|
Be a Smart Marketer - US Hispanics Online: 2006 Year in Review |
US Hispanics Surpass General Market in Audience Growth by a Factor of 6.5
Twelve months ago, Smart Marketer predicted that the percentage growth in number of US Hispanics (USH) online would equal or surpass the online General Market (GM) in 2006. Surpass – indeed! The USH online audience increased 13% between Dec 05 and Dec 06 to 16,509,000 unique visitors in Dec 06; while GM increased 2% within the same time period. This brief inquiry will highlight USH online accomplishments from Dec 2006 to 12 months prior, and drill down in an attempt to identify the segment of this population that is leading this remarkable growth.
Chart 1:
US Hispanics Outpace General Market Audience Growth. Dec 05 vs. Dec 06 Unique Visitors; Source: comScore Media Metrix US Hispanic & General Market Services
| US Hispanic Audience Surpasses General Market in Actual Average Minutes per Usage Day and Growth |
An examination of average minutes per usage day shows US Hispanics surpassing the online general market during Dec 06. US Hispanics spend an average of 88.1 minutes online per day versus the online general market of 81.7 minutes per day during Dec 06, meaning US Hispanics remain 6.4 more minutes online per usage day on average than the general market. This breakout in time spent by USH is expected to only increase, as average minutes per usage day increased 5.5% between Dec 05 and Dec 06.
Chart 2:
US Hispanics Outpace General Market in Avg. Minutes per Usage Day Metric in Actual and Growth. Dec 05 vs. Dec 06 Avg. Minutes per Usage Day; Source: comScore Media Metrix US Hispanic & General Market Services
| US Hispanic Online Growth – Demographic Drill Down |
Although there has been much speculation that Spanish language usage among US Hispanics will decrease over time, the reality is that the language preferences of the Latino online audience has hardly budged during the last 12 months. In previous Smart Marketer issues, we have seen that even English preferred US Hispanics frequent Spanish language sites, because of the relevance of the content.
Chart 3:
Language Preference (spoken in home). Dec 05 vs. Dec 06; Source: comScore Media Metrix US Hispanic Service
According to Chart #4, age breaks also remain about the same, and still skew younger than GM; although the 2-17 years old audience segment has decreased by 4.4%.
Chart 4:
US Hispanic, Age Range, Dec 05 vs. Dec 06 Avg. % Composition Unique Visitors; Source: comScore Media Metrix US Hispanic Service
Finally, gender also is not remarkably different from 12 months ago as evident in Chart #5.
Chart 5:
US Hispanic, Gender, Dec 05 vs. Dec 06 Avg. % Composition Unique Visitors; Source: comScore Media Metrix US Hispanic Service
Since the US Hispanic online audience has not changed very much, in terms of the demographics noted above, from Dec 06 to 12 months prior, it may lead to the conclusion that US Hispanics are simply using the online medium at a greater rate, and growing at a faster pace as an audience overall than GM. The question still remains; which demographic segment is leading the impressive USH online usage? In examining USH online growth by language segment, we still get no clues, since each language segment (Spanish Preferred, English Preferred, and Both Spanish and English equally) have all grown by 13% across the board. Perhaps the answer to which USH segment is the growth leader can be found in gender or age, but for the sake of brevity, this may be investigated in future articles.
Smart Marketer predicts that US Hispanics’ online audience growth in 2007 will outpace their phenomenal accomplishments from 2006. US Hispanics are the driving force in the overall general population growth as well as online. So, it makes sense that more and more media executives are finding success at niche sites (35% as a % of total online branding spending allocation) rather than the usual suspects, according to Chart #6.
Chart 6:
| 2006 Highlights from Terra Networks |
Terra Networks is very excited about the US Hispanic online audience in its impressive growth and increased usage. We have been very busy, 24*7, catering to our target audience by providing them with the most relevant content and the latest services. Here are just a few highlights of our success in 2006:
Feb. 06: La Academia USA Competition Heats Up On Terra Networks And Azteca America
Feb. 06: Terra Networks Unveils New Online Creative Panel Testing Available To Growing Online Advertising Industry
Mar. 06: "Comcast Latino" Broadband Portal Launches on Comcast.net
May 06: Terra Networks Features Miami Fashion Week® Site for Sixth Year Sponsored by Mercury
Jun. 06: Terra Networks Launches Mega World Cup 2006 Site in Spanish and English
Jun. 06: Terra Networks Announces New Behavioral Targeting Capabilities Delivered by Revenue Science Inc.
Oct. 06: Terra Networks Offers Film Aficionados Extensive Coverage of BABEL
|
