MOBILE PHONES, INTERNET, AND GENDER IN MYANMAR MOBILE PHONES, INTERNET, AND GENDER IN MYANMAR Figure 2 Source: LIRNEasia Baseline Survey, 2015 The findings also showed very low use of mobile internet service and/or apps (data services) in Myanmar among smartphone owners (Figure 4). Although smartphone ownership is high (66% of mobile owners), the majority of owners stick to missed calls, voice, and listening to music. There are only very small differences in usage between men and women. Female smartphone owners were slightly less likely to use data services than male owners, primarily when it came to using mobiles to receive information updates, such as breaking news and sports. Mobile ownership % of Myanmar’s population aged 15-65 Source: LIRNEasia Baseline Survey, 2015 Figure 4 Myanmar total Male 40% Female 47% What smartphone owners use their mobile phone for 33% % of smartphone owners 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% MISSED CALLING In other words, women in Myanmar are 29% less likely to own a mobile than men. This is just over twice the gender gap estimated by GSMA Connected Women and Altai Consulting in all low- and middle-income countries in 2014.14 However, it is smaller than the gap estimated in some Asian countries like India (where women are 36% less likely to own a mobile than men), whose per capita income is higher than Myanmar’s. TEXT MESSAGING (SMS) LISTENING TO MUSIC RECEIVING CALLS (via mobile network, not calling apps) MAKING CALLS (via mobile network, not calling apps) Male mobile phone owners (% of male population) Gender gap in mobile phone ownership (%) Female mobile phone owners (% of female population) GAMING CALLING APPS (calls using Viber, Skype, etc) CHAT/INSTANT MESSAGING APPS (WhatsApp, WeChat, Facebook Messenger, Line, etc.) Male mobile phone owners (% of male population) SHARING CONTENT (pictures/video/music, etc.) Source: GSMA Connected Women and Altai Consulting, 2015 Consistent with previous research, the gender gap in mobile ownership steadily declines as household income increases15 (Figure 3), with more than a four-fold decrease across income groups. Source: LIRNEasia Baseline Survey, 2015 Figure 3 Gender gap (%) in mobile ownership in Myanmar 48% FACEBOOK (app) INFORMATION UPDATES (breaking news updates, sports, etc.) OTHER MOBILE APPS STREAMING VIDEO INTERNET (via browser) 32% 26% EMAIL 13% 1% MOBILE MONEY (sending/receiving talk time) (apps) OTHER SOCIAL OR BLOG APPS (Twitter, LinkedIn, Orkut, MySpace, etc.) WIKIPEDIA (app) 100,000 and below 100,001-300,000 300,001-500,000 500,001-1,000,000 1,000,001 and above MOBILE MONEY/BANKING SERVICES Total monthly household expenditure (MMK) 14. GSMA Connected Women and Altai Consulting, 2015. 15. Total household monthly spending is used as a proxy for monthly household income. 8 Note: ‘app’ use excludes use of the browser-based version of the service Myanmar total (%) Female (%) Male (%) 9