Women A Formidable Force On The Web

Women A Formidable Force On The Web: Nielsen//Netratings

Female surfers overtake male in the US; women surge online in APAC

AUCKLAND – July 2, 2001 – E-marketers cannot afford to deny the increasing presence of women on the Web. According to Nielsen//NetRatings, female web surfers have now overtaken men in numbers in the US, and are surging onto the Net in the Asia-Pacific region.
Other trends show that women are more efficient in their web behaviour than men, and are showing an increasing willingness to purchase online.

Nielsen//NetRatings data from May 2001 shows that in the US, women now make up 52% of the total at-home Web population, and the Internet population now mirrors the offline population. (See table 1.) This trend is being replicated at various rates worldwide, but most rapidly in Asia-Pacific where in Australia, women now make up 48% of the Internet population, followed by New Zealand (46%), South Korea (45%), Hong Kong (44%), Singapore (42%), and Taiwan (41%). Since January this year, the number of female surfers has grown an average of 36% across the region. In New Zealand, the number of women who actively use the Internet each month has increased approximately 10 percent since the start of the year, to approximately 450,900 for May.

Additionally, women in Asia-Pacific spread their surfing over a longer period of time during the day, with over 50% of female surfers in APAC active between the afternoon and evening prime time hours from 4pm to 10pm*. By comparison, men’s surfing times peak later at night with more than 70% of male surfers active in each hour between 8pm and 10pm*. This trend is mirrored in New Zealand, with more than 50 per cent of women active online between the hours of 4pm and 8pm. Kiwi males’ peak surfing time is focused on 8pm and 10pm with over 65 percent of male surfers active in each hour.

Brian Milnes, managing director Pacific, ACNielsen eRatings.com, said: “Women were later adopters of the Internet but are making up for that lag now, and the speed with which they are coming online means, as a demographic, women must become a priority for most e-tailers.

“Globally we have found that women are a fussier breed of surfer than their male counterparts. Women are much more efficient in their web usage – they spend less time online as they generally know what they’re looking for and leave once they achieve their goal. E-marketers should take this tendency into account by ensuring their sites focus on ease and convenience.”

In APAC, women spent an average of 12 hours online in May, compared to men who spent 14.5 hours. In New Zealand in May, women spent an average of 5.4 hours online, compared with men who spent an average of almost 8 hours.

“In New Zealand, several local domains have met success in targeting the female demographic: ticketek, flybuys, nzjobs and pumpkinpatch,” adds Brian Milnes. “All have moved fast to establish a trustworthy brand online, and this is delivering rewards already.” (see table 2)

“In terms of online purchasing, while women have historically been more concerned about security and privacy than men, US data shows that women are just as willing to make purchases at major shopping sites with trusted brand names.”

“To win the favour of the female demographic online in the long term, e-tailers need to act now with aggressive but well-targeted marketing – establishing brand loyalty with women early on is the key to securing their online custom.”

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