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09/09/96 - 11:20 AM ET - Click reload often for latest version

Net growth rate slows; time spent online drops

The staggering online growth rate will slow dramatically by year's end unless PC equipment costs drop substantially or access at work becomes widespread, a new report predicts.

The percentage of U.S. on-ine users 16 and older was 21.5% in May, up from 14.5% a year earlier. That's an increase of 50%, but growth is ''decelerating compared to the explosive levels seen during late 1994 and early 1995,'' when the number was doubling at an annual rate, says J. Walker Smith of Yankelovich Partners, whose second annual Cybercitizen report is out Monday.

Also dropping: The average number of hours users spend on line, from 16 a month last year to 12.

Slowing growth and declining use suggest Web sites need to become much more compelling and easy to use, Smith says. Now, ''people are expressing concerns that it's not all it's cracked up to be.''

Other recent research also suggests that while people are flocking on line, the Net doesn't seem compelling once they get there. A July IntelliQuest study found 40% of users spend less than two hours a week on line.

''All this rhetoric about cyberspace being the next TV is a little premature,'' Smith adds. ''You have to peck away at a keyboard, enter Web addresses. . . . It needs to eventually free itself from all these demands . . . and become as easy to use as a TV.''

The report is based on phone interviews May 7-June 2 with 707 on-line users; margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

By Leslie Miller, USA TODAY ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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