U.S. Hispanic visitor Alicia Gomez on the web

U.S. Hispanic Internet Audience Hits 20 Million Unique Users

NEW YORK CITY (By Mike Shields, Media Week) April 16, 2009 — The U.S. Hispanic audience on the Internet has swelled to 20 million unique users, growing over the past year at a rate that’s nearly fifty percent faster than of the general population, according to a new comScore report.

In February of 2009 comScore found there to be 20.3 million U.S. Hispanic visitors on the Web, representing a surge of 5.8 percent versus February of 2008. During that same period of time the general Web population grew by 3.9 percent. A similar growth disparity was evident for engagement measures such as total minutes spent online and total page views, where Hispanics exhibited growth that was five times as fast as the general population.

However, despite that growth trajectory, the U.S. Hispanic audience has a ways to go to catch up to the general market in terms of total Web usage. Hispanics now account for 11 percent of the Web’s population, but still only generate nine percent of the total time spent with the medium. That’s likely driven by the maturity of the general market, which is composed of a large number of long time Internet users.

And since this demographic likely skews young, entertainment and communicating with friends account for big chunks of their surfing. For example, 18 percent of this audience time online is spent on teen community sites, while 13 percent is spent on gaming information sites and 11 percent is spent on instant messaging platforms.

“Though U.S. Hispanics are less engaged Internet users on average, they do show a predilection for...high engagement activities that offer a potentially strong marketing opportunity,” Jack Flanagan, executive vp of comScore Media Metrix.