individual styles or products, for instance — and more than 70% offer full access to their inventories. And retailers are experimenting with a variety of text-message campaigns to see what best draws in the young crowds.

Metropark, which targets teens to thirtysomethings with its casual clothing and music-oriented stores, is part of NearbyNow's network and used the service to test a text-message promotion earlier this month in San Francisco. Throughout the day, more than 10 plasma TVs around the store and in the windows flashed codes that shoppers could text to receive a "special offer." The dozens who did so received a free CD with a compilation of music mixed by Metropark that would usually come only with a $75 purchase.

Metropark CEO Renee Bell and colleagues decided to pursue text-message marketing after they attended a Gwen Stefani concert in April and saw how many young people were texting each other and having their messages appear on a giant screen by the stage.

"I do see this as the future," she says. Her customers are among "the leaders in this texting phenomenon." But she doesn't exactly understand the attraction of typing on tiny keyboards. "I don't text," says Bell, 46. "I don't know how they have the patience. It's just as easy to call." Bell says sending text promotions to a broader audience that includes regular customers would be more effective at reaching people who aren't in the stores or walking by them.

But it could also be a safety risk, as NearbyNow CEO Scott Dunlap learned last year. The company had to stop sending messages offering free items to the first people who showed up in stores because it was causing near-stampedes, and mall security was worried someone was going to get hurt.

Dunlap, 38, started the company two years ago after becoming frustrated on a shopping trip with his wife, who was looking for a pair of Ferragamo boots she saw in a magazine. "I thought, 'It sure would be convenient if I could pull (inventory information) up on a mobile phone,' " he recalls.

A mobile way of life

Brody balances his time studying and practicing with his jazz groups with shopping and amateur movie making. During a trip to Tysons Corner Center mall in McLean, Va., earlier this month, he used his cellphone to look for a few things on his list, which included tuxedo and Hawaiian print shirts for gigs, earring cases for his mother and younger sister, Ilana, plus a digital camera and backpack for Ilana

Despite his enthusiasm for the technology, using a really small screen to shop isn't without its frustrations, even if you're 15. Neither was the service.

A search for earring cases while sitting in the mall brought up only websites. No Hawaiian print shirts were found, and tuxedo shirts came up at the Macy's at a mall in the next town, not at the Macy's in the mall he was in. Still, Brody has found software he wanted at the Apple (AAPL) store and a backpack at an area Staples (SPLS) store using the service.

What's known as m-commerce — the ability to shop and buy using a mobile device — is still in its infancy.

While patient teens can and do buy products from websites using their cellphones, purchasing directly from stores where products are found using the search services is typically not possible.

"While the technology is there and phones are enabled to do a lot of these types of things, when it comes to using it to make a purchase, the infrastructures with retailers are not built or established yet," says Evans.

That's a point of contention among many young people.

"I wish that we had more ways to pay for things via your mobile, such as in stores like in other countries," says David Mancini, a 22-year-old student at the University of Akron who gets mobile coupons from Cellfire. "Just hold your phone, and it can be deducted from your bank account … kind of like a mobile wallet."

Philip Moussavi of Bethesda, Md., was recently able to do much of his Christmas shopping on his cellphone while at a movie he didn't like. He bought gifts ranging from apparel to electronics on mobile commerce company mPoria's site.

"You usually don't have the computer in front of you," says Moussavi, 16. "I have it in my room, but I'm not usually home."

What do you think of this?

Mobile devices also help young people stay abreast of their friends' views, which are more important to them than peer opinions are to the 30-and-older crowd. These other views are easily accessible through text messages and photos, as well as social-networking sites, including Facebook. Teens and twentysomethings' use of these sites are sometimes as much about retail as they are about relationships.

Mansi Trivedi, a 23-year-old advertising agency planner, says she regularly uses Facebook to help her make shopping decisions. "Groups help a lot, and so do friends' opinions," says Trivedi, who lives in Detroit. She takes pictures using her cellphone while shopping so she can upload them if necessary for group approval. She recently sent one of herself in a hat to a female friend in India to gauge her opinion before buying it.

How other teens and twentysomethings shop on the run:

•Stevie Morgan-Cline, 23, is planning a wedding while she attends law school and works part time. She used her cellphone and BlackBerry while looking for her wedding dress and making a recent car purchase, and puts them to use almost every time she's in a mall.

"Having mobile devices helps me shop and make big purchase decisions when I normally wouldn't have time to do so," says Morgan-Cline, of Columbus, Ohio. "Since most stores won't let me bring in a camera, I have taken to using my cellphone to take pictures, and then I send them to my BlackBerry so I can compare dresses while I am in different stores."

She'll even use her BlackBerry to compare online prices with store prices, and has found that with free shipping, it sometimes pays to buy it online while she's standing in the store. "When you are really researching a purchase, you don't have to wait to get to a computer. So it makes it easier to find deals," she says.

•Tapan Shatapathy, 27, has made shopping through his BlackBerry or iPhone practically a hobby.

The El Segundo, Calif., software product manager bought two TVs, four laptops, an Xbox, a PlayStation Portable, DVD box sets, routers and an extra hard drive, all on his mobile devices, monitoring sale prices through his multiple phones and e-mail boxes. He's got his e-mail set up so messages touting new deals get filtered into different folders, which he either watches like a hawk or ignores until it's time to go through and delete. "If you want a good deal, there's always a time limit or limited quantities," he says. "If you're not quick enough, you're done."

•Cutting out coupons is too much of a hassle for 17-year-old Caroline Nguyen of Orange, Calif. But like most young people, she loves getting a deal. She gets mobile coupons sent by Cellfire and shows the image to restaurants, including Wienerschnitzel and T.G.I. Fridays, to get, say, 99-cent fries. Nguyen says she'd love to have coupons to more restaurants and retailers.

"I think it could be something really big, because it's easier than cutting out coupons from the newspaper," she says.

Cellfire CEO Brent Dusing, 29, says he knew mobile devices were the way to reach other young people when he considered how attached they are to the gizmos. About 55% of 18-to-29-year-olds say they use only a mobile phone rather than a land line, and many teens including his younger brother rarely use e-mail, favoring text messages. Nearly 70% of Cellfire's users are under 35, and more than a quarter are 13 to 21.

"If you told most Gen Yer's, especially the teens, that you had to take one device away for a week — their PC (personal computer) or their cellphones — they would all choose to keep their cellphones," says mPoria CEO Dan Wright, who is 34.

Contributing: Sharon Silke Carty