European women fuel Internet boom

European women spend more time on the Internet doing everyday tasks

LONDON, England (CNN) -- European women are using the Internet more than ever and surfing more efficiently than men, a survey reveals.

The number of female Web users increased 29 percent between February 2001 and February 2002 to 25.1 million in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK combined.

This compared to an increase of 24 percent male users from 31.9 million to 40.1 million during the same period.

Men are online for longer periods although women spend more time doing everyday tasks such as shopping, organising travel, banking online and sending e-greetings cards, according to the latest research from UK-based Internet analysts Jupiter MMXI.

The report's author Michele Polizaiani said if Web sites wish to target a female audience they must understand the type of content that appeals to women.

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"Clearly sites that allow women to perform a function or provide information to help with their daily lives in some way are popular," she said.

In February this year women spent seven hours on the Internet compared to 10 hours for men, who mainly browse, read content and download applications.

In all European countries, except Germany, younger women use the Internet the most. But in Germany women aged 50 and over spent more than nine hours online each month.

The female audience is proportionally the largest in countries where Internet usage is most well established, with Sweden at 46 percent, the UK at 42 percent, and Germany and France at 39 percent.

The number of women online dropped in Italy and Spain by 31 and 29 percent respectively. Spanish women spend the most time online though, favouring instant messaging sites and file sharing, both of which are time consuming applications. Italian women, by contrast, spend more time on mainstream "portal" sites, such as Yahoo and MSN, and less time downloading programmes.

Among the most popular websites for British women aged 25 to 34 were grocery site sainsburystoyou.co.uk, estate agency rightmove.co.uk, and retail sites marksandspencer.com and next.co.uk.

Women in the UK were also looking for information on films and insurance, as well as visiting women's Web site ivillage.co.uk and ivillage.com, the research found.

The average British male Internet user spent much of his time online downloading applications and surfing sites such as dabs.com, jungle.com and pcworld.co.uk and travel sites airmiles.co.uk, flymi.com and expedia.com.