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Women account for slightly fewer than half of global internet users but spend more time online than men, according to a new study from comScore.

Women Account for 46% of Global Web Users
“How Women Are Shaping the Internet” indicates that globally, women represent 46% of internet users age 18 and up. However, this percentage varies by region. For example, women represent 50.4% of North American internet users.

North America has the highest percentage of its adult internet-using population represented by women. In Asia Pacific (42.1%), Europe (47%) and Latin America (48.1%), women are still underrepresented.

Broken down by individual country, Singapore, the US, New Zealand, Russia and Canada have the highest proportion of adult female web users – all with 50% or more. Countries with the lowest proportion of female web users include two countries where internet penetration is still extremely low – India and Indonesia, with 28 and 35%, respectively.

Asia-Pacific Has Most Female Web Users
Asia is undoubtedly the largest regional online market, and is still growing rapidly. Women online in Asia outnumber women in North America by more than two to one. China alone accounts for more women online than all of North America and, together with Japan, South Korea and India, account for more women online than Europe, according to comScore figures.

In Most Regions, Women Spend More Time Online
The average 15-plus female spends 8% more time online than her male counterpart. In April, the global average was 24.8 hours per month for women, compared to 22.9 hours for men.

Looking at time spent by women 18 and up compared to men of the same age by region, Asia-Pacific has the widest gap. Women spend an average of 17.9 hours per month online, 7.2% more than the 16.6 average hours spent online by men.

North America is the one region where men spend slightly more time online per month than women. Men average 38.6 monthly hours, 2.6% more than the average 37.6 monthly hours spent online by women.

Women spend more time online than men in Europe and Latin America, but the gap is narrower than in Asia-Pacific. European women spend an average of 26 hours a month online, 3.8% more than 25 hours spent by men. In Latin America, women average 27.1 monthly hours online, only 1.5% more than 26.7 monthly hours average by men.

Women Do More Social Networking
Social networking sites reach a higher percentage of women than men globally, according to other comScore study results.

“How Women Are Shaping the Internet” indicates 75.8% of all women online visited a social networking site in May 2010, compared to 69.7% of men. Globally, women demonstrate higher levels of engagement with social networking sites than men. Although women account for 47.9% of total unique visitors to the social networking category, they consume 57% of pages and account for nearly 57% 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 four hours, demonstrating the strong engagement that women across the globe share with social sites.

For such a classical institution, the British Monarchy has tried surprisingly hard to be tech and social media savvy in recent years, but it has failed to embrace the “social” side of the term. The latest example of that is the royal family’s Flickr account, which just launched with hundreds of photos.
The Monarchy’s profile hosts images new and old, ranging from a wedding photo featuring Queen Victoria and Prince Albert to more recent photos from the Queen’s visits to New York City and Canada. There are even photos of the Queen as a baby. Each member of the family has his or her own set of photos, and there are a few more general sets such as “Latest News” and “Royal Events.” The categories match those found at the family’s website.

Buckingham Palace already maintains a Twitter profile, and it launched a YouTube account a couple of years ago. The Twitter account has a little bit more than 50,000 followers. It’s not used conversationally, of course; it’s merely a publishing platform for links to news stories and updates on the website.

The YouTube channel is a bit more interesting (though no more engaging) because it features interviews, speeches and documentary coverage of the activities and travels of the royal family. The videos are all promotional or informative in nature, and comments are disabled.

According to the AP, officials have said that bloggers are welcome to embed and share the photos from Flickr, however the images are watermarked “© Press Association” and no Creative Commons leeway is given. As is also the case with YouTube, you can’t comment at the royals’ Flickr account.

It’s interesting to see an institution so immersed in tradition embracing new and social media, but unsurprisingly, that embrace is a measured one. The propriety of distance is maintained even in the digital realm. Aren’t they missing the point?

Story by Samuel Axon Mashable

The number of people using Facebook has hit the 500 million mark, meaning one in every 14 people on the planet has now signed up to online social-networking service.

"As of this morning, 500 million people all around the world are actively using Facebook to stay connected with their friends and the people around them," Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said in a blog post.

"This is an important milestone for all of you who have helped spread Facebook around the world."

To celebrate, the California firm introduced an application that lets members of the online community "tell the incredible stories of the moving and interesting ways they’ve used Facebook."

Examples given by Zuckerberg included NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen jogging with Facebook fans during his term as Danish prime minister and a US woman using the service to battle breast cancer.

"Our mission at Facebook is to help make the world more open and connected," Zuckerberg said.

