Summary of Research Findings

An online questionnaire to registered participants (consumers) was conducted to a total of 10,079 women nationwide, in their age between 20s and 60s regarding the recognition and use of female care and FemTech (consumer goods and services).

According to the result (single-answer) of a question asking if they know what the term FemTech means, 7.1% said they recognize the term.

Compared to the numbers of the previous surveys (5.8% in 2022 Survey and 3.4% in 2021 Survey, conducted in September of the surveyed year), the recognition level showed the rise of 1.3 percentage points and 3.7 percentage points, respectively. Although the recognition level of “FemTech” has not reached ten percent, the ratio of consumers that “have not heard of the term (FemTech)” shrank to 76.4%, below 80 percent line.

The percentage of women that “have heard of the term FemTech, but do not know what it refers to” rose to 16.5%, which is up 2.5 percentage points from the 2021 survey and 6.8 percentage points from the 2020 survey. This is presumably due to increased opportunities to hear the term due to the expansion of media coverage since 2021.


In view of the recognition level by age group, women in their 30s and 40s, the target age group of the market, have shown slightly higher recognition level compared to other segments (8.6% and 9.5%, respectively). Meanwhile, the recognition level of women in their 60s sank at 4.1%, while more than 80 of them (84.5%) said that they “have not heard of (the term FemTech)”.


The result suggests the challenge of the market to expand lies in the expansion of recognition level, especially among women in young generations that may become the marketing targets in the future.

Noteworthy Topics

Survey Result Revealed Higher Purchase/Use Rate of Period Items and Pregnancy/Postpartum Care Items

In the survey, a question on the experience and willingness of purchase/use are asked to those who indicated that they know any of the 39 items of consumer goods and services. They were asked to choose answer(s) from the following options: “have purchased/used” (including item/service not in use at the moment), “have never purchased/used, but willing to purchase/use”, and “have never purchased/used, and have no intention to purchase/use”. (multiple answer)

The result revealed that the percentages of purchaser/user tend to be higher for period items and pregnancy & postpartum care items. For instance, 54.8% purchase(d) postpartum skincare items, 54.5% use(d) non-polymer [cotton] sanitary napkins, 53.1% wore maternity underwear & maternity clothing, 51.7% use(d) basal thermometer, and 50.6% use(d) period tracking apps. For the period tracking apps, it is striking to see 33.2% have indicated that they “have been using the app purchased before 2020”. The result indicates that women tend to stay on the app once they start using it.
 

Meanwhile, despite the low purchase/use experience rate at present, women have shown keen interest in the purchase/use of test kits across the category (such as at-home screening kit for gynecological cancers [35.4%], hormone test kits [29.6%], endometrial flora check kit [25.5%]) and menopause-related items and services (such as online consultation services for women in the age range of menopause [33.6%], skincare for menopause generations [32.9%], menopause-care app [31.0%]).

Research Outline