According to the new data by market research firm eMarketer, men spend more time browsing the Web than women; they also use social networks more often and more positively react to advertisements. The report stresses that gender informs online behavior more than other factors, such as race or ethnicity. The firm analyzed the habits of Internet use in men against those in women, partially because males are not in the majority online (technically) and also because gender "is a distinguishing factor of Internet use, informing online behavior and attitudes."

According to the eMarketer report, there are nearly 96 million men browsing the web in 2009. When compared against the 103.2 million female users, that puts men at 48.2 per cent of the overall Internet population. Into consideration are taken those who go online at least once during a month from any location. The firm says that in spite of the fact that the Internet population in the United States will continue to go up, by 2013 males will only make up just 47.9 per cent of the group, and at 105.9 million users will still be the minority.

On average, men are spending online approximately 4.4 hours longer compared to their female counterparts. In addition, they are also less likely to be 'put off' by something they find while browsing this or that web site, and are not bothered by advertising and branding as women are. Lastly, very small amount of respondents in the survey said that they have 'never' been online, just 15 per cent of men when compared to 20 per cent of women. According to eMarketer, 56 per cent of women in a poll of more than 4,000 Internet users had absolutely minimum tolerance of advertisers on sites that contain ads, compared with 48.3 percent of men. "Still, any negative reaction should be avoided-it is not what advertisers are paying for," warns the report.

The firm also says that the male Internet population in America is evenly split between individuals under and over the age of 35, with the largest group falling between the ages of 35 and 44. "Marketers may be overlooking a valuable demographic if they target only 18-to-34-year-old males," writes eMarketer. Advertising messages that carry mostly information about sex-related subjects and focus on college humor do not appear to be popular with the millions of male Internet users who are in search of products and services, as well as jobs, while shopping and communicating with friends and family, the firm added. Advertisements that respect their roles as fathers, partners and friends are becoming more and more popular and get more attention of both men and women.

In November 2008, Nielsen Online recorded an average of 60 personal computer sessions per male Internet user compared with an average of 54 sessions for female users. It was also found that when it comes to men, they prefer user-generated web sites like YouTube. As to women, they appeared to give more preference to video streams of TV shows, such as those offered from Hulu, for example. Gender is just one out of few factors that affects what men and women do online. "It does not dictate individual actions any more than age, race or ethnicity are absolute determinants," says Lisa E. Phillips, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, Men Online. However, gender does play a very basic role in human life-and that is borne out even on the Internet, she added.

Tags: Gender Studies, Men's Studies

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