Web & Internet
The Top 20 most-visited websites in the US in 2021 were:
Google, YouTube, Facebook/Meta, Amazon, Yahoo, Twitter, Wikipedia, Instagram, Reddit, Discord, Netflix, office.com, DuckDuckgGo, live.com, ESPN, Zoom, LinkedIn, Bing, Weather.com, and CNN.
This list excludes shopping (with the exception of Amazon, which also provides streaming entertainment), banking and porn sites.
The table below shows the website, corporate ownership, and current CEO or President. The 20 sites are headed by a total of 20 people. Note that Satya Nadella, the current Chmn and CEO and largest individual shareholder of Microsoft, heads 3 of these sites. Three of the CEOs are women – Susan Wojcicki of Alphabet (Google) heads YouTube, Maryana Iskander heads Wikipedia, and Sheri Bachstein heads Weather.com.
| Rank | Website | Company Name | CEO or Founder or President | Notes: |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alphabet | Sundar Pichai | ||
| 2 | YouTube | Alphabet/Google | Susan Wojcicki | |
| 3 | Meta | MarkZuckerberg | ||
| 4 | Amazon | Andy R. Jassy | Jassy took the reins from Jeff Bezos in 2021 | |
| 5 | Yahoo | Apollo Global Mgmt | Jim Lanzone | |
| 6 | Parag Agrawal | |||
| 7 | Wikipedia | Wikimedia Fdn | Maryana Iskander | |
| 8 | Meta/FB | Adam Mosseri | ||
| 9 | Advance Pubilcations | Steve Huffman & Alexis Ohanian | ||
| 10 | Discord | Jason Citron | ||
| 11 | Netflix | Ted Sarandos & Reed Hastings | ||
| 12 | Office.com | Microsoft | Satya Nadella Exec Chmn and CEO | |
| 13 | Duckduckgo | Duck Duck Go, Inc. | Gabriel Weinberg | |
| 14 | Live.com | Microsoft | Satya Nadella | |
| 15 | ESPN | Disney (80%) Hearst (20%) |
James Pitaro | |
| 16 | Zoom | Eric Yuan | ||
| 17 | Microsoft | Ryan Roslansky | ||
| 18 | Bing | Microsoft | Satya Nadella | |
| 19 | Weather.com | Weather Grp LLC, division of Allen Media Grp | Sheri Bachstein | |
| 20 | CNN | TBS division of Time Warner | Chris Licht |
Female Heads of Top 20 Most-Visited US Websites:
3 out of 20 = 15%
The above chart is the most recent (2021) info. For a deeper look into women executives at the top of America’s most popular websites, we can review Bloomberg’s Key Executives listings from 2019. Note that the top 20 websites from 2019 vary slightly from 2021.
The Top 20 Most-Visited websites in US in 2019 were:
Google, YouTube, facebook, Amazon, Yahoo, Twitter, Instagram, Wikipedia, Reddit, Bing, Netflix, Pinterest, Office.com, LinkedIn, FoxNews, MSN, CNN, Accuweather, ESPN, IMDb.
For a deeper dive into the top leadership echelons of these tech companies, Bloomberg listed the key execs as of 2019:
It would be hard to overstate the influence and reach of the Top 20 Websites visited by Americans. Of the 20 listed, these are the sites with women in top roles according to Bloomberg:
Google: Google lists 40 Key Executives – 7 of these are women
Ruth Myrna Porat; CFO
Willa (Lo) Chalmers; Head of gTech Finance
Fuencisla Clemares; Managing Director for Spain & Portugal
Cathy Fogler; Head of Sales & Mktg for Access Unit
Fionnuala Meehan; Head of Google Ireland
Melanie Silva; Managing Director of Australia & New Zealand
Lorraine Twohill; SVP of Global Marketing
YouTube: YouTube Lists 5 Key Executives – 2 are women, including the CEO
Susan Wojcicki, CEO.
Cheryl Gresham, Global Head of Media
Facebook: FB lists 31 Key Executives – 8 are women, including high profile COO and author Sheryl Sandberg.
Sheryl Sandberg, COO & Director
Erin Egan; Chief Privacy Officer & VP of US Public Policy
Tamara Hrivnak; Head Global Music Strategy & Business Development
Mina Lefevre; Head of Development
Kitty Lun; Greater China Head of Creative Shop
Joelle Pineau; Head of Fair Montreal
Fidji Simo; Head of FB app
Philippa Snare; CMO of EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa)
Amazon lists 20 Key Executives – 4 are women
Katie Curran; Head of Communications for Australia
Gina Kwon; Co-head of Comedy for Amazon Studios
Jennifer Salke; Head of Amazon Studios
Sharon Tal Yguado; Head of Genre Series
Twitter lists 22 Key Executives – 6 are women
Laura Froelich; Head of US Partnerships
Maya Hari; Managing Dir of APAC
Kay Madati; Global Head of Content Parterships
Stacy Minero; Head of Content Creation
Sarah Personetti; Head of Global Client Solutions
Jennie Sager; Interim Head of Asia Pacific and Japan/Korea
Wikipedia is run by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation.
Reddit lists 5 Key Executives – 1 is female
Jen Wong; COO
Netflix lists 8 Key Executives – 3 are women.
Christie Fleischer; Global Head of Consumer Products
Jessica Neal; Chief Talent Officer
Monika Shergill; Head of Series & International Originals – Netflix India
Pinterest:
Pinterest had its IPO in 2019, making multi-millionaires of its founders CEO Ben Silbermann, Chief Design & Creative Officer Evan Sharp and former co-founder Paul Sciarra (who left in 2012).
Nearly 80% of US Pinterest users are women.
LinkedIn lists 13 Key Executives – 2 are women
Sharon McCooey; Sr Dir of International Operations & Head of LI Ireland
Andrea Rule; Head of Enterprise Sales for LI Marketing Solutions Australia & NZ
FoxNews:
Fox News Channel, owned by Fox News Group, a division of Fox Corporation since 2019 (when most 21st Century Fox divisions and assets were acquired by Disney), is a pay cable channel that broadcasts in 86 countries.
Rupert Murdoch (who created the channel in 1996) is the Executive Chairman. Suzanne Scott is the current CEO, named to the post in 2018, following the ousting of Roger Ailes due to sexual harassment accusations.
Suzanne Scott is the first female CEO of Fox News.
The remaining websites of the Top 20 are owned by media conglomerates or tech giants:
Yahoo (Verizon Media since 2017), Instagram (FB since 2012), Bing (Microsoft), Office.com (Microsoft), MSN (Microsoft), CNN (AT&T), ESPN (Disney), IMDb (Amazon), Accuweather (Verizon)
What will it take for women to get into the Power Percentage in Web and Internet Sites?