The Time is Now for Women to Stand Up and Start Up

More than two decades later, as I’ve moved from traditional media marketing to digital media marketing at Comscore, I frequently find myself asking the same question. The digital world is increasingly dominated by the thoughts, actions and intentions of women, but as I travel from meeting to meeting and conference to conference in our industry, I often find myself as one of the relatively few females in any given room.

To be clear, I’m certainly not suggesting that men are not effective at marketing to women. On the contrary, I’ve worked with some brilliant marketers who were equally effective marketing to both genders, including some of the men on that elevator on my first day at P&G. But the issue is this: marketing products to women and inventing products that deliver value to them are two different things. Given the way things stand currently, it’s quite possible - even likely - that some business or technology ideas might never find their way into the startup funnel if viewed only though the lens of males.

That’s also not to say that women are entirely absent from the picture, either. Of course we have some great examples of digital media companies started by women and a handful examples of women who have become high-profile CEOs. But the operative word is ‘handful.’ No one would argue they are few and far between.

This gap is perhaps most pronounced in the start-up community. Most tech startup companies with which I’m familiar have male founders. Of all the VC’s I know I can count exactly three women. On a percentage basis, that’s probably in the low single digits. Claire Cain Miller of the New York Times recently addressed this trend in her terrific article “Why So Few Women in Silicon Valley?” in which she notes that women own 40% of private businesses in the U.S. but create only 8% of venture-backed startups.

Now maybe this gender disparity is not particularly noteworthy or an issue even worthy of consideration. After all, technology has often been the purview of men, so doesn’t the composition of the start-up community merely reflect that fact? That may be the case. But it is only when you understand just how important women are to the fabric of the digital media landscape that you begin to see the opportunity for women in our industry – and why the time is now for women to stand up and start up.

Women Dominate Many Aspects of the Digital Media Environment
One of the amazing things that arises from having access to the wide variety of data that Comscore analyzes on a daily basis is the identification of truly interesting trends. Recently, we took a deeper dive into the digital behaviors of women across the globe, including the comparison of those behaviors against men in 40 individual countries. What we found was incredibly illuminating. Not only should women not be ignored, but in fact they were the key drivers behind many of the most relevant trends online today. Consider the following:

Women are More Engaged Online Overall
Female Internet users are more engaged. On a worldwide basis, women spend 8% more time on the Internet than men. They go online 58 times per month on average, more than the 54 times per month for men. They also spend about 4 minutes more per day online than men (82 minutes vs. 78 minutes).

Women Control the Pocketbooks Online, Too
In the U.S., women make up about half the internet population, but generate 58% of dollars spent online. Interestingly, while men and women account for about the same share of spending at the online pure-play retailers (Amazon, Dell, Overstock, etc.), women account for twice the share (67% vs. 33%) of online spending at multi-channel retailers like Wal-Mart and Best Buy.

Women are Heavier Social Media Users
Women have always spent more time on social networking sites than men, but the percentage of time women spend is increasing at a faster rate than for men. Women have often been early adopters of technologies that emphasize sharing and communication, such as photo-sharing, chat and IM. Interestingly, women of all ages tend to become highly engaged in social media. While a smaller percentage of older women use social networking, once they discover it, they are just as engaged as younger women.

Women Have a Few Surprising Interests Online
Women engage in several activities online that are more commonly associated with male interests. For example, they exhibit about the same interest in online gambling as men (so beware those female pokers that sit down at your table!). There is also a large and growing interest among women in online gaming, which includes many women over the age of 35. Additionally, the percentage of women who consume sports content is trending upward at a rapid pace, and is approaching that of men. Women and men are pretty evenly matched in terms of financial news content, with women visiting tax sites more often than men.

What’s interesting thing about these findings is that with few exceptions, they were true across the globe. When women are relatively heavier users of a particular content category, the same thing is often true in opposite corners of the world. That means any stakeholder in the digital advertising value chain – from developers to publishers to agencies – can use this information to employ effective marketing strategies and execute them on a global scale. It’s clear that women are shaping the Internet in some pretty important ways, and it’s time to begin thinking more seriously about how to seize the opportunity.

Marketing to Women through Digital Media = Massive Untapped Opportunity
Our research helps illustrate just how massive an opportunity exists for marketing to women and the advantage of developing technology and products that speak to their needs and improve their lives. While men will continue to play a role in start-ups that serve this market, they are no substitute for a woman.

My hope is that this study shines a light on this important issue and encourages women to be more proactive in the startup space. It demonstrates that given Internet access, women at any age, in any culture, will embrace web technology that delivers value for them. And more and more women across the world are gaining access every day. It’s important for both inventors and funders of new technologies to understand that the definition of ‘value’ on the Web is different in many cases for women than it is for men. In my opinion, therein lie the multitude of opportunities. It would be a shame for the digital media economy if these opportunities are missed.

Download: Women on the Web: How Women are Shaping the Internet