BUSINESS BLOGS
BUSINESS BLOGS
category: business
22 May 2008

One of the main objections WatchMojo.com’s strategy used to it the fact that we create content across many categories (auto, health, travel, video games, etc.).  It’s was a fair criticism; but it’s proven to be moot.

I don’t need to take 1,000 words to explain why.  The marketplace has validated that strategy.

In the same vein, when I launched the site, I was careful not to dive into too much content for either men or women.  So we now produce content catering both genders.

As such, it’s worth looking at the existing differences between video consumption between men and women.

Right now, all factors being equal, women watch less video than men.  From BizReport:

Women, it seems, use the internet to get things done, not for entertainment, and are less likely to visit video sites, such as YouTube. This may explain the disparity between the numbers of women viewing video – just 66 percent of women will watch online video this year, says the report, compared with 78 percent of men.

Let’s back up and ask why that is?  My feeling is that the type of video content that is out there right now is not what women like.  Men are more likely to consume the low quality, low-brow user-generated content that is largely out there.

Looks like we have confirmation of that gut feeling.  From Promo Magazine:

But 27% of males in that range viewed clips on a consumer-generated media (CGM) Web site such as YouTube, MySpace Video, Veoh or Break.com during the month; Only 12% of women in the demographic reported doing the same.

If, however, women were offered quality programming, then my gut says that they will watch it and given that there are more women than men online, my gut also says that over time women will consume more video content, too.  Looks like this is the mid-term trend:

The indications are that young women will help drive an upward trend of female video viewers. Williamson predicts that by 2011 nearly 85 percent of women online will watch video, almost matching the male audience which is predicted to reach 88 percent.

What makes this interesting, in fact, is that who reads print media?  Women.

Yet studies show that women are not consuming as much video.  So what do print media companies do?  They are not as aggressive with online video as they should be… this might prove a fatal mistake.

Time will tell.