While African American Usage Is Up, Control Is Becoming An Issue

By Shantella Sherman
SPECIAL TO THE OBSERVER

African Americans are migrating online faster than any other group. The number grew by 19 percent over the past year, to 8.2 million users, compared with 14 percent growth for adults overall, according to recent research from Nielsen/NetRatings.

The number of Black and Hispanic surfers is expected to surge 32 percent each over the next two years, nearly double the 17 percent growth estimated for overall Net usage.

Blacks also spent more than 9.5 hours cruising the Web last August, a surge of 22 percent over the year before, while the average Net user's time online increased just 12 percent, to nearly 10.5 hours.

The whole idea of the digital divide fight was to make sure that Blacks had the same access to information, but the data being presented is strictly in terms of dollars and cents said Kaddim Hassir of the Delaware-based BlackGround, a research company examining the true ownership of Black fronted companies.

"The companies that surveyed and researched these figures did so in order to assess what we are doing on the Web and if we are purchasing things, exactly what we are buying. This may not necessarily be a good thing for us in the long run," Hassir said.

Indeed Target Market News, a Chicago company that collects data on ethnic markets, did report that music and videos were more affable to the African American shopper online than regular sites and that Blacks spend $2.3 billion a year in entertainment - $523 million on prerecorded music.

Another net researcher Cyber Dialogue, reported that it was no surprise that nearly 40 percent of Black net surfers listen to music online compared to 24 percent of surfers overall.

Almost a third watch movies and videos online, and 15 percent view sports clips via the Web - higher by nine and six percentage points, respectively, than the interest expressed by surfers overall.

BlackPlanet.com, the Web's most-visited Black-oriented site, with 1.5 million unique visitors in November is owned Community Connect, a company that maintains a roster of ethnic-oriented sites.

"Herein lies another disappointing thing wherein we are not controlling our images and ideas," said Cinque S. Sengbe, who updates Black-owned sites on SearchBlack.com.

"I just want to name some sites, which most people assume, are Black-owned controlled and conceived, but have White ownership.

"Black Voices (www.blackvoices.com) is owned by the Tribune Media Corporation, not Barry Cooper. Blackfamilies.com (www.blackfamilies.com) is owned by Cox Interactive Media, not John Pembroke. Cybersoul (www.cybersoul.com) is owned by HBP.

"If it was not important to control the Black images in cyberspace White firms would not want to," Sengbe added.

Sengbe is adamant about bringing a certain amount of awareness to African Americans on the net.

On the flip side, taking full advantage of the upswing in Blacks on the net is now-defunct BET Tonight host Tavis Smiley, who will host a series of tech symposiums across the country beginning in Los Angeles in February.

Pulling together celebrities like Prince, Chuck D., Herbie Hancock, Steve Harvey and Sinbad, the free symposium, expo, educational seminars and celebrity mixers will go hand in hand.
The expos will be held in conjunction with Microsoft, whose chairman Bill Gates is also slated to attended and speak at the events.

Our goal is to make sure that African American, Hispanic and other ethnic businesses have the same e-commerce opportunities that every other business has," he said.