Now is a great time for businesses to concentrate on reaching the Hispanic market online! So far there has been a positive increase of Hispanics here in the United States using the Internet. In a released report on the Hispanic Internet market here in the United States that was completed n April of 2009 by comScore, a leading company on measuring online audience activities and participation, the Hispanic online population reached a record 20.3 million visitors in February 2009, representing 11% of the total U.S. online market; this a tremendous increase of 6% from the year before. During the past year, the growth of the U.S Hispanic Internet audience overtook the total U.S. online population in terms of number of visitors, time spent and pages consumed, as Hispanic online adoption and engagement increased at a rapid level. Hispanic Internet users also exhibited a surge in online engagement, including strong increases in time spent and pages consumed. The total amount of time spent online by Hispanics increased 6.9% in 2009, while total pages consumed grew 6%. This is at least 3 to 4 times faster than the total U.S. population actively using the Internet.

According to the charts that I will post below, the high percentages of Internet activities by Hispanics are in communication, entertainment and product searching. Here we have three powerful niche markets that companies can enter into online if they want to tap into the Hispanic consumer power; a great marketing opportunity and a potential for niche growth. Of course, companies can’t just start spending money on media campaigns just based on general knowledge of Hispanics. You need to do deep research not only on consumer spending and online activities but also culture. Spend time on who you are trying to reach within the Hispanic market. Ask yourself: What sites do they get on the most? Should I market to only to Spanish speakers or bilingual speakers? Do I offer incentives and discounts? Will customer service be important? Should there be any multimedia applications designed for these particular online activities? the list goes on and on. The important thing is to plan before implementing any campaign. If you need more help, swallow your pride and hire an outside Hispanic based adverting agency whose main goal is to provide you with the best information on the Hispanic market.

I also took the liberty of posting the latest charts from the newly updated 2009 Hispanic Fact Pack on the number of Hispanic visitors on certain sites. Judging from the stats below, both Google and Yahoo are top ranked when it comes to the most visited sites with Google being number one and Yahoo at number two. You should definitely take advantage of not only on these stats but also the Hispanic Fact Book and please study the culture. Trust me, you don’t want the reputation of insulting all Latino communities in the United States or Latin American countries if you plan on expanding internationally.

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• Market Research: US Hispanics Will Spend $257B on Telecom Services over the Next Five Years (advertisingindustrynewswire.com)
• Palomarez: Hispanic consumers drive U.S. economy (mysanantonio.com)
• Summary Box: P&G courts Hispanic market with Gain (seattletimes.nwsource.com)