Business News Americas | March 29, 2011 | Patrick Nixon
Latin America is seeing explosive growth in its online population with social networks championing other communication mediums, while in the areas of video usage and online banking, the region still has a lot of room to grow, according to consultancy ComScore.
ComScore’s senior VP for Latin America, Alejandro Fosk, showed in a webinar that the Latin American population of internet users over the age of 15 accessing from home and work had grown 15% in 2010 to 111mn.
Compared with other regions, North America’s growth rate was almost flat, while the Middle East and Africa grew a staggering 32%. Within Latin America, Brazil saw the highest growth last year of 23%.
Brazil had the largest online population at 45.1% for home and office users older than 6. Though taking into account users of shared computers, the extended online population was 77.3mn.
Venezuela and Colombia saw the largest growth in their online populations in 2010, at 27% and 26% respectively.
Latin America’s large young population is a driver of internet use. Some 62% of the region’s internet population was between age 15 and 35 compared with the global average of 53%.
People in the 15-24 age group were the most intensive users, spending an average 26.6 hours per month online – above the global average of 22.8 hours.
Of the age group under 35, men spent more time online than women, while in the 35 or older age group, women spend more time online. Regional average of time spent online for 15 or older is 23 hours.
SOCIAL NETWORKS
Pushing growth is the massive adoption of social networks and the use of digital cameras, now available on most mobile phones, which further drives social network use
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