Nielsen//NetRatings and the South African Online Publishers Association (OPA) today, Tuesday, 7 August 2007, released various online trend figures for South Africa which show clearly the difference between what men and woman are looking at online and should be a clear indication to marketers on how to target these ever growing and profitable segments of the market.
Most male-dominant brands online concern sports, motoring and business/finance, while the most female-dominated brands come from a much wider range of sectors, according to the findings.
Which brands have the greatest affinity with men?
- Just over half (54%) of South Africans online are male (2.2 million people), 46% are female (1.8 million)
- The four sites with the highest concentration of male audience (aka ‘affinity') all relate to sport
- The website of the Kaizer Chiefs soccer club has the strongest affinity with men – having the most male-dominated (83%) audience
Brands with the greatest percentage of South African male audience – June 2007
| Rank | Brand | Percentage of audience male | Male Unique Browsers | Sector | | 1 | Kaizer Chiefs | 83% | 49 604 | Sport |
| 2 | SuperRugby | 82% | 85 096 | Sport |
| 3 | SuperSport | 81% | 98 822 | Sport |
| 4 | Kick Off South Africa | 79% | 44 437 | Sport |
| 5 | Wheels24 | 74% | 130 459 | Motoring |
| 6 | Autotrader | 73% | 135 221 | Motoring |
| 7 | Love2meet | 71% | 32 439 | Dating |
| 8 | Moneyweb | 70% | 54 717 | Business/finance |
| 9 | Motoring | 70% | 83 551 | Motoring |
| 10 | Businessday | 69% | 51 216 | Business/finance |
Eg In June 2007, 83% of the ZA audience (49,604 people) to the Kaizer Chiefs website was male
Comments Alex Burmaster, European Internet Analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings, “It's perhaps not surprising that the brands most dominated by a male audience come from the sport, motoring and business/finance sectors. As with more traditional media, these remain the areas with the greatest probability of advertisers and marketers hitting the male audience.
“However, it's interesting to see that even the most male-dominated motoring brands, for example, still have females making up around 25-30% of the audience.”
Which brands have the greatest affinity with women?
- The ten sites with the highest concentration of female audience (aka ‘affinity') come from nine different sectors
- Portal 24 has the three brands with the greatest affinity with women – Food24 (64% female audience), Women24 (63% female audience and Health24 (58% female audience)
Brands with the greatest percentage of South African female audience – June 2007
| Rank | Brand | Percentage of audience female | Female Unique Browsers | Sector | | 1 | Food24 | 64% | 46 533 | Food/nutrition |
| 2 | Women24 | 63% | 110 830 | Female interest |
| 3 | Health24 | 58% | 138 890 | Health |
| 4 | Bizcommunity | 57% | 77 641 | Business |
| 5 | News24 Weather | 57% | 33 748 | Weather |
| 6 | Private Property | 56% | 90 057 | Property |
| 7 | IOL Jobs | 55% | 64 914 | Recruitment |
| 8 | Babynet | 54% | 29 971 | Parenting |
| 9 | Brabys | 54% | 71 321 | Classifieds |
| 10 | Yellow Pages | 53% | 105 533 | Classifieds |
Eg In June 2007, 64% of the ZA audience (46,533 people) to the Food24 website was female
“The list of most female-dominated brands differs from the male list in two key areas. Firstly, the female list comes from a much wider range of sectors – from food and health to property, recruitment, business, parenting and the weather. We've seen a similar pattern to this in the UK and highlights how women, perhaps, have a greater grasp of how the Internet can help with more facets of their daily lives,” comments Burmaster.
“Secondly, the degree of dominance within each list is markedly different. For example, men make up 69% of the audience to the 10th most-male dominated brand, whereas, the most female-dominated brand ‘only' has a 64% female audience. In other words, the most female-dominated brands still have a fairly large percentage of male audience – for example 46% of the audience to parenting site Babynet is male.”
