Female tech users are the unsung heroines behind the most engaging, fastest growing, and most valuable consumer Internet and ecommerce companies. When it comes to shopping and social, women rule, and it’s not only the web as we think of it today. Women are also adopting mobile technology and are driving trends in that space like mobile video viewing and mobile payments.
In fact, so many women use technology every day that segmenting and target all of them becomes difficult. At one end of the spectrum sits the mobile warriors who are connected 24/7 and at the other the much more casual, utilitarian users who tend to be annoyed by tech intrusions. However, commonalities across all age and social grouping are prevalent. First and foremost is purchasing power. Women spend about $5 trillion, or half of the U.S. GDP, every year. And, there’s a well-known industry fact that women control or have a say in 80% (or more) of all household purchases…. An audience any marketer cannot afford to ignore.
Another common trait women share is engagement. Whether you believe that women are innately better communicators than men or not, they do talk more and text more than men every month, 28% and 14%, respectively, according to Nielsen data, and use social features of their mobile devices like SMS, MMS and social networking more when compared to men. “Online, women are more engaged than men, spending more time on fewer sites during a single sitting- a valuable attribute to advertisers. They also visit more social and community sites, which is especially important given the popularity of immediate online/social discussion during major TV events like awards shows and reality programming,” wrote Jackie Bergeron, VP-local audience insights, Nielsen Media Research, in a recent blog post.
What is comes down to is… Women aren’t interested in the gee-whiz-look-what-it-can-do abilities of technology. Instead, their approach to technology is much more practical, and they’re using technology to do more, to extend themselves as career woman, wife, girlfriend, mother, friend, sister, daughter, and volunteer.
Until now, the story has been about women catching up with men, whether that’s in use of mobile or using the Internet or social media. But, the next wave of women and technology is not just about catching up, but setting and influencing trends… from social gaming to group buying and more. In Web 3.0 world, women are poised to be key in the humanizing of technology. Streaming, intuitive, collaborative, and connected media are all very suited to women’s information and entertainment gathering habits.
About Wendi McGowan