Women take over online

Young women aged 18 to 34 made up 21.3% of the UK female population in 2008. Looking specifically at their behaviour online, they accounted for 35% of the female population online and spend more time online than males their age. Opportunities lie in engaging female internet users through search strategies, social media and other entertainment venues, while pitfalls await marketers who address this audience online only through their traditional roles as mothers and care givers.

Women are now the majority on the web

Just as they do in the general population, females will outnumber males in the UK internet population in 2008. eMarketer estimates 19.2 million females will go online, up 6.7% over 2007. Although the UK internet population as a whole is projected to grow 12.3% between 2008 and 2012, the female online population will increase at a faster pace, 14.6% during the same time frame. Women spend almost as much time online as men. Indeed, females between 25 and 49 spend more time online than males the same age.


Source: eMarketer, 2008

A Markets & Research Opinions International (MORI) survey of online internet users, taken earlier in December 2005 at the height of the Christmas holiday shopping season, showed 53% of internet users were male, compared to only 47% female.


Recent Hitwise data bears out this shift. In February, females accounted for 51% of the internet traffic to sites tracked by Hitwise.


The UK female internet population is aging, too. In 2008,women aged 18 to 49 made up nearly two-thirds of the online female population, according to eMarketer estimates. Older women (age 50-plus) account for almost 22%, while girls under 17 made up just 12.7%.

• Females in the UK are most drawn to text ads on mobile phones - 60% compared to 47.6% of males. Pictures and videos are of less importance, so marketers targeting women could use those assets sparingly, unless the goods to be sold are best sold visually.

• Men and women use email and job sites in equal percentages, but education, training and health information sites attracted more female involvement.

• Females are less likely than males to make a distinction between natural and paid search results. In the Tamar/Tickbox survey, only 39% of female respondents said they were aware of the difference, compared with 53% of males. Of the female respondents who knew the difference, 92% preferred natural search results, believing the results were more relevant to their needs.

According to Gartner, 26% of UK bank customers— about 14 million adults—now bank online. Hitwise data shows that most of them (52%) are female.


Source: eMarketer, 2008

Top 10 categories with the greatest percent of traffic from UK female internet users, January 27-February 23 2008

(% of total)

1. Gambling-bingo 67.20%
2. Lifestyle-new age 65.76%
3. Gambling-games 63.27%
4. Health and medical-paramedical and ancillary 60.48%
5. Lifestyle-beauty 59.61%
6. Computers and Internet-e-greetings 59.49%
7. Health and medical-organizations 58.46%
8. Health and medical-alternative 58.39%
9. Lifestyle-pets and animals 58.33%
10. Health and medical-wellbeing 57.96%

Note: ages 18+
Source: Hitwise, provided to eMarketer, February 27, 2008

According to Gartner, 26% of UK bank customers—about 14 million adults—now bank online. Hitwise data shows that most of them (52%) are female.

UK internet users who visited bank and financial web sites, by age and gender, December 2-29, 2007

(% of total)

Gender
Male 47.98%
Female 52.02%

Age
18-24 14.10%
25-34 22.25%
35-44 21.01%
45-54 13.51%
55+ 29.12%

Source: Hitwise, “Hitwise Industry Report for Business and Finance – Banks and Financial Institutions,” January 2008. Source: eMarketer, 2008

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