Growing Demand For Second Hand Marketplaces For Digital Content

There is a growing demand from consumers globally to gift, share and resell digital content and video games according to research findings unveiled today by WorldPay, a global leader in payment processing, risk and alternative payments.

According to The Download on Digital Report, a survey of more than 11,400 consumers that have purchased digital content and video games in the last 12 months in seven major global economies, two out of three (65%) consumers would be interested in selling some of the digital and video game products they have purchased, with 57% interested in purchasing second-hand content.

Consumers in China had the biggest appetite for selling on content, with 82% of respondents keen to resell, followed by South Korea (78%) and India (66%). Consumers in South Korea had the biggest appetite for purchasing second hand content (70%), followed by US citizens (60%) and consumers in India (57%). Almost half (49%) of UK consumers were interested in being able to resell their digital purchases, and 55% were keen to buy second-hand digital products.

While the demand for the sale and purchase of second-hand digital content is a sign of a maturing consumer base, the research also found that the downloading of digital content is rapidly becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy – 69% of consumers who had purchased gaming content and 64% of consumers who had purchased digital content had done so due to the closure of physical shops, many of which have closed as a result of the growing digital purchase market.

Karl MacGregor, VP Digital, WorldPay commented: “As the digital content and video game industries evolve following massive growth and the closure of physical stores, we are seeing a growing demand from consumers to sell on or exchange content they have purchased. This issue is not going away. Despite the legalities currently surrounding ownership of content, the industry needs to do more to educate consumers on what they can legally do with the content they’ve purchased, and identify ways they can meet these demands.”

It’s an interesting point and I can see why people would want to be able to trade their digital items, since who wouldn’t want to offload something they no longer use such as a game or movie and get some cash in return. Yet I think this would come with some consequences as PC games for example are often cheaper since there isn’t a second hand market for the platform, albeit this is enforced by things like Steam activations, Origin and UPlay which limit the use of any serial keys, even if your game was a physical copy.

MacGregor concludes: “Converting consumers into paying customers has always been an inherent challenge for digital merchants because of the proliferation of ‘free’ content. Consumers need to be presented with a call to action to pay for content with a clear upgrade path in place to distinguish between free and paid-for content. Subscriptions currently lag behind one-off payments largely due to the commitment involvedbut they are growing in popularity. Merchants need to consider offering the appropriate payment model depending on content as consumer preferences differ depending on the digital purchase.”

Thank you WorldPay for providing us with this information.