"Stories like these are examples of that mission and are both humbling and inspiring. I could have never imagined all of the ways people would use Facebook when we were getting started 6 years ago

Most of the attention in the online video space has focused on either media content and consumers or marketers and video advertisements. But companies continue to push further into this realm with non-advertising content.

Recent studies have shown that growing numbers of retailers are adding video capabilities to their sites. Surveys of Fortune 500 companies also indicate a broad-scale increase in the use of video for marketing purposes. In this sense, video has gone from a luxury to a near necessity for companies seeking an edge in marketing their products. From home-goods merchants to automobile manufacturers, companies across a wide spectrum are finding ways to use video in their marketing efforts, and consumers are embracing—sometimes demanding—these changes.

Retail is a sector where online video is becoming more important for driving sales. When asked by Multichannel Merchant to identify rich media features that they used, 46% of US multichannel retailers picked video, making it the highest-ranked category in the survey. Another 42.3% of respondents said they planned to add video capability in the next year.

Several studies point to increased use of video by US companies. According to Forrester Research, the percentage of the top 50 US online retailers that offer videos on their sites skyrocketed to 68% in 2009 from 18% in 2008.

Marketers are on board with more than just ecommerce applications, as well. A study led by the Society for New Communications Research noted 31% of Fortune 500 companies with public-facing blogs used video blogging in 2009, up from 21% in 2008.

Ad-ology asked US marketing executives whether they would increase, decrease or make no changes in their 2010 marketing budgets for social and traditional media. Nearly 27% said they would increase their online video budgets for viral clips and podcasts, while 5.5% would decrease their budgets. Out of the remainder, 41% would leave the budget intact and another 27% said they did not use video. These responses put video ahead of mobile marketing and search optimization as budget priorities for US marketing executives.

As eMarketer’s Tobi Elkin noted in the report “Consumer Packaged Goods Sector Taps into Online Video,” “Creating an online video presence helps marketers facilitate an ongoing dialogue with consumers, boost brand equity, lure prospective customers and solidify support among brand loyalists.”

On the receiving end of these marketing efforts, consumers are accessing increasing amounts of video on multiple platforms, from laptops and home PCs to smartphones and tablets. As these devices continue to penetrate the market, consumers will expect ubiquitous access to video content. Examples might include watching product videos at the point of sale or viewing a portion of a podcast on a PC and resuming the session on a tablet. Marketers are aware of the potential and are upping their game in a variety of sectors.

Smaller companies most successful at social acquisition

While many marketers struggle with how to measure social media marketing return on investment, some businesses are finding at least one hard metric where their efforts have paid off—customer acquisition.

According to a February–March 2010 survey from office services firm Regus, smaller companies see the most success, with nearly half of small businesses around the world having acquired a customer through social networks. Large companies were less successful, but more than a quarter had seen social success through customer acquisition. This was despite large companies being more likely to devote budgets to social marketing.

The survey of senior managers and business owners from around the world found customer acquisition varied by country, with the US coming in the lower half of the pack. Overall, 40% of businesses studied had acquired a customer through a social site, but only 35% of US businesses said the same.

“While the most popular function of these networks remains that of keeping in touch with contacts, businesses are also successfully acquiring new customers, supporting their retention efforts and interacting with customer groups,” said Sande Golgart, vice president at Regus, in a statement. “Organizations who have not yet ventured into the world of social networking may be missing out on sizeable business opportunities.”

In January 2010, Hubspot found that more than 40% of companies using social media marketing had acquired a customer through the channel. The Regus survey, which was not limited to businesses using social marketing, suggests that number may be slowly climbing.

In May 2010, Google Sites ranked as the most-visited property in the Asia-Pacific region, reaching 270 million unique visitors during the month, followed by Microsoft Sites with 218.5 million visitors and Yahoo! Sites with 205 million visitors. Baidu.com Inc. and Tencent Inc. secured the fourth and fifth most-visited positions with 177 million visitors and 174 million visitors, respectively.

In terms of engagement among the top 20 most-visited properties, Tencent Inc. ranked as the most-engaging property with visitors averaging 6.5 hours on the site during the month, consuming 716 pages of content and visiting the property an average of 39 times. Facebook.com also witnessed strong engagement, with visitors spending 3.5 hours on the social networking site and visiting more than 21 times throughout the month.

