• by Masha Geller , October 1, 2001

According to reports from several Web monitoring firms, the majority of Web citizens are now women. But are their Web surfing and content habits the same as men's habits? The Content Intelligence group of Lyra Research says that men and women often use the Web differently, and that understanding those differences could be critical to the survival of Web content publishers and their advertisers.

According to "Men versus Women: How They're Different (On the Web)," there are numerous similarities and differences between the sexes when it comes to attitudes, content preferences, Internet experience and frequency of use, adoption cycle behavior, and propensity to pay for content.

After analyzing responses from several original Web-based surveys of over 2,500 adult Internet users, Content Intelligence found that female Internet users in the US are less likely to have years of online experience.

According to the findings, 51% of online women have used the Internet for less than three years, in comparison with 35% of men. Internet users with over seven years online experience are over a third more likely to be men.

Despite this, women are three to six times more likely than men to become frequent Internet users within two years. Content Intelligence says that in the first two years online, women are much more likely to go online 10 or more times a day.

Content Intelligence advises online content companies to focus on capturing the attention of online women, as women control the majority of consumer purchasing dollars.