Segment: Digital Natives – Efficiency-oriented Performers

Internet milieu: Efficiency-oriented Performers (14%) – 10.0 million

As the second-youngest Internet milieu, Efficiency-oriented Performers have a high level of IT and Internet expertise. As a result, the technology they use is state of the art. They are intensive users of the Internet – for both entertainment and (even more) for professional purposes. The Internet is primarily viewed from a utilitarian-pragmatic perspective and is generally used to make work easier, simplify things and accelerate them.

Members of this group are driven by a will to succeed and perform. They have tremendous self- confidence and generally belong to upper social milieus and the young, contemporary middle class of society. In a comparison of types, the Efficiency-oriented Performers have the highest income level, possess a distinct can-do attitude and intelligently, vigorously and flexibly keep up with developments, from which they want to benefit as quickly as possible. Even though they are aware of data-protection problems, they take an optimistic approach to security issues and put their faith in their own skills and technological progress. When they go online, security issues are a secondary concern because they use the best security technology and believe that they can move about cyberspace in a targeted, reliable manner.

This group is particularly interested in the freedom-oriented structure and organization of the Internet. After all, it is the openness of the Web that unleashes the enormous innovative potential that this group wants to profit from. The Internet should not be subject to bureaucratic regulations under any circumstances whatsoever. On the other hand, this group thinks that calls for an “anarchically” organized Internet go too far. Efficiency-oriented Performers want to find a compromise between freedom and security.

Above all, they think it is up to users and, thus, themselves to act responsibly, particularly by using security software and acting in a controlled manner online. But they are happy to delegate the details to experts. With the purchase of software, a certain amount of security is acquired, and this security flows into a personal account of good faith. Ideally, the residual risk should be reduced by taking systematic steps. In this regard, they think this responsibility rests with the government and, even more, with major brand companies. They primarily expect hard facts and concrete services from these companies, not public-service information.

Efficiency-oriented Performers (14%) – 10.0 million

Attitude profile

Communication requirements and needs for action

  • Need for professional security products
  • Systemic actions by trustworthy institutions
  • Raise awareness of dealing with own data. But: facts and specific services, rather than public-service information

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* Self-evaluation on a scale of 1 = “beginner” to 6 = “expert”
** Agreement with the statement “personal data on the Internet is very secure/secure”