28 July 2010 | Author: D. Warburton Search Copywriter

Women dominate the social sphere

Women spend 30 per cent more time on social networking sites than men, according to new research carried out by internet market researcher comScore.

In a new white paper titled Women on the Web: How Women are Shaping the Internet, comScore explains that social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and region-specific sites reach more women than men globally.

According to the findings, 75.8 per cent of women internet users visit social networking sites, compared to 69.7 per cent of men. Women were also found to spend longer on social networks, clocking up an average of 5.5 hours per month compared to 4 hours for men.

The same trend was identified in all five global regions surveyed, with social networks reaching the highest percentage of women in Latin America - 94.1 per cent compared to 91.9 per cent of men. Even in Asia Pacific, where only 54.9 per cent of women web users accessed social networks, the figure was still higher than that of men in the region, which stood at 50.7 per cent.

"We have seen that women across the globe share some similar usage patterns online, such as strong engagement with social networking sites," explained Linda Boland Abraham, comScore chief marketing officer and executive vice president for global development.

"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."

Beyond the social sphere, comScore also found that women around the world spend 20 per cent more time on retail sites than men, in particular price comparison websites, while US women were found to make more online purchases (12.5 per cent) than men (9.3 per cent) in February 2010.

Although men were found to dominate some areas of web use, particularly smartphones which displayed a 60/40 gender split, women spend eight per cent more time online globally, with 25 hours each month spent surfing the web.