Report: Women watch less online video than men

A new report by eMarketer finds that there are less men online than women, but more men are watching online video.

by Helen Leggatt

In the U.S. there are 97 million women online, compared with 90 million men, yet Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer analyst and author of “Women Online: Taking a New Look”, has found that not as many watch online video as men.

Women, it seems, use the internet to get things done, not for entertainment, and are less likely to visit video sites, such as YouTube. This may explain the disparity between the numbers of women viewing video – just 66 percent of women will watch online video this year, says the report, compared with 78 percent of men.

The indications are that young women will help drive an upward trend of female video viewers. Williamson predicts that by 2011 nearly 85 percent of women online will watch video, almost matching the male audience which is predicted to reach 88 percent.

Perhaps it is the lack of female-focussed content that is holding women back from watching online video. MediaPost refers to a recent YouTube video of Tyra Banks graphically addressing comments made in the press about her supposed weight gain. Her riled female audience, they say, contributed to the 2 million views the snippet from her show received on YouTube alone.

So, women are out there and they are prepared to watch online video, they just need the right content to grab their attention.