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Friday
- August 11, 2000
Women Outpace Men Online
Media Metrix, Inc. and Jupiter
Communications today released a report about women's online
behavioral patterns across
various age groups and life stages. Media Metrix and Jupiter
analysts examined websites with the highest percent composition
of females in each stage of life — from schoolgirls to older
women enjoying their senior years — yielding compelling
insight on usage patterns within each age group.
Highlights from the report include:
- The number of women online
surpassed that of men for the first time ever in Q1
2000 in the U.S.
- The population of women
online is growing more rapidly than the online population
overall.
- Girls 2-11 are most heavily
concentrated within television-related Web sites, licensed
merchandise, music, and yes, learning.
- The most notable increase
by age group from 1999 to 2000 was among teen girls
12-17, which increased more than 125 percent.
- Sites with the highest
composition of females 12-17 remain firmly clustered
around several key user interests: teen-targeted fashion
magazines, shopping, and music. The number of teens
increased 126.3% over the past 12 months.
- The number of females
aged 18-24, on the other hand, decreased slightly during
the same period.
- Women 55+ have the highest
audience share within family, health, genealogy and
joke/fun pages.
- Online behavior among
women in Europe reflects the U.S. in that European
women also use the Internet to gather specific information
to make their lives easier, rather than indiscriminate
surfing across many different sites. Among the most
popular sites for women in Europe are those with information
on retail, careers and travel.
"As Internet users establish
a distinct presence across virtually all age and gender
lines, content providers continue to develop targeted websites
that mirror the needs and interests of specific populations," said
Anne Rickert, data specialist, Media Metrix. "Niche
sites may not draw the most significant number of unique
visitors overall, but they often boast a heavier concentration
of users from key demographic groups. For example, women
in the 24 to 35 age bracket are most highly concentrated
among sites offering content, advice and community focused
on childcare."
"It's no longer enough
to think of women as the target audience. To reach the
women's market sites must pursue deeper relationships,
based on interests, personal identities, and affinities," said
Anya Sacharow, an analyst at Jupiter Communications. "The
sites that will be most successful in capturing future
potential revenue from this market will target women through
deeper segmentation."
The number of female unique
visitors increased dramatically over the past 12 months
in all but two age groups, females aged 18-24, which decreased
by 4.5% and women 35-44, with only minor growth of 4.6%.
All other female age groups outpaced the Web's overall
12-month growth of 22.4%. The most dramatic growth during
the year occurred among teenage girls aged 12-17, which
increased from 1,956,000 to 4,426,000 unique visitors,
a percent change of +126.3%. Women 55 were just barely
outpaced with their unique visitor count climbing from
1,592,000 to 3,335,000 for an overall 109.5% increase.
The youngest users, girls 2-11, had notable gains of just
over 53%, as did women aged 44-54. In comparison, the greatest
percent gain among male Web users was 45.4% for 12 - 17
year olds, followed by males 55+ with 22.2% growth, and
males 18-24 with 17.8% growth.
The fastest growing online population
of females in Europe is in Germany, where the number of
females aged 14 or over grew from 27.3% in January this
year to 31.7% of the total online population in June 2000.
In terms of total unique visitors,
the properties that draw the highest number of females
reflect the top Media Metrix digital media and web properties
overall. They include familiar brands of portals, search
engines and other consolidations that routinely lead the
monthly rankings. These properties offer wide-ranging content
to a broad demographic group of users, and thus their composition
generally mirrors that of the online population as a whole.
While the Media Metrix and Jupiter
report focuses on Web sites with a high composition of
women within different age groups, the more familiar Women's
destinations generally have much higher visitor traffic
than sites ranked by composition, as they are targeted
towards a broader group of women across many age groups
and within different life stages.
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