Women are found more aware of mobile internet than men

The amount of awareness among women about mobile internet has increased at an unimaginable rate in the last few years. This information has been known from GSMA Mobile Gender Gap Report 2021. According to the survey, the awareness rate of women about mobile internet in 2020 was about 66 percent, which was only 34 percent in 2017. In other words, it has increased by 32 percent in a few years. At the same time, the rate of awareness about mobile internet among men has increased by 25 percent. According to the GSMA, the awareness rate among men was 75 percent in 2020, up from 50 percent in 2017. It was also found in the study that the use of mobile internet subscribers increased by about 62 percent during the pandemic. The rules for maintaining social distance have led to an increase in video calls, social media use, and online video viewing. The number of female users who watch free mobile videos every week in Bangladesh has increased from 9 percent to 20 percent in 2020. The survey was conducted in eight low- and middle-income countries between October 4, 2020 and January 8, 2021. According to the survey report, the level of mobile internet use among women has increased by only three per cent compared to last year to 19 per cent. Where the number of Internet users among men has increased by 33 percent. Although the number of women using the internet has increased in the pandemic, the ownership of smartphones has not increased. In 2019, 21 percent of adult women had a smartphone. The number remains unchanged in 2020. On the other hand, in 2020, 39 percent of adult men are using smartphones. In 2019, the number was 36 percent. In 2020, only 14 percent of women had mobile money account accounts, compared to 40 percent of men. However, this rate is significantly higher than in India and Pakistan. In both countries, four to five percent of adult women are subscribers to this type of account.