Time spent both online and on Facebook reach new milestones in Latin America
Internet usage is spreading rapidly in Latin America, and users in several countries are spending more time online than the worldwide average, according to December 2011 research from comScore. Among Latin American populations, internet users in Brazil spent the most time online that month, at 27 hours on average, followed by Mexico and Colombia (26.7 hours) and Argentina (26.1 hours). The worldwide average for the month was 24.4 hours.
comScore, which measured internet users ages 15 and up who logged on from home and work locations, estimated a total of 129 million internet users across Latin America in December 2011. The average time spent online for the region was 24 hours—equating to more than 3 billion hours in front of a computer screen during the month.
The report also states that Facebook, which recently displaced orkut as the No. 1 social network in Brazil, had a regional user penetration of 84% in Latin America and the average visitor spent 7 hours on the site.
In February 2012, eMarketer estimated that Facebook users in Latin America, including internet users of any age logging on via any device, will reach 207.3 million in 2014. At that point, they will account for nearly 70% of internet users in the region and more than a third of the total population.
Factoring in trends seen in the US and other developed markets, the growing popularity of social networking will only expand Facebook’s reach in Latin America. Expect the network to continue to dominate time spent online in the near future.
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