Toronto (March 27, 2008)—American women are now ahead of men in activities ranging from streaming on network TV websites, frequent DVR use and casual gaming to participation in social media such as MySpace and Facebook, according to the results of the Women and Digital Lifestyles report released today by Solutions Research Group.
Among the key findings:
- More women stream TV shows from network TV sites than men -
15% American online women did so last month compared to 11%
of men. Moms with kids under the age of six and English-speaking
Hispanic women were the most active women’s segments with 19%
and 21% streaming, respectively.
- Women in DVR households are more enthusiastic about them. They
use their DVRs 9.3 times per week on average, compared to 8.3 for
men. And DVR-owner women with kids watch 56% of their TV on a timeshifted basis, much higher than the average of 42% among male DVR owners.
- When it comes to gaming, 70% played a PC game in the last month vs. 69% of
men. Among teen girls and young women 12-24, 82% participated and among
those 40+, 66% played PC games.
- Men continue to lead console gaming (Xbox, PlayStation, Wii, et al) with
50% participating but the gap is narrowing. Overall, 38% of women played a
console game in the last month, up from 35% a year before. Among teen girls
and young adults 12-24, 69% play console games (up from 63%) and among
25-29, 55% play console games, up from 47%.
- Top handhelds and consoles for girls and women were: Sony PS2, Game Boy,
Xbox, Nintendo 64 and DS. Women were also more likely to have a Sony PSP
than men.
- African-American women are particularly engaged in console games, with two in-
three participating.
- Women also lead the social networking crowd where 42% of online women (vs. 41% of online men) visited
a social media site in the last month up from 30% the year before. In the “Young Singles” segment, 74% visit
social media sites. But even in the older “Empty Nester” segment of online women 40+, participation nearly
doubled from 14% to 25% driven by a desire to connect with kids and family.
- Shop till you click? Although “Empty Nester” women over 40 were less likely
to be above-average in any aspect of technology use, the major exception was
online shopping. Sixty-four percent of empty nester online women bought
something online compared to only 55% of women 25-39 and 58% of men.
- The biggest gap between men and women related to movie and TV show
downloads (peer-to-peer sites or sites like iTunes) where men were 1.5 to 2
times more likely than women to participate.
- And interestingly, while men were more likely to transfer songs from their PC to a portable unit, women were more likely to transfer photos from their digital cameras to their PCs, underlining the importance of lifesharing aspect of social media for women.
Women and Digital Lifestyles special analysis was designed to understand the emerging digital lifestyles of American women and key drivers of adoption in four lifestages: young singles, moms with young kids, moms with tweens/teens and empty nesters. Th e primary data source for the analysis is SRG’s Digital Life America syndicated study based on tracking studies of the U.S. online population and accompanying focus groups. Th e special analysis is based on trending interviews with 1,508 online U.S. women between October 06 and November 07, complemented by 517 additional interviews in February 08. Th e sample for the study represents the regional, age and ethnic make-up of the U.S. women’s online population on a proportionate to population basis.
To maintain an unbiased perspective, Solutions Research Group funds its own syndicated research. For more information, go to www.srgnet.com.
