ORLANDO, FLORIDA: A growing number of social networking websites are being developed for people over the age of 50.

The sites help them keep in touch with friends and chat about subjects such as diet and health care.

The Internet monitoring company, Hitwise, says 14 percent of adult Internet users are older than 55.

One website catering to these "silver surfers" is GrowingBolder.com.

Marc Middleton, the founder of this new Internet site, says GrowingBolder will be a social networking service, similar to youth-oriented sites like MySpace and Facebook, but with content relevant to older users.

He claims that on average, people over 50 years old spend more time online than any other demographic groups.

But so far they have been ignored by online entrepreneurs.

He said: "The US is such a youth worshipping culture and I think Hollywood is to blame for that more than anything else. And there's just a dramatic, revolutionary change underway right now. It's no longer people fighting aging. It's embracing aging."

Online marketing trade publisher, iMedia Connection, says more than 43 million people aged 50 or older used the Internet in 2005 -- up 21 percent from the previous year.

GrowingBolder's founders say those users generally have more money to spend and show more loyalty to certain websites.

They say less mobile seniors often use the Internet to keep in touch.

GrowingBolder's executive vice-president, Bill Shafer, said: "Think of what it can do for seniors. Think of how it can take people who are not feeling relevant anymore, who feel that they've lost their voice in society, and it gives them their voice back. It makes them relevant."

It also makes them relevant to advertisers.

For example, drug companies -- which now market many medications to older people -- are spending more online.

The pharmaceutical publication, Pharmalive, says more than 30 percent of the marketing budgets of such firms are dedicated to social networking.

GrowingBolder describes itself more like a TV station than a website, offering video stories and interviews with celebrities aged over 50.

But the number of so-called "greying Internet" sites is growing.

Boomertown, Multiply, Rezoom and others are all looking for a share of the expanding seniors market.

The founders of Growingbolder.com believe they are catering to an under-served market.

They hope their small start-up company will become a multi-million-dollar business within the next few years. - CNA/ir