Kerry Brown

By region, women in North America form 50.9% of 15+ Internet population. In Latin America and Europe, the numbers are pretty similar – 49.3% and 49.1% respectively. In South-east Asia, the female share is 47.1%, diluting to 44.5% if you stretch to cover Asia Pacific.

In her presentation, “The Digital Habits of Women” at WITX, Kerry Brown, vice president, South-east Asia, for comScore Inc, tackled four other myths.

1. Women are more engaged on the web

The average 15+ female spends 5% less time online than her male counterpart. Women web users in North America spend the most time online while women in Asia Pacific shows the opposite trend.

However, where women in Singapore spend the most time online are in retail, education, email, blogs and travel.

Data also shows that women use the web to communicate with IM (Instant Messaging), which is popular with both younger and older females. Women in older age groups are more likely to use IM than men in the same age groups.

2. Men and women are equally engaged in social networking

Women are more social online, and spend a greater share of time on social networking, email and IM than men. Worldwide, women spend 33% of time on these social activities vs 26% for men. This pattern also plays out in markets such as Singapore, Malaysia and India.

And it appears there is no age barrier – women of all ages spend more time on social networking sites than men do.

For example, women in Singapore are more likely to visit Twitter than men: 21% of women visited in April, compared to only 19% of men. Again, in Singapore, young women dominate blogging activity.

3. Men make more purchases online than women

Women outpace men in average time spent on retail sites. While men and women are equally likely to visit retail sites, and reach is uniformly high (65-72%) across age groups, the average time spent shopping online is markedly higher for women in twenties and above 55

Women are driving growth of coupon-type sites and online travel agents see heavier usage from younger women as well. While there are no distinct differences in terms of percent visiting online travel agents, women spend more time on these types of sites than men do.

Visits to airline sites follow a similar pattern. In Singapore, younger women tend to spend more time on airline sites than the men.

4. Women are driving online video

Women consistently lag behind men in online video viewing and more so in the west than in the east. The most significant differences in women’s and men’s average durations are in countries where video usage overall is the heaviest: Germany, the UK, the US, and Canada.

But women spend a much larger share of their time on YouTube.

And though the penetration of video among women is only slightly behind that of men in Singapore and Malaysia, women spend far less time watching video online.

In summary, Brown said, “Women are shaping the future of the net, so align your products to suit their needs as when they engage they buy.”

View full presentation here.