February 14, 2008

Women’s Online Video Preferences Are Tamer Than Men’s

Duncan Riley

25 comments »

New figures from Nielsen’s new VideoCensus product reveal that women prefer mainstream media video content online, where as men prefer user generated content.

According to Ars Technica, the figures show women aged 18 to 34 were twice as likely as men of the same age group to watch network TV shows streamed from sites such as CBS.com or Hulu, where as men aged 18 to 34 were over twice as likely to check out user-generated video sites as women (YouTube and others.) The figures relate only to streamed content, and therefore excludes iTunes and downloaded content from P2P services such as BitTorrent.

Even if we discount the figures fully (Ars suggests men are more comfortable with BitTorrent therefore MSM content is not counted correctly) its a strange anomaly. Why would women prefer professional content and men preferred user content? and is it possible to obtain an answer without being completely sexist in a conclusion?

No doubt Nielsen and competing services will test the theory in the coming months. If it’s proven to be true, it may well affect the focus of sites in both spaces, and will most definitely affect the types of advertisers these sites attract.

(image credit: icanhascheezburger)

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Comments

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Andrew

February 14th, 2008 at 9:51 pm

thats because for those user generated sites they are more likely to be the ones in the show, stripping or shaking their ass.
lawrence

February 14th, 2008 at 10:00 pm

women want authority, and no bs;
while men want stuff they ‘build’, that’s customized, funny and juvenile.

no wonder women in marriages control the men, because they need to control them - they’re manchilds
logon2

February 14th, 2008 at 10:07 pm

Well I didn’t expect that. I’m not sure I agree with Andrew’s or lawrence’s theory. Here’s my theory:

Maybe women are generally more resistant to change, so they’re still watching the same content just on a different medium. On the other hand, males are watching different content on a different medium - which is more of a change.

Here’s the evidence for my theory:
*nothing*
Tippo

February 14th, 2008 at 10:12 pm

Maybe it depends on who has the better taste for quality. Then you have to judge where the quality is.
Technology Slice

February 14th, 2008 at 10:14 pm

What a pointless study.
Morgan Warstler

February 14th, 2008 at 10:28 pm

Shhh!

If women find out about the youtubes, there’s going to be ALOT more vids of men “stripping or shaking their ass.”

Scoble will do anything for publicity.
mwoo

February 14th, 2008 at 10:29 pm

my guess is that women have a lot less time (esp if they have kids and a career) so they’d rather have someone else filter content for them
Steel

February 14th, 2008 at 11:48 pm

Men are pigs Always looking for some new tail on the web.
Alexa

February 14th, 2008 at 11:59 pm

Perhaps women are more rational consumers. Why spend time watching amateur content when you can get higher quality content for free too? Personally, although I use YouTube regularly too, I find the atmosphere - particularly the comments - on sites like YouTube quite juvenile and sexist, so it doesn’t really make me want to stay on there for long.
Andrew

February 15th, 2008 at 12:10 am

also look at all the additional categories that men watch that most women do not:

Sport clips
Shock site clips
Girls shaking their ass
Porn
Car clips
Violence clips
People doing stupid shit clips
Video Game clips

while women tend to just watch the repeats of the stuff they saw on TV
Duncan Riley

February 15th, 2008 at 12:25 am

Technology Slie #5
you obviously have zero understanding of demographic targeting within marketing, because this is why the result is fascinating, and for me at least its not something I would have expected. Just wait to see mostly dieting and womens hygiene ads on Hulu, and masculine ads on UGC sites, then you’ll know why it will make a difference.
Andrew

February 15th, 2008 at 12:40 am

Won’t make a difference if you run adblock
Marcin Grodzicki

February 15th, 2008 at 12:52 am

Another theory from me: maybe there is less men targeted content on traditional media thatn women targeted contend. Thus men search for something interesting for them on the web, specifically on user-generated sites that are not bound by regulations the big media players have (and yes, I mean porn and violence as well…). The content shift would not be necessary then, as it already exists. The marketing shift is already there (or in transit), I think, Joost is an example (the most frequent ad on Joost is Algida Magnum I think).
iguide

February 15th, 2008 at 5:43 am

http://www.i-guide.ro/blog/Ro/en/
check out my blog
dm

February 15th, 2008 at 5:56 am

IF their not counting bittorrent and *other* video streaming sites these stats mean nothing.
Morgan Warstler

February 15th, 2008 at 6:55 am

Duncan,

Dude, if you end up seeing tampon ads on any of these sites, it means you are a girl.
Peter Antypas

February 15th, 2008 at 7:18 am

I showed this to a female friend (PhD student in psychology) and she agreed. Her take is that men are more visual, whereas women are more into storylines. Her own behavior also fits the profile.
JimmyHat

February 15th, 2008 at 8:12 am

Men like to watch:

1) porn - much of it user generated…if not original, then clips taken from movies (mainstream and adult)
2) techie material - gadgets, ‘cool’ ideas like potato launcher demos, etc. Women…not so much.
3) fail - men like to see Jackass-esque pain and failure

I am not saying women are not into those things. They just are not as into those things.
JimmyHat

February 15th, 2008 at 8:20 am

I guess I should have read the comments before posting the above (I hate when I do that).
balik

February 15th, 2008 at 8:48 am

Even though I know many women who are addicted to youtube , esp. for music content.

My guess on a reason for this difference is in line with #7’s. The age group they analyzed includes mostly working women (otherwise they are partying, not sitting in front of a computer on a Friday evening :)), that might have very young kids. Time management is a big issue for the women in this age group. They don’t have time for surprises or digging 50 videos to see one good clip.

A similar analysis of the trends in exchange of video content on social networking sites would be very interesting.
zak

February 15th, 2008 at 10:45 am

When I think UGC, I think YouTube, Heavy.com and Break.com. The latter 2 sites focus on the male 18-34 demo. I can’t think of any name brand UGC sites that target women 18-34, can you?
Brett

February 16th, 2008 at 8:15 am

For a long time in TV land programmers said that men often channel surfed whereas women often used TV Guide and were more prone to appointment viewing. A number of theories as to why ranging from gender differences in brain function through to the fact that women running both the household, and often their other paid job, had less discretionary time therefore planned more and randomized less.
Maggy Young

February 18th, 2008 at 4:05 am

Maybe womens’ tastes are simply more staid. They’re not so keen on the experimental stuff & don’t want to be bothered with it. They want pre-vetted material. Maybe they’re less tolerant of triers ?