The Internet: It’s Women’s Work - Global Study

Women across the world are driving some of the most mainstream aspects of the Internet —the social Web, e-commerce, shopping and consumption of user-generated content via YouTube according to online research group, comScore Inc in its report, Women on the Web: How Women are Shaping the Internet.

The report found that social networking sites reach a higher percentage of women than men globally, with 75.8 percent of all women online visiting a social networking site in May 2010 versus 69.7 percent of men.

Linda Boland Abraham, comScore chief marketing officer says understanding gender-specific differences in Web usage is valuable to any digital stakeholder looking to successfully reach and engage both women and men in the online environment.

Abraham says the findings show that women across the globe share some similar usage patterns online, such as strong engagement with social networking sites, but it’s also important to understand gender differences on a regional, country and local level, where cultural differences are continually shaping online usage and content consumption.

Globally, women demonstrate higher levels of engagement with social networking sites than men. Although women account for 47.9 percent of total unique visitors to the social networking category, they consume 57 percent of pages and account for nearly 57 percent of total minutes spent on these sites. Women spend significantly more time on social networking sites than men, with women averaging 5.5 hours per month compared to men’s 4 hours, demonstrating the strong engagement that women across the globe share with social sites.

Across each global region, Social Networking reached a higher percentage of women online than men. Social Networking’s reach among women is highest in Latin America where it reached 94.1 percent of females online, and in North America where it reached 91.0 percent of females. Europe saw 85.6 percent of its female online population visit a social networking site in May 2010, while in Asia Pacific (including Australia) reported a 54.9-percent reach.

Although men are in the majority across the global Internet, women spend about 8 percent more time online, averaging 25 hours per month on the Web.

Globally, women slightly outpace men in the adoption of Twitter, but this varies greatly by region and country. Australia and Singapore are two countries where the rate of adoption by women outpaced that of men, but in other countries the initial usage rates were similar.

In the community site category composed of a range of personal-interest sites the report says it is clear that women drive both the visiting to these sites, and their heavy usage. Older women are the most likely to visit these sites, and women in the 45-54 age group are the heaviest users.

Globally, women spend 20 percent more time on Retail sites overall than men. Among the various retail sub-categories, Comparison Shopping and Apparel sites reached the highest percentage of women at 24.8 percent and 18.7 percent, respectively, in May 2010.

In the U.S., women are more avid online buyers than men, with 12.5 percent of female Internet users making an online purchase in February 2010, compared to 9.3 percent of men.

Health sites show some of the largest overall differences in reach between female and male, with a nearly 6-point gap between global women and men.

In most countries women spend far less time watching online video than men, but women spend a much higher share of their time watching videos on YouTube than men. In Australia the report says 39% of women are watching You Tube compared with 30% male viewers.

In both the U.S. and Europe, smartphone usage is dominated by men with both markets experiencing close to a 60/40 split in smartphone adoption between the genders.

The report concludes that once women connect, they engage, embrace and drive the Internet saying it’s women’s work!

To download a copy of Women on the Web: How Women are Shaping the Internet, please visit: www.comscore.com/WomenOnTheWeb