Top Destinations Vary Across Markets

An analysis of the most visited Internet properties in each of the 13 individual Asia-Pacific markets revealed differing brand preferences across countries. Google Sites led as the most-visited property in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam, while Yahoo! Sites attracted the most visitors in Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan. Microsoft Sites led the market in Australia reaching 93 percent of online users. Local entities topped the list in China and South Korea, with Tencent Inc. and NHN Corporation reaching the largest percentage of Internet users. In the Philippines, Facebook.com reigned as the most-visited destination reaching 93 percent of online users, the highest penetration of any global market for the social networking site.

The federal government has again delayed the introduction of its proposed mandatory internet filter while a review of classified material is undertaken.

While the review is under way three of Australia’s largest internet service providers have agreed to voluntarily block online child pornography material.

Communications Minister Senator Stephen Conroy says some people are obviously concerned about whether current classified material reflected community views.

Legislation to impose mandatory internet filtering would therefore be delayed until the review was completed, Senator Conroy said.

Labor’s moves to block access to material such as child pornography and other illegal content have been criticised by some of the world’s largest providers of internet services including Google and Yahoo.

Senator Conroy announced on Friday that Telstra, Optus and Primus will block a list of child abuse URLs – internet addresses – compiled by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

However, representatives from Telstra and Optus would not say unequivocally whether they supported the government’s proposed internet filter.

The telcos agreed to block child porn material from being accessed by Australian internet users while that review of Refused Classification (RC) content was under way.

"We support the review that was announced today, we support and are willing to voluntarily commit to the blocking of the ACMA list of child pornography sites and we’ll continue to work constructively with the government as it undertakes this review," Telstra public policy and communications director David Quilty told reporters in Melbourne.

Mr Quilty said the blocking process was expected to take several months to get up and running.

Optus government and corporate affairs director Maha Krishnapillai said the telco had agreed to filter child pornography where it could.

"We’ll have to wait and see what the review comes out with, but we’ve said all the way through this is about blocking the worst of the worst," he said.

RC content includes child abuse material, bestiality, rape and other extreme violence and terrorist acts.

Senator Conroy remained adamant that the internet filter proposal did not amount to censorship.

"I don’t think any Australian actually tries to describe blocking child pornography or bestiality or pro-rape websites as censorship," Senator Conroy told reporters in Melbourne

The federal government has again delayed the introduction of its proposed mandatory internet filter while a review of classified material is undertaken.

While the review is under way three of Australia’s largest internet service providers have agreed to voluntarily block online child pornography material.

Communications Minister Senator Stephen Conroy says some people are obviously concerned about whether current classified material reflected community views.

Legislation to impose mandatory internet filtering would therefore be delayed until the review was completed, Senator Conroy said.

Labor’s moves to block access to material such as child pornography and other illegal content have been criticised by some of the world’s largest providers of internet services including Google and Yahoo.

Senator Conroy announced on Friday that Telstra, Optus and Primus will block a list of child abuse URLs – internet addresses – compiled by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

However, representatives from Telstra and Optus would not say unequivocally whether they supported the government’s proposed internet filter.

The telcos agreed to block child porn material from being accessed by Australian internet users while that review of Refused Classification (RC) content was under way.

"We support the review that was announced today, we support and are willing to voluntarily commit to the blocking of the ACMA list of child pornography sites and we’ll continue to work constructively with the government as it undertakes this review," Telstra public policy and communications director David Quilty told reporters in Melbourne.

Mr Quilty said the blocking process was expected to take several months to get up and running.

Optus government and corporate affairs director Maha Krishnapillai said the telco had agreed to filter child pornography where it could.

"We’ll have to wait and see what the review comes out with, but we’ve said all the way through this is about blocking the worst of the worst," he said.

RC content includes child abuse material, bestiality, rape and other extreme violence and terrorist acts.

Senator Conroy remained adamant that the internet filter proposal did not amount to censorship.

"I don’t think any Australian actually tries to describe blocking child pornography or bestiality or pro-rape websites as censorship," Senator Conroy told reporters in Melbourne

A change of Prime Minister is not enough to kill off one of the most stupid ideas of the 21st century.

It had been thought that when  Julia Gillard took over the Australian government that she would allow a little bit of common sense to happen in Aussie politics.
However, it seems that Gillard is cut from the same mold which believes that Australians are precious snowflakes who need protection from the rest of the world.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, she is going to press ahead with plans to filter the internet Chinese style and cut Australians from a stream of information that the government thinks is too dangerous for them.

In Julia Gillard’s first comments on the filter since becoming Prime Minister, she told ABC Radio in Darwin that the proposal was an effort to control the dark side of communications technology.

Again she drummed up the image of child porn and abuse which she claims you are able to see on the Internet but for some reason cannot see in a movie theatre.  No we didn’t get the link either.

