Dates: Thursday, Jun 25 – Sunday, Jun 28, 2009

What do Men Do Online?   DALLAS, Apr 20, 2009 / FW/ — According to the US Census Bureau, there are more women than men; between 2008 and 2013, males will account for roughly 49% of the total population.

laptops

Alright, that’s not a big surprise; what is surprising is that in cyberspace, men are also outnumbered. According to eMarketer there are 95.9 million males online in 2009, or 48.2% of the Internet population, compared with 103.2 million females.

Whew! What a difference 15 years make. When the internet was young, it was a male club; not exclusive of course but there were more men.

So, why are these figures important? According to the same report by eMarketer, gender, even more than race or ethnicity, is a distinguishing factor of Internet use, informing online behavior and attitudes.

Still, there might be fewer men online but they make up for it on time spent.

Online, men go on more often and stay longer than females. In November 2008, Nielsen Online recorded an average of 60 PC sessions per male Internet user compared with an average of 54 sessions for female users. Average time spent online was 4.4 hours longer for males than females.

Online, men visit more sites and stay longer than females. They are search engine users and participate in all forms of social media, particularly videos. In addition, they are more mobile—avid users of laptops, wireless broadband connections and mobile phones.

For men, online shopping behavior is more goal-oriented, much like offline trips to a store. But they are not as bothered by sites cluttered with ads and do not abandon them as quickly as women do.

So, what does this mean to menswear designers?

First, if they have not invested on any online presence up to now, they are losing out on the 95.9 million U.S. males online.

Second, online media be it an online magazine, social networking or blogs have become as important as magazines and glossies in creating a buzz for the brand.

Third, advertising online is a good investment especially with very few advertising dollars available nowadays.

[MARI DAVIS]

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