Traditionally a male bastion for web content, online video has come a long way. But women haven't managed to close the gender gap just yet. Find out why and what that means for the future of video.
If marketers have an image of the average internet video consumer, that person is most likely male and probably young. He likely prefers videos that feature humorous stunts, sports and just plain weird behavior. He's keen to share clips with his friends, particularly if they're salacious or outrageous. And no matter the category, he probably watches far more online video content than his female counterparts.
Real or not, those perceptions are reinforced by legions of male-focused video sites that produce and syndicate content with a decidedly male slant.
CollegeHumor, an IAC property, estimates that a whopping 73 percent of its 18- to 24-year-old audience is made up of men. But Break.com, CraveOnline and Heavy.com all take the pitch one step further. Each bills itself as being focused solely on the male audience, which has traditionally been a tough target demographic for mainstream television broadcasters.
At the same time, there are slew of publishers that advertise themselves as gender agnostic, preferring to tout themselves as all-in-one destinations for video content.
YouTube, for example, says that its audience is just about evenly divided between men and women. As for the nature of the content, a company spokesperson says YouTube doesn't categorize its clips based on what gender they are likely to appeal to.
But while male-oriented and gender agnostic video sites proliferate on the web, only a handful of publishers are keen to use video to go after the female audience. And those that do tend to use video as one piece in a larger content picture, rather than following on the male-focused model and adapting it to women.
But is there really a gender gap?
Historically, men have embraced internet video at a far faster rate than their female counterparts, according to an eMarketer report on the topic. But as that gap continues to narrow, the absence of female-focused video publishers today becomes something of a conundrum.
Is there a shortage of female-focused video sites because women are less likely than men to watch online video? Or, are women less likely than men to watch online video because there's a shortage of sites that appeal to their gender?
According to comScore, the total audience for online video is divided evenly between men and women. That's a relatively recent development in the brief history of online video. But publishers, and to some extent advertisers, have mostly held firm to the belief that video simply isn't a strong enough platform for reaching women. But when one digs a little deeper into the demographics of the online video audience and consumption patterns, a slightly different and more nuanced story emerges.
While the audiences are more or less equal, men still dominate online video by at least one critical measure. When it comes to total consumption of internet video, men tend to watch far more minutes than do women -- 270 per male viewer, compared to 199 for the average female viewer.
While some have speculated that women, who tend to embrace social media at higher rates than their male counterparts, may not be as excited by the medium, John Trimble, EVP of sales for new markets at Glam Media, couldn't disagree more.
"I think that both user-generated content and the high use of sports video contribute to the current figures," Trimble explains. "Glam Media's focus has always been to provide women with content that is of interest to them. As more content providers put more video content on the web that is compelling to women, more women will watch it."