Asian Women Flock to the Net for Communication

Results from NetValue's newest product, the e-Lifestyle Report, reveals that in nearly all Asian markets, females have increasingly made use of different facets of the Internet as their communication tools.

'Towards the end of 2001, women were definitely interested in keeping in touch with people over the Internet,' says Dr. Jack Loo, president of NetValue Limited. 'The winter of 2001 was different from past winters. There was a lot more need for individuals to get in touch with the rest of society. The Internet became a global coffeehouse, more than ever, as a means of people talking to friends, family, and even strangers about what was happening around them and how they were coping with that. So for this segment of the online audience, we saw more female users sending e-cards, sending and receiving emails, joining chatrooms, and posting up messages in forums.'

Figures from the e-Lifestyle Report show that between October and December of 2001, the proportion of women using Webmail in Hong Kong increased by 104.7%, higher than any other market. Similarly, the growth in proportion of female South Korean users going to E-card sites also outperformed other markets.

From October to December of 2001, the number of female Korean visitors going to Chat/IRC sites jumped by 17.5 percentage points, according to the e-Lifestyle Report. Singapore saw a phenomenal 440% growth in proportions of women users between October and December, emerging as the fastest market in Asia to have this particular audience logging into online chatrooms. In October the market's number of female users registered at 3.0 per cent, and in December it shot up to 16.2 per cent.

Something about airing opinions on forums and message boards attracted more of Hong Kong and Korea's female users between October and December of last year. The number of visits by women to this sector in October was at 13.4 per cent in the SAR and 4.5 per cent in Korea. Then in December, the figures rose up to 21.7 per cent and 15.4 per cent respectively. This indicates that while Korea saw a 10.9 percentage-point increase in female visitorship to Forums/Message Boards, Hong Kong experienced a jump of 8.3 percentage points and still remained as the leading market in this sector.

A spokeswoman at NetValue commented 'For ages people have kidded around that generally speaking, women are better at communicating than men. In this part of the world, the momentum is happening online--Asian women are finally taking on the communication sector by storm.'

The e-Lifestyle is a quarterly report in electronic spreadsheet with three-month's worth of data, encompassing more than 20 consumer segments for customers to select from.

All articles 2006-22 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.

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