Men More Mobile

Men hold a dominant share in usage of many mobile technologies, according to a new study from comScore.

Men Make Up 6 in 10 US Smartphone Users
“How Women Are Shaping the Internet” indicates that in both the US and Europe, smartphone usage is dominated by men. In the US, there is a fairly consistent 60/40 split, but in Europe the skew toward male users is slightly more pronounced, hovering around 63% compared to 37%.

comScore analysis suggests that the greater likelihood of men to be early technology adopters may explain at least part of this gender imbalance. However, comScore also says that a propensity for men to be higher wage-earners, as well as a greater share of men who have at least part of their mobile phone bill paid by their employer, could also contribute to higher male usage of more expensive smartphones.

Mobile Net Services Skew Male
Mobile Internet services (browsing, apps, and email) skew 65-70% male. However, some activities, such as playing mobile games, making ringtones, and listening to music, skew more female.

Mobile social networking has fairly even gender usage, with women accounting for about 45% of mobile social networking activity. It is also the activity with the youngest participants, averaging 29 years old, compared to an average age of 32 for mobile games (which skews about 50% female). Unsurprisingly, more expensive activities tend to have users with an older average age, and are also more likely to skew male.

Mobile Internet Demographics Reflect Cost
The age difference between PC and mobile Internet users is indicative of the need for money when browsing on the mobile device (e.g., advanced device and data plans). Women’s adoption of mobile social networking, however, is a clear indicator that mobile Internet services are moving out of early adopter mode and into the mainstream.

Men Spend More Time Viewing Online Video
Although gender rates for viewing online video are similar, men spend more time watching, according to other results from “How Women Are Shaping the Internet.” The study indicates that in nine countries and Hong Kong, virtually the same percentage of online males and females watch online video. In every instance, roughly 80% of both online men and women watch online video.

While rates of watching online video are similar, and in some areas women actually watch at a slightly higher rate, in all 10 areas researched by comScore men spend much more time on average watching online video than women.

In the US, men watch more than 15 hours of online video per month, roughly triple the average time spent by women. Similarly wide discrepancies exist in the other three countries where online video consumption is the heaviest: Canada, Germany, and the UK.