PR Newswire, September 20, 2011
comScore, Inc. released the report The Rise of Social Networking in Latin America that examines the state of Latin America’s dynamic social networking landscape, providing insights into trends at a global, regional and individual market level. “Social networking has become an essential part of consumers’ digital lives over the past several years,” said Alejandro Fosk, comScore senior vice president for Latin America. “As it has become more widely adopted throughout the region and across demographic segments, it has redefined the way consumers interact with content and with each other. Social media is also changing the way marketing messages are disseminated and offers a new channel to engage with current and potential customers, which presents a variety of attractive opportunities for brands to effectively integrate social into their digital strategies.”
In June 2011, 114.5 million people in Latin America visited a social networking site, representing 96.0% of the entire online population in the region. In the past year, the social networking audience in Latin America has increased 16% while the total time spent on social networking sites has increased 88%.
Latin Americans are strongly engaged with social networking. Half of the top 10 worldwide markets ranked by time spent on social networking sites are in Latin America, with Argentina leading the region at 10 hours per month in June 2011. The Latin American social networking audience is nearly equal in its composition of males and females, but females account for a larger share of social networking time spent (53.6%) compared to males (46.4%).
This trend was most significant in Brazil where females accounted for 58.7% of all social networking time spent. People age 15-24 demonstrated the strongest engagement on social networks, accounting for nearly half (48.0%) of all time spent in the category. This trend was most significant in Venezuela where visitors age 15-24 accounted for 3 of every 5 social networking minutes (58.2%).