Women Spend More Time on Social Networking Sites

Women spend more time doing a lot of things than men – giving birth, for example – and now, according to the latest numbers from comScore, taking part in interactions on social networking sites appears to be another one of those things.

Globally, social networking sites reached 75.8 percent of all women online in May, compared to 69.7 percent of all men online.

Although females accounted for 47.9 percent of total unique visitors to the social networking category, they consumed 57.0 percent of pages and 56.6 percent of total minutes spent on those sites, according to comScore. Also, females averaged 5.5 hours per visitor in May.

Males accounted for 52.1 percent of unique visitors to these sites, consumed 43.0 percent of pages and 43.4 percent of total minutes spent on social networking sites. They also averaged 3.9 hours per visitor.

“We have seen 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,” said Linda Boland Abraham, chief marketing officer and executive vice president for global development.

In Latin America, social networking sites reached 94.1 percent of females online, compared to 91.9 percent of males. In North America, the split was 91.0 percent/87.5 percent.

Across the Atlantic, the split was 85.6 percent/80.6 percent in Europe, and across the Pacific, the split was 54.9 percent/50.7 percent in Asia Pacific.

Women spent an average of about 25 hours per month online, 8 percent more than men.

On a global scale, women spend 20 percent more time on retail sites than men do, with comparison shopping and apparel sites reaching 24.8 percent and 18.7 percent of women, respectively, according to comScore.

Women are more frequent online buyers than men in the U.S., with 12. 5 percent of the fairer Internet user base making an online purchase in February, compared to just 9.3 percent of men.

Online video watching is done more by men in most countries, though women spend a “much higher share of their time watching videos on YouTube than men.”

One area where men in the U.S. and Europe can boast an edge in is the use of smart phones, which has a split of about 60/40 in favor of males.

Source:

http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2010/7/Social_Networking_Sites_Reach_a_Higher_Percentage_of_Women_than_Men_Worldwide