Since US Hispanic (USH) online audience growth by unique visitors outpaced General Market (GM) last year by a factor of 6.5 (http://www.terra.com/terrainthenews/pdf/emarketer.pdf), now that over one third of this year has already concluded, sufficient time has elapsed to check into US Hispanic online usage for 2007.

Fortunately, a powerful new metric has been introduced to further analyze online behavior called - the visit. A “visit” is a frequency measure and indicator of user engagement, defined as an individual’s set of interactions with a specific Web site.  In counting visits, if an individual does not interact with the site for at least a 30-minute period, that visit will be defined as having been concluded and a new visit will be counted when the individual next accesses the site. 1

Analysis by unique visitor metric will always be important, but the visitor with multiple visits to a site within the reported time period is more valuable because it signifies higher engagement and usage. The user with only one visit per month is not as valuable as the user with multiple visits to a portal, since content portals actually desire for their visitors to stay, explore and interact rather than simply search and leave. The metric used to determine number of visits per visitor is Average Visits per Visitor.

The top growth category by visit metric for US Hispanics between Jan 07 – Apr 07 is Training and Education, which grew by 147% to 4,345,000 visits during Apr 07. 2 This falls in line with the circumstances in which US Hispanics find themselves. The majority of Hispanics are foreign born: 54% of Hispanics overall are foreign born, 73% of Hispanic adults 18+ years old are foreign born, and 14% of Hispanic children under 18 are foreign born. 3 Clearly, training and education offer a clear path to financial success which is of particular importance to new arrivals that may not have the support infrastructure of their GM brethren.

Portals offer a wide array of online training and educational references. Terra.com’s Empleo (Employment) channel has partnered with careerbuilder.com for job search by zip, category, or keyword and is available in Spanish or English (http://terra.com/empleo).

The fact that the top growth category by visit is Training and Education for US Hispanics proves that this is an ethnicity that is constantly looking to better themselves, which in turn benefits all around them. To put this growth in perspective, the 147% aforementioned increase by Visit metric within the Training and Education category among US Hispanics has surpassed the growth of the top GM category by visit during the same time period. 4 The top growth category by visit metric among GM is actually Discussion/Chat, which grew by 108% between Jan 07 – Apr 07 to 392,043 visits during Apr 07. Training and Education category growth by Visit metric, GM, was only 3% between Jan 07 – Apr 07 to 23,761,000 visits during Apr 07. 5

The apple does not fall far from the tree, as the top growth category by Visit metric for US Hispanic children aged 2 – 17 years old is Career Services and Development which increased 365% in visits between Jan 07 – Apr 07 to 7,596,000 visits during Apr 07. 6

Yet another top category which experienced a Visit growth spurt is the Reference category, probably due to Hispanic children turning online for homework help. Among US Hispanics aged 2-17 years old, the Reference category increased 261% between Jan 07 – Apr 07 to 13,903,000 visits during Apr 07. 7 Portals, obviously, are a great source for homework help. Terra Networks has 250 channels and sub channels in each of its 19 regional portals in 18 countries: Terra.com for US Hispanics, Terra.com.ar for Argentineans, Terra.com.br for Brazilians, Terra.com.mx for Mexicans, etc. Home page, news, and more are updated with relevant breaking headlines multiple times per day, keeping viewers up to date on their interest of choice.

As a brief side note, comScore takes the effort to obtain head of household permission for their panelists under 18 years old. Considering that the majority of the US Hispanic population overall is under 18, and clearly youth is leading online usage to where their traditional media is actually the Internet, Hispanic research which includes youth is truly representative and critical for researchers.

The top content category with the largest growth in Visits among USH Females is Comparison Shopping, which grew by 107% between Jan 07 – Apr 07 to 13,252,000 visits during Apr 07. 8 Comparison shopping is not exclusive to Females, of course, with US Hispanic males experiencing a 31% increase in the category between Jan 07 – Apr 07. 9 Comparison shopping powered by PriceGrabber, remittance payments and more are all available on Terra’s Compras channel (http://compras.terra.com/usa.html). Terra’s Compras channel even includes a service called Compras en USA which allows visitors to purchase products online from US based retail sites, and delivers them to their address in Latin America.

