Nielsen Wire » Asian-Americans

Asian Americans Most Active Users of Online Banking

Nielsen Wire — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 12:35:26 +0000

Millions of Americans enjoy the convenience offered by online banking. But one demographic group in the U.S. seems to have embraced this service more than others according to new research from Nielsen Claritas. Asian Americans are significantly more likely to bank online compare to non-Asian households, with 75.3 percent banking online compared to 67.4 percent of non-Asians.

But it is income rather than age or ethnicity that appears to be driving online banking usage: affluent households with incomes of $100,000 and up and with heads-of-households aged 35 or younger were just as likely to bank online whether they were Asian or not (84%). As affluence levels decrease, more Asians tend to bank online compared to non-Asian households.

With competition for new customers increasingly fierce, financial institutions would be well-served in targeting Asian families. The average Asian-American household has a mean income of $84,000 compared to $62,000 in non-Asian households. In addition, they tend to hold very high deposit levels with much of their assets in savings, money market, CDs or mutual funds accounts.

Snapshot of Asian American Households’ Banking Practices Compared to Non-Asians

Activity	Asian	Non-Asian
Reviews statements and balances	69.3%	63.6%
Pays bills	58.9%	45.7%
Transfers b/t accounts	49.4%	39.6%
Opened account	6.7%	2.9%
Deposits >$25k	46.5%	29.8%
Savings accounts	87.2%	76.1%
Variable interest money market	37.4%	21.5%
CDs	37.3%	19.7%
Mutual fund (excluding IRA/401k)	29.9%	18.4%
Source: Nielsen Market Audit syndicated survey

Asian Influence Growing In The U.S.

Nielsen Wire — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 20:02:47 +0000

Often overlooked by marketers in comparison to the tremendous growth of the Hispanic population, Asians comprise a rapidly growing segment of the U.S. population that is not only culturally diverse, but also well-educated, affluent, and media savvy. Asians are expected to continue to grow rapidly as a share of U.S. population. Although they will likely continue to be ranked the third race or ethnic group by size (behind Hispanics and African Americans), they will make up a significant share of population over the next few decades. The fusion of Asian culture into the American mainstream will continue to gain importance and will increasingly gain focus from makers and sellers of consumer products, particularly in West Coast markets and those of the Northeast.

Read more about the media preferences, shopping behavior and acculturation patterns of the Asian consumer in the latest issue of Nielsen’s Consumer Insight.

Asian-Americans Under-Prepared For Digital TV

admin — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 18:54:06 +0000

Asian-Americans are at higher risk for being left without access to TV broadcasts when the analog-to-digital television transition occurs next February, Multichannel News reported Saturday.

As of this July, 13% of Asian immigrants in the U.S. owned television sets that were unequipped to receive digital TV broadcastin, according to Nielsen.

In a separate story by the San Diego Union-Tribune on Monday, Anne Elliot, of Nielsen, noted that many unprepared households lack digital hardware for economic and cultural reasons.

Elliot told the Union-Tribune that Black and Hispanic households and people under 35 are also under-prepared for the digital switch.

As of February, more than 13 million U.S. households had TV sets that receive only analog broadcasts, according to Nielsen. Another 6 million homes have at least one TV that will no longer work after the February 18, 2009 transition to digital broadcasting.