News Americas, TIAGO, Chile, Fri. Sept. 23, 2011: The social networking audience in Latin America has grown 16 percent in the past year according to comScore, a leading company in measuring digital trends.
In June 2011, 114.5 million people in Latin America visited a social networking site, representing 96.0 percent of the entire online population in the region. In the past year, the social networking audience in Latin America has increased 16 percent while the total time spent on social networking sites has increased 88 percent.
The report also found that 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.
People age 15-24 demonstrated the strongest engagement on social networks, accounting for nearly half (48.0 percent) 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 percent).
Facebook.com strongly led the social networking market in Latin America, reaching more than 91 million visitors. Windows Live Profile ranked #2 with more than 35.5 million visitors in the region. Orkut held the #3 spot with 34.4 million visitors, largely driven by the site’s popularity in Brazil, while Twitter.com ranked #4 with 24.3 million visitors.
Five of the top 10 markets ranked by Facebook.com reach are in Latin America. Facebook reached 90.9 percent of all online users in Chile, ranking as the most penetrated market in Latin America.
In Brazil, Orkut ranked as the most-visited social networking destination, reaching 35.7 million visitors, an increase of 20 percent from June 2010. Facebook.com, which is the second largest social networking site in Brazil, witnessed strong growth increasing 192 percent to 24.5 million visitors.
Venezuela is the only country in Latin America in which Twitter.com rises to second place in the social networking ranking. One in four online users in Venezuela visited Twitter.com in June (26.5 percent reach).
Recently launched Google+ reached 28 million visitors worldwide in the first 33 days of its public existence (June 29, 2011 to July 31, 2011). Brazil ranked as the sixth largest market for the site globally, contributing 793,923 visitors.
The Latin American social networking audience was also found to be nearly equal in its composition of males and females, but females account for a larger share of social networking time spent (53.6 percent) compared to males (46.4 percent). This trend was most significant in Brazil where females accounted for 58.7 percent of all social networking time spent.
“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.”