Chart #1:

As indicated in Chart #1, 60% of US Adult Internet users use comparison shopping websites regularly/once in a while.

US Hispanic males, meanwhile, have the opposite gender in mind, Women, as a top growth category by Visit. Among US Hispanic males, the Women Category grew by 130% between Jan 07 – Apr 07 to 9,332,000 visits during Apr 07. 10

A top content category experiencing growth by Visit metric among US Hispanics with no children is the Gay/Lesbian category which grew by 95% between Jan 07 – Apr 07 to 999,000 visits during Apr 07. 11 This is a great find; since our new Gay portal within Terra.com called TodoGay (http://www.todogay.com/) was recently launched on the heels of Terra’s Gay content producer, Andres Fortuño, receiving the GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism, Spanish on May 11 th, 2007. (http://terra.com/terrainthenews/pdf/GLAADFinal.pdf)

A top content category among Latinos with children is Coupons, growing 177% in Visits between Jan 07 – Apr 07 to 3,974,000 visits during Apr 07. 12 Although US Hispanics are more likely than Non-Hispanic Whites and African Americans to be employed 13, frugality by using coupons is leveraged to trim costs while raising a family.

Members of Latino households with 5 or more members are clearly curious about their ancestry, as a top growth category among them is Genealogy, growing 125% by Visit metric between Jan 07 – Apr 07. 14

Among the US Hispanic online audience, language preference Spanish preferred as the language preference spoken in the home, the fastest growing content category is Toys which increased 291% by Visit metric between Jan 07 – Apr 07. 15

Be a Smart Marketer. It is clear that Visit by Category Analysis yields valuable findings per target audience. Expose target audience content affinity - follow their Growth by Visit metric to contextually target campaigns in channels otherwise unknown to your competition (Toys for Spanish Preferred, Women for Males, Coupons for large households, Training and Education for Hispanics overall, etc). Request syndicated Visit by Category Metrics research from portal Research Departments to take your campaign results to the next level.

Correction: Hispanic moviegoers increased their admissions from 8 in 2005 to 9.8 from 2005 to 2006 was stated in the April 2007 Smart Marketer. The 2005 and 2006 figures were reversed.

Terra invites you to ad:tech Miami, June 26 – June 27, 2007. Fernando Madeira, CEO of Terra Networks Latin America, is keynote. Plus, Michele Azan, Vice President of Sales and Business Development, Marily Aldir, Associate Director, US and Latin American Sales, and Natasha Funk, Sales Research Manager will also be participating as panel speakers. View the conference agenda: http://www.ad-tech.com/miami/conference-miami.asp

Either register in advance for the free Exhibit Hall and Keynote Speaker pass or register for the full conference pass for the 2 day event with a 35% promotional discount using promo code ATMB53 via this link: http://www.ad-tech.com/miami/register-miami.asp

1.) http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?id=1281

2.) comScore Media Metrix, US Hispanic Service

3.) Synovate. 2006 U.S. Diversity Markets Report. 2006. page 29

4.) comScore Media Metrix, GM Service

5.) comScore Media Metrix, GM Service

6.) comScore Media Metrix, US Hispanic Service

7.) comScore Media Metrix, US Hispanic Service

8.) comScore Media Metrix, US Hispanic Service

9.) comScore Media Metrix, US Hispanic Service

10.) comScore Media Metrix, US Hispanic Service

11.) comScore Media Metrix, US Hispanic Service

12.) comScore Media Metrix, US Hispanic Service

13.) Synovate. 2006 U.S. Diversity Markets Report. 2006. page 45

14.) comScore Media Metrix, US Hispanic Service

15.) comScore Media Metrix, US Hispanic Service

Watch for even more exciting Terra initiatives in 2007! To learn more about how you can reach Terra.com's quality audience with your marketing message, call us at 212-354-2700. Visit http://www.terra.com/advertise/ and http://www.terra.com/terrainthenews/.

By Natasha Funk Published May 29, 2007. If you missed past issues of Terra’s Smart Marketer Series and would like to obtain them, please send an email to: smartmarketer@terra.com.