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Figures from Jupiter showed that between February 2001 and February 2002, the amount of females using the Internet in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK grew by 29 percent to 25.1 million. However, this is still well below the 40.1 million men that are on-line in those countries.
According to Jupiter, the female Internet audience is largest in the more Net savvy markets of Sweden (46 percent), UK (42 percent), Germany (39 percent) and France (39 percent). Unsurprisingly, the share of Internet usage drops in less technologically mature countries such as Italy (31 percent) and Spain (29 percent).
Michele Poliziani, the author of the Jupiter report, told ElectricNews.Net that he expected Internet use among women to continue to grow at a steady rate over the coming years. He added that parity between men and women in Internet use would be achieved within two to three years in markets such as Sweden and the UK, and in around four years in Italy and Spain.
Although Spanish women came in bottom of the list in terms of Internet penetration, they did spent the most time on-line. Spanish women spend around 560 minutes on the Internet every month and they tend to favour instant messaging sites and file sharing applications. On the other hand, Italian women are on-line for approximately 350 minutes every month and prefer mainstream portals such as Yahoo and MSN.
The Jupiter survey also found that in all markets except Germany it is younger women who are using the Internet most. German women aged 50 and over spend nine hours on-line every month with a lot of that time being spent on sites such as AOL that offer a wide range of communication services.
The research also highlighted the differences between men and women when it comes to using the Net. Jupiter said that women use their time on-line more effectively by visiting grocery, banking and travel sites and sending e-greeting cards. Men, on the other hand, carry out some of these tasks, but also browse, read content and download applications. On average, men are on-line for just under 10 hours per month and women for almost seven hours.
"Women tend to visit a diversity of sites that are directly relevant to their daily lives," commented Poliziani. "Whereas men generally prefer to download applications and spend time on computer-related Web sites."
Poliziani added that Web sites targeting women needed to understand what content and information will appeal to a female audience. "Clearly sites that allow women to perform a function or provide information to help them with day-to-day activities are popular," he remarked.
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