Although this was surprising to me at first it doesn't take long at all to realize why this is: women communicate more. They're all about communication! We think of men as being all about tech specs and building new tech but really it's the user of the tech that's important. What is the Internet but a big communication platform. That's probably why women are using it more. I realize I may be called sexist for saying this but I thought it was pretty widely accepted as fact that women are far more adept at and likely to use communicate with others via any channel than men are.
Sorry, Young Man, You're Not the Most Important Demographic in Tech
21–30 of 53 posts
Re: Sorry, Young Man, You're Not the Most Important Demographic in Tech
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
"No evidence is presented that women are the more valuable market, just that on average they spend more time online and using their devices." Perhaps that's because the evidence has already been stated clearly? Here are the stats: "Women account for $7 trillion in consumer and business spending in the United States, and over the next decade, they will control two thirds of consumer wealth. Women make or influence 85%…
Those aren't real stats. Those are just numbers on a page. That link doesn't include any methodology for how they collected these numbers, doesn't include any references, doesn't included any reason I should believe any of them whatsoever. Some of those numbers are either obviously false or obviously misleading, such as the theory that 51% of private wealth is controlled by women when we know the huge concentration o…
Not really interested in this specific argument about whether or not the OP has real statistics, but I thought this was interesting (and includes sources, which I haven't checked).
http://www.catalyst.org/publication/256/buying-power
http://www.she-conomy.com/report/marketing-to-women-quick-fa...
Re: Sorry, Young Man, You're Not the Most Important Demographic in Tech
#23"A young man contemplating his decreasing significance on the world stage" ...hilarious. There's some truth in this. And it's what often concerns me about the tech world- that it's a big echo chamber of young, tech savvy people that actually represents a tiny demographic. It's one of the reasons I like living in New York- it gives me perspective. I see hundreds of people that are using 'dumbphones' and are quite happ…
"Twitter? What's that? A social network that limits how many characters I can type? Why the hell would I use that?"
Re: Sorry, Young Man, You're Not the Most Important Demographic in Tech
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
Fair enough. To be honest, I was hoping for something more intellectual like Hacker News. It would be nice to have a website where I could get my fix of thoughtful discussion that didn't feel like a sausagefest. Any idea how more intellectual discussion sites could cater to women?
>sausagefest Honestly I think the ones who have a problem are the ones who see a difference. Those that just put what they have out there and discuss openly, maturely will generally find (regardless of where they go) some kind of return. Even on PInterest you'll find immaturity and other negative qualities, merely exhibited by men instead of women. Does that make it innately better?
Is sausagefest offensive?
Re: Sorry, Young Man, You're Not the Most Important Demographic in Tech
#25No evidence is presented that women are the more valuable market, just that on average they spend more time online and using their devices. Which would you pick: 10 customers that use a mobile phone for 20 hours each vs. 100 customers that use a mobile phone for 3 hours each? No statistics are posted on how much male usage counts for, saying 17 percent more is a big difference when 100% is 4 hours vs. 40 hours. > One…
"No evidence is presented that women are the more valuable market, just that on average they spend more time online and using their devices." Perhaps that's because the evidence has already been stated clearly? Here are the stats: "Women account for $7 trillion in consumer and business spending in the United States, and over the next decade, they will control two thirds of consumer wealth. Women make or influence 85%…
Women make or influence 85% of all purchasing decisions
That's awfully meaningless without the partner stat. If you stop and think about it, women and men could both "Make or influence" 85% of all purchasing decisions, at the same time.
Re: Sorry, Young Man, You're Not the Most Important Demographic in Tech
#26"A young man contemplating his decreasing significance on the world stage" ...hilarious. There's some truth in this. And it's what often concerns me about the tech world- that it's a big echo chamber of young, tech savvy people that actually represents a tiny demographic. It's one of the reasons I like living in New York- it gives me perspective. I see hundreds of people that are using 'dumbphones' and are quite happ…
I agree with you in theory but I'm equally, if not more, skeptical of whatever perspective I think I'm getting from living in NYC.
Re: Sorry, Young Man, You're Not the Most Important Demographic in Tech
#27"A young man contemplating his decreasing significance on the world stage" ...hilarious. There's some truth in this. And it's what often concerns me about the tech world- that it's a big echo chamber of young, tech savvy people that actually represents a tiny demographic. It's one of the reasons I like living in New York- it gives me perspective. I see hundreds of people that are using 'dumbphones' and are quite happ…
"Twitter? What's that? A social network that limits how many characters I can type? Why the hell would I use that?"
Great example- the latest figures I can find state that only 13% of the US population use Twitter. I have to imagine the figure is even lower internationally, and only a tiny minority of that 13% post to it regularly.
Re: Sorry, Young Man, You're Not the Most Important Demographic in Tech
#28"there are clear business reasons for technology companies to focus their efforts on women. But few do." Well, for example I am creating a writers' tool (basically a markdown editor). I wonder if there is anything in the product design with which I can target man/woman. I was thinking in terms of ease of use, intuitivnes, efficiency, etc... I am thinkging in terms of power users / casual users, geeks / non-geeks, etc…
The market perpetuates their own idea of what kind of online behavior is female, and what is male.
This blatant, arbitrary differentiation is why women so frequently report that they are completely misunderstood by advertisers.
Re: Sorry, Young Man, You're Not the Most Important Demographic in Tech
#29Easier to make a profit by painting it pink, under-speccing and overcharging:
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/03/does-this-smartphone-...
Re: Sorry, Young Man, You're Not the Most Important Demographic in Tech
#30It began with
That's one reason why less than 10 percent of venture capital-backed companies have female founders and there is a massive gender gap in tech.
and then
It turns out women are our new lead adopters. When you look at internet usage, it turns out women in Western countries use the internet 17 percent more every month than their male counterparts. Women are more likely to be using the mobile phones they own, they spend more time talking on them, they spend more time using location-based services. But they also spend more time sending text messages. Women are the fastest growing and largest users on Skype, and that's mostly younger women. Women are the fastest category and biggest users on every social networking site with the exception of LinkedIn. Women are the vast majority owners of all internet enabled devices--readers, healthcare devices, GPS--that whole bundle of technology is mostly owned by women.
That's a whole world of difference. There is production, and there is consumption. In the first part, he talked about production. In the second part, he is talking about consumption. I can't make a link.