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nline entrepreneur Hanifa Ambadar believes the secret to success in the digital world lays in the unspoken law of womanhood: while the man is the head of the house, the woman is the neck that turns the head.

“The phenomenon is that women are becoming the decision-makers,” she says. “Whether it’s about which appliances to buy, airlines to use or school to send the children to, the influence of women in the economy cannot be ignored.”

Hanifa, the Female Daily Network co-founder, is set to join other e-commerce experts in preparing to give women a refreshed insight into their place in the digital world at the Women Wired Weekend conference to be held in February.

Online movers and shakers from the likes of Google, Web in Travel and Quantum Magna Financial will meet offline to talk to women marketers who use the internet to enrich their personal lives and businesses.

“We want to give the wider community an understanding into the potential role of women in the development of the digital world in Indonesia; not only as consumers, but as powerful stakeholders in the industry,” said the event organizer and Kibar Kreasi chief executive Yansen Kamto.

According to surveys, over 42 percent of the 45 million internet users in Indonesia are women and women make up 57 percent of the nation’s grocery shoppers.

“There is an opportunity in the digital industry in Indonesia at the moment,” Yansen said.

With Indonesia having the second-largest number of Facebook users in the world, and the highest portion of mobile internet users in Southeast Asia (Deloitte Access Economics), “anyone can make the most of this technology”.

Hanifa and the other Female Daily Network co-founder, Affi Assegaf, have capitalized on the fact that the digital world is becoming an increasingly integral part of the lives of Indonesian women.

The network, which began as a travel and fashion blog in 2005, has turned into one of Indonesia’s first and largest online destinations for women. Female Daily and its subsidiary websites: Fashionese, Mommies, and
Pops Daily, provide more than 31,000 members with the opportunity to contribute articles, shop online and engage in discussion forums.

Affi admits that when she started the website, she wasn’t thinking as: “I’m a woman in business”. Rather, she found herself filling a gap in the market as she fulfilled her passion for writing.

Having had an office job with MAC makeup, she also appreciated the flexibility of being able to work from home. “I think most women want that balance of being able to spend enough time with our families, while having a project of our own. Online business makes this possible,” she said.

Yet being an entrepreneur is never simple.

“It was hard getting advertising revenue in the initial stages. We didn’t have a big name and online advertising was new. Not many companies wanted to spend money on online advertising. If anything, it was an afterthought.”

The year 2010 brought a turning point.

“The industry was ready. Advertisers had dedicated budgets to online advertising, and we’ve seen the business grow rapidly since,” Affi said.

Women have also become increasingly attracted to the digital world. Shopping can be done without commuting across the city in traffic, and the online market offers a greater selection at competitive prices.

“Plus, your husband doesn’t need to find out”, Ambadar added.

The Female Daily duo is in touch with the social element of the online world.

Ambadar says women like it that websites often allow buyers to publicize their purchases, see the most popular items sold and comment on others’ activities.

“When I meet men who try to cater for female segments, they acknowledge the fact that we have the advantage of really knowing the market,” Affi said.

At the Women Wired Weekend (www.womenwiredweekend.com), participants can expect to find out more about what sways women’s online decision-making processes; how to crowd source – use a community of contributors to produce content; and what words women most commonly type into search engines.

Women can also browse more than 50 stalls selling clothing, accessories, make-up and knicks-knacks usually only sold online at the event, which is expected to be attended by some 300 people a day.

For Yansen, online shopping, blogging, social networking, gaming and such are ultimately about relationship — communication has changed from being one-way to conversational, as the delivery of information happens in real time.

Nonetheless, online communities will remain mere extensions of existing offline communities.

“Indonesians like to gather. We meet online, and we meet in real life.”