The Social Gender

Social networking sites reach a higher percentage of women than men globally, with 75.8 percent of all women online visiting a social networking site in May 2010 versus 69.7 percent of men, according to a study released Wednesday by comScore Inc.

Reston, Virginia-based comScore said women demonstrate higher levels of engagement with social networking sites than men. Although women account for 47.9 percent of total unique visitors to the social networking category, they consume 57 percent of pages and account for nearly 57 percent of total minutes spent on these sites.

Women spend significantly more time on social networking sites than men, with women averaging 5.5 hours per month compared to men's 4 hours, demonstrating the strong engagement that women across the globe share with social sites.

The report said social networking's reach among women is highest in Latin America where it reached 94.1 percent of females online, and in North America where it reached 91 percent of females. Europe saw 85.6 percent of its female online population visit a social networking site in May 2010, while in Asia Pacific, where parts of the region still face low broadband penetration and site restrictions, reported a 54.9-percent reach.

Globally, women spend 20 percent more time on retail sites overall than men. Among the various retail sub-categories, comparison shopping and apparel sites reached the highest percentage of women at 24.8 percent and 18.7 percent, respectively, in May 2010.

In the U.S., women are more avid online buyers than men, with 12.5 percent of female Internet users making an online purchase in February 2010, compared to 9.3 percent of men.

Health sites show some of the largest overall differences in reach between female and male, with a nearly 6-point gap between global women and men.

In most countries women spend far less time watching online video than men, but women spend a much higher share of their time watching videos on YouTube--a unit of Google Inc.--than men.