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Women
Rule
By Michael Alan Hamlin
October 20, 2003
Men may be early adapters, but women rule the Internet
in terms of sheer numbers in the Philippines according to the results
of the latest DigitalFilipino (DF) survey. "This report there
are more female Internet users (58%) encountered in the field compared
to men (42%)," DF founder Janette Toral wrote in her report,
"The Filipino Internet User, Part 2."
The report was based on a survey involving 1,056 respondents from
around the country who generously filled up a four-page survey form.
This is the second year the survey has been conducted, and the report
is intended as an examination of the impact of the Internet on Filipino
lifestyles. Because the Internet is used predominately by reasonably
young adults, it is naturally most reflective of their lifestyles,
but indirectly suggests that older Filipinos aren't much impacted
by the Internet.
In fact, 87 percent of respondents were 17 to 35, and 54 percent
access the Internet from school. Fifty-two percent access the Internet
from Internet cafés as well. Based on my own unscientific
observations of Internet use by young people, I'd say these results
suggest a couple of things. First of course is that kids don't spend
much time at home given all the traveling back and forth they do
in Manila traffic. Second, there is a frightening number of older
students and young adults playing cyber games at Internet cafés.
To back that up, consider that 38 percent of respondents who use
the Internet are in the narrow age bracket of 17 to 20. Another
27 percent are 21 to 24, which means that 65 percent of respondents
are between 17 and 24. However, respondents said that entertainment
was far less important than access to e-mail, web surfing, and instant
messaging. When respondents were asked why they started using the
Internet, they said access to e-mail and the need to do research,
which is done by web surfing.
There's little doubt in my mind that students do spend much of their
time on the Internet doing research. That's because my two teenaged
daughters seem to be on the Internet most of their waking hours
spent at home. The older one - she's in fourth year - spends most
of her time doing research, and the younger one - in first year
- spends much more time reading and sending e-mail. But the demands
of research are beginning to change the younger girl's usage patterns
as well.
However, most of the people I observe at Internet cafés aren't
doing research or accessing e-mail, at least not for very long.
They appear inevitably to be engaged in cyber-fantasy warfare. Cyber
gaming has become so popular, in fact, that a World Cybergames tournament
is held every year. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on
your perspective), the results of this year's competition - just
concluded in Seoul - suggest that Filipinos spend less time cybergaming
than kids in other countries: they came home empty handed. Interestingly,
the Philippine representatives lost to representatives from other
developing countries, Turkey, and Bulgaria.
Whether they frequent Internet cafés for cybergaming or not,
respondents don't really need to. Seventy-two percent have computers
at home. However, only 63 percent have Internet access at home and
that is generally via slow dial-up modems. This is probably another
reason to go to an Internet café: the faster connections.
DSL usage at home is increasing, but only slowly. Just five percent
of respondents use DSL, likely in part as a result of high cost,
and limited availability.
It's interesting that in Japan, which is known for being an expensive
place to do anything, including making a phone call, broadband Internet
use is among the cheapest in the world. According to a recent The
Asian Wall Street Journal report, "Japan had 11.8 million high-speed
Internet subscribers as of August, up more than sevenfold from 1.6
million two years earlier. That gives it a broadband penetration
rate of almost 10 percent," or double year-ago levels. And
it costs just nine cents per month for 100 kilobits of data, versus
$3.53 in the U.S. Falling costs in the Philippines suggest that
DSL use could accelerate, too.
Of people who are employed in the Philippines, 79 percent have Internet
access at home, 90 percent for men, but just 68 percent for women,
suggesting that some women, at least, have to try harder to get
Internet access. When they do get that access, women for the most
part claim to use the Internet for the same reason men do: e-mail
and surfing, but a few more use it for instant messaging.
What is most startling perhaps, though, about the report is that
it doesn't suggest a digital divide between rich and poor, really.
Instead, there's an age divide, between young adults and old adults,
with older adults just not getting it. But women do.
(Michael Alan Hamlin is the managing director of consultancy TeamAsia
and the author of three books on Asian economies and companies.
His latest book is Marketing Asian Places, of which he is a co-author
(Wiley, 2001), and he is currently at work on High Visibility: The
Making and Marketing of Asian Professionals into Celebrities. Write
him at mahamlin@teamasia.com.).
Copyright © 2003 Michael Alan Hamlin. All Rights Reserved.
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