Gillard indicated that the Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, might tweak parts of the proposed filter before it is introduced. But given Conroy’s own spittle reactionary approach to web censorship is legendary, Australians who actually want to use the Internet like ordinary citizens of the world will probably have to vote the Labour government out.

Unfortunately the Australian opposition has yet to announced that it is against the filter. It seems that the government feels that there is a chance here to control citizens through net use and although the opposition does not want to be the one to make the unpopular move, it also sees the advantage of not dismantling it.
After all, what government would not like to control the information that citizens get on contentious issues such as abortion and human rights?
Gillard admitted that there were technical concerns that Conroy’s filters will slow the Aussie internet down and will take away legitimate use of the internet.
Gillard’s comments have won backing from the Christian group FamilyVoice Australia.

Spokeswoman, Ros Phillips, said she was ”delighted” the government’s position was being maintained.

However given that christian groups in Australia look at the internet as created by Satan as a method to draw people to the anti-christ we can’t see how they can be taken seriously.

There had been hopes that Gillard’s rule of the Labour Party would be a move to common sense.  However it appears that she is exactly like her predecessor.   Hopefully the Australian people will show that they do not want this sort of censorship in their lives and vote against any party that tries to bring it in.  Don’t hold your  breath though.

Story by Nick Farrell www.techeye.net

Email is a permanent fixture in the lives of global consumers, according to [pdf] a new report from digital marketing firm e-Dialog.

Email Ownership Approaches 100%
Of the nearly 13,000 consumers e-Dialog surveyed around the world for its “Global Perspectives” report, 96% of them have a personal email account. Of the 13 countries surveyed, consumers in South Korea reported the highest percentage of having a personal email account at 99%.US adoption is at 97%. The lowest reported percentage is Italy at 87%.

High email adoption is also driving consumers to use messages that are connected to their primary email account, including social email and mobile email. Although usage of these types of email is much lower (37% and 34% overall, respectively), they are still potentially valuable marketing tools.

Usage of these two email types has strong regional variation. For example, 56% of US consumers own a social networking email account, but only 24% of Asia-Pacific consumers own one.

8 in 10 Consumers Want New Product Info via Email
The vast majority of consumers across global regions clearly indicate that they prefer to get new product marketing information via email. Overall, 80% of consumers surveyed indicate this preference, with 84% of Asia-Pacific consumers indicating such a preference followed by American (78%) and European (75%) consumers.

Broken down by nation, interest in product marketing offers via email is highest in Japan and Singapore (88%) and Italy and China (84%), and lowest in Sweden (54%). e-Dialog analysts advise that interest doesn’t always equal action, underscoring the need for marketers to employ relevance empowering techniques including segmentation and testing to drive profitable subscriber behavior.

Subscriber Acquisition Preference Varies by Nation

While websites are generally the preferred place for consumers to opt-in, marketers must adjust acquisition strategies by these regional differences, according to e-Dialog findings:

• Company website registration: This behavior is highest in Spain (60%), Italy (58%) the US (57%), the UK (53%) and Singapore (50%). Consumers in France and the Netherlands are less likely to opt-in via the website and prefer to do so through a catalog order.
• SMS acquisition: The ability for a consumer to quickly text their email address to an SMS code in order to opt-in online is most prevalent in the Asia-Pacific region. While other acquisition behavior in Asia-Pacific is similar to the overall global results, it differs dramatically for SMS opt-in. Twenty-one percent of Asia-Pacific consumers have reportedly opted in to email in this manner, as compared to 13% of the overall global survey respondents. This behavior is highest in China (27%).
• Social acquisition: This emerging acquisition tactic is more popular with US consumers (12%) than it is with their European peers (8%). But again it is the Asia-Pacific region where it is most prevalent. Consumers in China (27%) and Singapore (17%) are especially likely to be acquired through a social network.

More US Consumers Use Email than SocNets for Brand Interaction
More US online consumers use email than social networks for brand interaction, according to a new study from digital marketing firms ExactTarget and CoTweet. Data from the “Daily Morning” report indicates that 93% of online consumers aged 15 and older receive at least one permission-based email per day, putting them into the category of “subscribers.”

Broken down by age demographic, 15-to-17-year-olds are subscribers at a significantly lower rate (68%). All other age brackets of online consumers aged 18 and older are subscribers at rates between 93% and 96%. In contrast, 38% of online consumers are fans of at least one company or brand on Facebook, placing them in the “fans” category, while only 5% follow a brand on Twitter.