While women tend to outnumber men in social media platforms the world over, they constitute just 24 per cent of total Facebook users in India, according to a new report.
"On average, women account for 38 per cent of Facebook's users around APAC (Asia pacific) -- a figure that is already lower than it should be -- but in India, women account for just 24 per cent of the country's users," said the report by Britain-based consultancy We Are Social.
"In Bangladesh that figure is just 23 per cent, and in Pakistan, it's even lower, at barely 22 per cent," the report noted.
In New Zealand, 59 per cent of Facebook users are women and they dominate the social media platform in several other countries of the region including Australia, Mongolia and the Philippines.
The report noted that social media penetration level in the region went up an impressive 31 per cent March 2015.
"One potential reason why social media use remains so low in South Asia is the exceptional disparity in access between men and women," the report said.
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"This iniquity of access between men and women may explain part of the reason why digital connectivity levels are so low across South Asia," it added.
"Facebook reports its user figures based on active user accounts, not devices used, so their data is unlikely to be skewed by issues such as shared computers or mobile handsets. As a result, we can only assume that too few women have access to social media in these countries," it noted.
--IANS
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