Online Hispanic Trends

Social Media and Mobile Internet Use of Hispanic Teens and Young Adults

The Pew Internet and American Life Project recently published a report entitled Social Media & Mobile Internet Use of Teens and Young Adults. 

A few of the more interesting findings on teens and young adults in general include: 

• Blogging and commenting on blogs by teens and young adults has decreased since 2006 while it has increased among older adults (from 28% to 14%),
• Both teen and adult use of social networking sites has increased significantly, but the sites where teens and young adults maintain their profiles are different, with 66% using MySpace compared to 36% of those 30 and over, and most interesting....
• Only 8% of Internet users age 12-17 use Twitter.

With respect to Latino teens and young adults, the results of Pew's research show that:

• Although not as often as White teens and young adults, Hispanic teens and young adults report going online once a day or three to five times a week.

• Although laptops have overtaken desktops as the computer of choice, Hispanic adults are less likely than White adults to own a desktop or laptop computer.

• Along with young adults, Hispanics and African‐Americans are more likely to go online wirelessly. According to the report "Half of all African‐American adults (48%) have used their cell phone to access the internet, compared with 40% of Hispanic adults and just 31% of white adults."

Media Usage Way Up for Kids and Teens, but Particularly for Black and Latino Children

The Kaiser Family Foundation recently released a report that shows that the amount of time young people are spending with entertainment media has increased signifcantly over the past five years, rising from 6.21 hours to 7.38. When taking into account "media multitasking," the number actually adds up to 10:45 minutes per day.

Among other interesting findings, the results of the study show that mobile media and social networking are driving this increased consumption, and that Black and Hispanic children spend much more time with media than White children do - 13:00 hours of of total media exposure for Hispanics, 12:59 for Blacks, and 8:36 for Whites.

The news release says that "top online activities include social networking (:22 a day), playing games (:17), and visiting video sites such as YouTube (:15).  Three-quarters (74%) of all 7th - 12th graders say they have a profile on a social networking site."

Source: PRNewswire

Latino Internet Use Being Fueled by Growth in Previously Underrepresented Groups

The Pew Hispanic Center just released a very interesting new report - Latinos Online, 2006-2008: Narrowing the Gap.

The report looks compares and contrasts internet use patterns of native-born latinos, foreign-born latinos, blacks and whites.

Some of the key findings include:

• Internet use among Latino adults rose by 10 percentage points from 54% in 2006 to 64% in 2008, as compared to four points for whites and two points for blacks.
• This increase has been fueled by a growth in use by groups who have typically had very low rates of internet use - foreign-born latinos, those with lower educational levels, and those with lower household incomes.
• Although there were not large changes in the number of Latinos accessing the internet from home, there were significant increases in the the numbers using broadband, as well as for whites and blacks.

To promote consistency, the surveys were done via landline, and being that there was a significant increase in the numbers of Latinos that only use cell phones during this same period, the researchers concluded that the numbers in this report may underestimate Latino internet use.

To see the full report: Latinos Online, 2006-2008

Using Mobile Technology to Make a Difference in the Hispanic Community

Jonathan Spalter, chairman of Mobile Future, recently published a brilliant article that discusses how mobile technology can be used to make a difference in some key areas that affect the Hispanic community.

Referring to a recent study done by Mobile Future entitled Hispanic Broadband Access: Making the Most of the Mobile, Connected Future, Jonathan points to data that shows that more than half of America's Hispanic population is using the mobile Internet as compared to one third of whites.  They also use more minutes and own more cell phones than other ethnic groups. 

Recognizing this opportunity, Mr. Spalter and this report highlight the importance of leveraging Hispanic's use of mobile technology in three key areas: health care, education and economic opportunity.

Read his full article to learn more about specific suggestions in these areas and download the report. 

Pew Data on Five Largest Hispanic Populations in U.S.

The Pew Hispanic Center recently published demographic profiles on the five largest Hispanic populations in the U.S. - Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Salvadoran and Dominican.

These detailed reports can be found on Pew's website and provide in-depth data to understand how each of these groups contrasts to the U.S. population as a whole and the overall Hispanic population.

