Women drive digital trends

The realm of gadgets and tech have long been seen as a man’s world, but that notion may be hopelessly outdated. Stories about Google+ being a male-dominated network may have been based on insufficient data and unofficial Google+ statistician Paul Allen has said that the number is more likely about 33.6 percent female to 66.4 percent male. “Google+ is quickly turning pink,” Allen said, noting that the percentage of women on G+ may soon outstrip the number of women on LinkedIn. Google + isn’t the only techy place where women are taking charge. In fact, a recent study from Women at NBCU, an NBCUniversal initiative to connect with female consumers, has found that women are the main drivers of tech trends, particularly on social networks. When it comes to making purchases, 71 percent of the women surveyed said that they get their recommendations from online friends rather than review Web sites, and are far more likely to connect with brands on their social networks. Moms are a particularly lucrative demographic, as my Post colleague Cecilia Kang pointed out in her front-page story Tuesday. Not only do they make many of the household decisions, they’re also tapped into a network of heavy mobile users. Mothers make up one in five Internet users and are the fastest-growing buyers of iPhones. According to the survey, women are more likely to own a smartphone than men, more likely to own a gaming app and more likely to own a Wii.