S'pore: Men for Venus, women for Mars

Whereas local women surf the Net for practical reasons, to help them do errands or get information on jobs and studies, the Web sites favored by male surfers tend to be adult ones.

According to a Nielsen/NetRatings study released yesterday, the three sites most visited by women are job search ones. Also among the top 10 women's sites were those of the National University of Singapore and the DBS Bank.

Men, on the other hand, preferred adult sites, which hogged eight places in the top 10 "most visited" list. The other two most popular sites were IT publication Hardwarezone.com and online community site Delphi.com.

ACNielsen eRatings.com managing director for South Asia Hoe Chin Fee put forth an explanation for the divergent Net habits among the genders: "Singaporean women tend to be very career-focused. They are constantly in search of opportunities to upgrade themselves, even on the Net."

If women are thus focused, what does that say about local men?

Real estate analyst Adrian Chong tried to defend his gender. "I think the visitors to these adult sites are usually repeat visitors," he told The Straits Times, "so this may magnify the findings."