Some interesting data points:

• Mexicans make up over two-thirds of the U.S. Hispanic population, with four in ten living in California.
• The number of Puerto Ricans living in the U.S. and DC is higher (4.1 million) than those living in Puerto Rico (3.9 million), and are the second largest population of Hispanic origin residing in the U.S.
• The share of Cubans who live in poverty (12.3) is much closer to the percentage of the overall U.S. population (11.9%) and below the share among all Hispanics (19.5%). 
• Six in ten Dominicans in the U.S. are foreign born, and eight out of ten live in the Northeast.

Recent Research on Language Preferences for the Online Hispanic Community

A study conducted of a nationally representative sample of 513 Hispanics in the Fall of 2008 produced some useful findings on the Hispanic community's online language preferences.

Over half (55%) of the sample interviewed said that they preferred English online.  However, among the 18-34 age bracket, 39% said they preferred Spanish-language sites, with more women preferring Spanish-language sites (42%) than men (29%).

Source: IPSOS Omnibus Study

Latinos in San Diego Increasingly Connected

A study conducted by Meneses Research and Associates looked at the online Latino population in San Diego in a survey of 643 individuals ages 18+.

The research found that a growing number of Latino consumers in San Diego County own computers and connect to the Internet, and the majority absorb media and advertising in a half-and-half mix of English and Spanish. 

Furthermore....

• 81 percent said they owned computers in contrast to 58% in 2004
• 73% said they connect to the Internet compared with 53 in 2004
• 35% said they intended to soon purchase a computer as compared to 17% in 2004
• Although more respondents watch television primarily in Spanish, most of those who listen to the radio and read print-media consume media in equal amounts of Spanish and English
• 82% prefer to receive advertising in both English and Spanish

Source: SignOnSandiego.com

Pew Hispanic Center Releases Statistical Portrait of Hispanic Women

The Pew Hispanic Center released "Hispanic Women in the United States, 2007," a statistical portrait of the demographic, social and economic characteristics of this country's 14.4 million Hispanic women.

Pew's findings include the following:

• Hispanic women are younger than non-Hispanic women with a median age if 41 vs. 47 for non-Hispanic women.
• Hispanic women have a higher fertility rate than that of non-Hispanic women – 1/3 higher than that of non-Hispanic women.
• Just over half (52%) of Hispanic women are immigrants.
• Hispanic women have comparable rates of participation in the labor force - 59% as compared to 61% for non-Hispanic women.
• Hispanic women earn a median weekly salary of $460 as compared to $615 for non-Hispanic women.

See the full fact sheet on the Pew Hispanic Center's website.

2008 Terra comScore Hispanic Digital Study Provides New Insights Into The Diverse Hispanic Online Community

The results of a recent study conducted by comSore of online Hispanic consumers (ages 12+) for Terra provide some interesting insights into the diverse online Hispanic Market. Among the findings: 

Online Hispanics are embracing technology - 66% of those surveyed reported keeping up with the latest developments and influencing family members and friends in their purchase decisions of new technology.

Internet usage is outpacing television viewing - 56% reported spending at least one hour per day online vs. 50% that reported spending one hour per day watching television.

The results of the study also show that online Hispanics regularly multi-task, watching television and using the Internet at the same time.

A large percentage of those surveyed own cell phones and use them regularly as their primary line, taking advantage of the voice mail and text messaging functionality in particular.

When not on the Internet, online Hispanics are very engaged in their community with 40% saying they have voted, 34% saying they attend church regularly, and 24% have participated in fundraising efforts.

Their top preferred leisure activities include dining out, shopping and going to the movies.

Read more details in the full press release at Hispanic PR Wire

Study by Jupiter says that Hispanic e-mail users are more receptive to personalized emails

According to research conducted by Jupiter in a study titled "E-mail Marketing to Hispanic Users," Hispanics are more likely to respond to emails that are personalized. 50% of the Hispanic surveyed said that they were more likely to respond to email that is personalized around the products or services that interest them as compared to 41% of non-Hispanics.

Therefore, marketers that pay close attention to segmentation and personalization will be ahead of the game with this audience....

The article also cites Jupiter's projections for Hispanic online retail spending, which will reach 21.6 billion as of 2011.

Read more >> Internetretailer.com