Browser company Opera has taken a look at ‘gender equality on the mobile web’ in its latest State of the Mobile Web report. It notes that the percentage of women on the mobile web has risen 575% in the last two years. South Africa currently has the world’s highest proportion of mobile internet users – 43.5% - followed by the USA with 35.6%, Russia at 32.4% and the United Kingdom with 31.5%. At the other end of the scale, India has the fewest female users (4.0%), followed by Nigeria (5.4%), China (11.6%) and Vietnam (17.9%).
Most countries have shown dramatic increases in the proportion of female users. For example, in the last two years the percentage of female users in Russia has increased from 12.5% to 32.4%, in China from 5.5% to 11.6% and in the United Kingdom from 16.6% to 31.5%.
Overall, in July 2010, the Opera Mini web browser had over 62.3 million users, a 4.8% increase from June 2010. The number of unique users has increased 114.3% in the past 12 months, with page views up 8.5% to over 29.6 billion page.
Jon von Tetzchner, co-founder of Opera Software, said “We believe access to the Web is a universal right and the mobile Web is all about breaking down barriers to access. Seeing more women on the mobile web is important to ensuring the mobile web remains the rich tapestry of ideas it is. Further diversity can only improve things for everyone."