Telenor Group’s survey sheds light on women’s digital habits

SUBANG JAYA: According to a recent Telenor Group’s ‘ Tech Trends: Women’ survey, professional women in Malaysia used their mobile phones as tools that help them shape how they balance their personal lives with their professional lives.

The survey revealed that these women are most often on their mobiles for social media, messaging apps and voice calls, with internet banking coming in a close fourth.

‘ Tech Trends: Women’ survey was carried out amongst women in Asia ( Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore and Thailand) and Scandinavia ( Sweden and Norway) to understand their habits and attitudes towards mobile connectivity and how it affects their daily routines.

“Over 1,300 women, aged 25 to 40 participated in the survey, out of which 208 of the women were from Malaysia.

“The markets surveyed represent a range of economies, socio- political systems, stages of industrial development and mobile penetration.

“By and large, the women we talked to say that the mobile phone is one of the tools that helps them shape how they balance their personal lives with their professional lives.

“The mobile phone seems to be less of a leash to the office than we expected.

“We are seeing well- educated, professional women turn to mobile devices for entertainment, maintaining personal connections, and providing a break from the rigours of their busy lives,” said Telenor Group Product Management and User Research vice president Dr Erica Gibson.

“The survey has given us more crystallised and very useful insights into female digital habits and user needs. We wanted to talk to women about this because we know that they hold large stakes in connectivity and access to information and services, which they make clear in this survey,” added Gibson.

Other findings of the survey include 67 per cent of Malaysian women checked their social media news feeds before going to sleep at night, while twoper cent use messaging apps for professional correspondence and another three per cent send work-related emails.

The survey also showed that the three most common feelings associated with using their phones were ‘entertained’, ‘connected to the world’ and ‘relaxed’, showing an overall satisfactory and positive outlook towards mobile usage.

Aside from that, it reported that 24 per cent of these women felt that their mobile usage granted them the flexibility to work anywhere and 21 per cent noted improvements in managing work-life balance, with only seven per cent feeling that they end up working overtime too much.

Around 62 per cent opined that mobile technology can contribute positively to information and knowledge sharing, 45 per cent chose easy banking and payment and access and 23 per cent leaning towards information and access to health and medical services.

Interestingly, it noted that only eight per cent of Malaysian women found it unacceptable to use their phone during evenings at home, whilst flying in an airplane and attending job interviews were the top two situations where phones are off limits.

When it came to views of a ‘ women- only’ internet, 40 per cent were for it, whereas 39 per cent were neutral and 21 per cent objected to it.

From the survey, Telenor Group concluded that there was no undermining the importance of mobile usage in the daily lives of women, where mobile phone is a huge enabler and will continue to be, both professionally and privately.

“The women feel empowered by the mobile to balance work and life. However, what role the mobile should play is ultimately a choice for these professional women to make themselves,” it added.

The survey was done via an online panel in all six markets, with more in- depth phone interviews conducted in Singapore, Thailand and Norway.