The U.S. Hispanic online population reached a record 20.3 million users in February 2009, representing 11 percent of the total U.S. online market, according to comScore.
During the past year, the growth of the U.S. Hispanic Internet audience outpaced that of the total U.S. online population in terms of number of visitors, time spent and pages viewed, as Hispanic online adoption and engagement accelerated.
“It’s well known that the Hispanic market is a growing and increasingly important segment to advertisers and marketers,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix.
“However, any business attempting to effectively reach this segment needs to understand the behavior of the U.S. Hispanic online consumer as a fundamental component of their marketing and media strategies.”
U.S. Hispanic Internet users showed a surge in online engagement, including solid increases in time spent and pages viewed. The total amount of time spent online by Hispanics increased 6.9 percent in February 2009 (3.9 times faster than the total U.S. online population) while total pageviews grew 6 percent (3.6 times faster than the total U.S. population).
Though they represent 11 percent of the total U.S. online audience, Hispanics account for just 9 percent of total time spent online.
The most popular category was community – teens, where U.S. Hispanics accounted for 18 percent of total time spent, followed by gaming information at 13 percent.
“Though U.S. Hispanics are less engaged Internet users on average, they do show a predilection for communication and entertainment online – high engagement activities that offer a potentially strong marketing opportunity,” added Flanagan.
