Women prefer to chat
A study by the University of St. Gallen has investigated the motives of Swiss web users.
A study by the University of St. Gallen examined the motives of Swiss web usersBy Clemens HörlerWomen use the Internet differently than men. One reason for this is that, on average, they have less experience than men. Apart from that, communication is much more important for women than for men.
For women, communication with other people is a main motive for Internet use. For men, obtaining product information is of greatest importance. Female and male Internet users also differ considerably in other applications: continuing education, research, reading the news, the Web as a daily work tool and e-commerce are significantly more important for Internet users than for female Internet users.
This is the conclusion of the 2001 Internet Usage Switzerland study conducted by the Gottlieb Duttweiler Chair of International Trade Management at the Institute of Marketing and Retailing at the University of St. Gallen. The study not only compared the different Internet usage of men and women, but also young and older users as well as fun and professional users.
Men are more diligent online shoppers
The divergent results can partly be explained by the unequally longer Internet experience. On average, women have been online for 2.33 years, while men have been online for 2.91 years. Several studies have also shown that it is mainly experienced users who shop online. It is therefore not surprising that men spend more money online than women.
But trying to explain all the differences between men and women with this argument is certainly wrong. It is precisely the importance of communication that the Internet has, especially for female users, that cannot simply be dismissed as a beginner's characteristic.
One example of the different ways in which men and women use the Internet is the brands they use. When asked about two websites they visit regularly, women named mail providers much more frequently than men:
10.3 percent of all women surveyed cited Hotmail, compared to only 3.3 percent of men.
There were also major differences between the sexes for GMX (women: 5.4 percent, men 2.7 percent) and Caramail (women 4.2 percent, men 1.7 percent). The fact that 2.3 percent of women named Swisstalk as a frequently visited website is a further indication of the importance of the Internet as a communication medium for women. For men, the chat platform was named by only 0.9 percent of respondents.
Men attach much greater importance to financial platforms than women do: 2.4 percent named UBS and 1.8 percent Swissquote as frequently clicked on sites, compared with only 1.3 percent and 0.4 percent respectively among women.
The top seven regularly visited sites among men are Yahoo, Altavista, Bluewin, Hotmail, GMX, UBS and Swiss" among women are Yahoo, Hotmail, Altavista, Bluewin, GMX, Caramail and Search.ch. The rankings are not representative of actual traffic to the sites. Thomas Rudolph, professor at the Gottlieb Duttweiler Chair, emphasized that the results are more a subjective statement that primarily provides information about brand awareness and the personal relevance of the website in question.
Despite the need for communication: Women appreciate remaining anonymous on the web more than men and would be less willing to sell their profiles to companies. Men are not yet surfing inhibitionists either: The majority of male users appreciate remaining anonymous on the Internet. The majority of men and women reject passing on profiles to interested companies, even if this would allow the companies in question to serve them more specifically and improve their offerings.
Structure of the study
For women, communication with other people is a main motive for Internet use. For men, obtaining product information is of greatest importance. Female and male Internet users also differ considerably in other applications: continuing education, research, reading the news, the Web as a daily work tool and e-commerce are significantly more important for Internet users than for female Internet users.
This is the conclusion of the 2001 Internet Usage Switzerland study conducted by the Gottlieb Duttweiler Chair of International Trade Management at the Institute of Marketing and Retailing at the University of St. Gallen. The study not only compared the different Internet usage of men and women, but also young and older users as well as fun and professional users.
Men are more diligent online shoppers
The divergent results can partly be explained by the unequally longer Internet experience. On average, women have been online for 2.33 years, while men have been online for 2.91 years. Several studies have also shown that it is mainly experienced users who shop online. It is therefore not surprising that men spend more money online than women.
But trying to explain all the differences between men and women with this argument is certainly wrong. It is precisely the importance of communication that the Internet has, especially for female users, that cannot simply be dismissed as a beginner's characteristic.
One example of the different ways in which men and women use the Internet is the brands they use. When asked about two websites they visit regularly, women named mail providers much more frequently than men:
10.3 percent of all women surveyed cited Hotmail, compared to only 3.3 percent of men.
There were also major differences between the sexes for GMX (women: 5.4 percent, men 2.7 percent) and Caramail (women 4.2 percent, men 1.7 percent). The fact that 2.3 percent of women named Swisstalk as a frequently visited website is a further indication of the importance of the Internet as a communication medium for women. For men, the chat platform was named by only 0.9 percent of respondents.
Men attach much greater importance to financial platforms than women do: 2.4 percent named UBS and 1.8 percent Swissquote as frequently clicked on sites, compared with only 1.3 percent and 0.4 percent respectively among women.
The top seven regularly visited sites among men are Yahoo, Altavista, Bluewin, Hotmail, GMX, UBS and Swiss" among women are Yahoo, Hotmail, Altavista, Bluewin, GMX, Caramail and Search.ch. The rankings are not representative of actual traffic to the sites. Thomas Rudolph, professor at the Gottlieb Duttweiler Chair, emphasized that the results are more a subjective statement that primarily provides information about brand awareness and the personal relevance of the website in question.
Despite the need for communication: Women appreciate remaining anonymous on the web more than men and would be less willing to sell their profiles to companies. Men are not yet surfing inhibitionists either: The majority of male users appreciate remaining anonymous on the Internet. The majority of men and women reject passing on profiles to interested companies, even if this would allow the companies in question to serve them more specifically and improve their offerings.
Structure of the study
The study Internet usage Switzerland 2001 (download as pdf-file at gd-lehrstuhl. imh.unisg.ch) is based on 1358 passer-by surveys conducted in 13 Swiss cities in mid to late September. The study, which only takes Internet users into account, is based on a balanced ratio of students and employees and a balanced age structure. The central element of the study is Internet usage motives and e-commerce.
Main use of the Internet Comparison of mean values: Gender
I use the Internet, average to...
