Female web surfers overtake males in US

More teenage girls in the US went online than any other category of web surfer during the past 12 months.

The number of women using the internet in the region also surpassed that of men for the first time ever earlier this year.

Worldwide, the number of girls aged between 12 and 17 years that went online between 1999 and 2000 increased by 125 per cent, according to figures from researchers Media Metrix and Jupiter Communications. However, the number of women aged between 18 and 24 surfing the web dropped by 4.5 per cent during the same period.

Websites targeted at women enjoyed high traffic. Popular destinations include iVillage.com, The women.com Networks and On Health. But AOL and Microsoft sites saw the highest number of unique female visitors during the past 12 months.

The number of US women aged 55 and over surfing the web increased by 109.5 per cent. These women were most likely to visit sites with information about families, health and genealogy, said the survey. Meanwhile, girls aged between two and 11 years prefer TV-related websites, as well as music and education-related sites.

The researchers said that online behaviour among women in Europe reflects the US, in that European women also use the internet to gather specific information to make their lives easier. Among the most popular sites for women in Europe are those with information on retail, careers and travel.

The fastest growing online population of women in Europe is in Germany, where the number of women web surfers aged 14 or over grew from 27.3 per cent in January this year to 31.7 per cent of the total online population in June 2000.

Apart from an overall decline in female web surfers aged between 18 and 24, and a slight increase of 4.6 per cent in women aged between 35 and 44, all other female age groups outpaced the web's overall 12-month growth of 22.4 per cent.

In comparison, the greatest per cent gain among male web surfers was 45.4 per cent of 12 to 17 year olds, followed by 22.2 per cent of males 55 and over, and 17.8 per cent for those between 18 and 24.

Jupiter analyst Anya Sachrow said: "It is no longer enough to think of women as the target audience. To reach the women's market sites must pursue deeper relationships based on interests, personal identities and affinities."