The Hispanic Online Market is Exploding

Totaling more than 45 million individuals, Hispanics are the largest minority in the United States and have reached a critical mass online. As the fastest growing segment of the online population, the Hispanic online market has emerged as one of the most attractive and lucrative customer segments on the Internet. Online Hispanics are young, affluent, and responsive to targeted online experiences that appeal to their language needs and cultural predispositions. The US Hispanic market online represents an attractive opportunity for companies looking to grow market share and increase revenue.

At nearly 20 million individuals in 2008, the US Hispanic online market continues to grow at explosive levels and remains a relatively untapped segment of both the online population as well as the aggregate Hispanic market. The Internet has become central in the lives of millions of Hispanics and has emerged as a viable medium for companies to connect with this lucrative segment of the US population in a cost-effective, quantifiable, and interactive manner.

The Hispanic online market has:

• Achieved critical mass: 20 million in June, 2008¹
• Sustained strong growth: More than 3.5 million new Hispanic users came online between June 2007 and June 2008, representing 21% growth vs. 6% general market growth during the same period
• Been classified as an “upscale, mass market”: Online Hispanics are more affluent, more educated, and more acculturated than the aggregate Hispanic population²

Online Hispanics are:

• In their main household formation years: 56% are between 18 – 34 years old²
• Affluent and have buying potential: 60% earn more than $40,000 and 68% have credit cards²
• Leading the digital revolution: More likely to have websites, blogs and be active on social networks³
• Accessing the Internet for education, empowerment, communication and entertainment: A valuable Hispanic online user experience must deliver on these primary user needs
• Bilingual: Online Hispanics are using the Internet in both English and Spanish, a bilingual, culturally relevant approach is critical in reaching them⁴

¹ ComScore Media Metrix
² 2005 AOL/Roper Hispanic Cyberstudy
³ Florida State University Center for Hispanic Marketing Communication, Dr. Felipe Korzenny
⁴ Forrester Research

Univision/Televisa Deal Raises Online Stakes

 

Univision and Televisa have finally kissed and made up. After years of bickering, last week's reconciliation seems to be a win-win for both parties.

From a financial perspective, Televisa will invest $1.2 billion in Univision for a 5% equity stake and assume a huge chunk of Univision's debt in exchange for an additional 25% equity stake. Perhaps more importantly, however, the deal grants Univision exclusive U.S. rights to Televisa's broadcast and digital assets through 2020.

There is no disputing that Univision dominates the U.S. Spanish-language media industry especially when it comes to television and radio. Univision's television network reaches nearly twice as many household as the No. 2 player, Telemundo. In radio, Univision reaches 73% of the Hispanic market through 73 stations -- compare this to its nearest competitor, Spanish Broadcasting System, which has only 15 radio stations.

Univision is also the No. 1 player in the Spanish-language online market, but competition is much tighter when compared to Spanish-language television and radio. The following data from Quantcast.com show a more competitive Spanish-language online industry:

1. Univision.com 1,500,000*
2. Terra.com 1,100,000
3. Telemundo.com 581,000
4. Amigos.com 533,000
5. EsMas.com 430,000
6. QuePasa.com 350,000
7. MedioTiempo.com 323,000
8. Starmedia.com 263,000
*Monthly U.S. users

Barriers to entry in the online world are significantly lower than those in the television and radio markets, making compelling content that much more important online. And compelling content is exactly what Univision gets through its renewed partnership with Televisa.

Televisa has a wealth of highly attractive digital content

Televisa is the largest multimedia conglomerate in the Spanish-speaking world, and Univision is now Televisa's distribution platform in the U.S. In addition to its hugely popular telenovelas, Televisa also owns three Mexican soccer teams, including the popular Club America; Editorial Televisa, which produces and distributes 178 magazine titles, and Televisa Cine, which produces original feature films, just to name a few.

With access to Televisa's digital content, Univision is well positioned to continue to succeed in the U.S. Hispanic online market. It just has to figure out how to leverage it to attract and engage more users by 2020.

This commentary is insightful. I recommend it to others.

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Lee Vann is founder and CEO of Captura Group Captura Group. For nine years he has led Hispanic interactive initiatives for clients including the U.S. government, Allstate Insurance Co., Century 21, PayPal and Ford Motor Co. Reach him here.

Look For Surge In Spanish SEO Demand

Traditional wisdom regarding Spanish SEO campaigns would have you believe that, despite the fact that Spanish is among the most widely spoken languages on the planet, SEO campaigns in Español just do not work. They don't work because most Spanish-speaking countries are still rather behind in connecting their citizens on the Internet, so there is not a whole lot of Spanish content on the web in comparison to English, Japanese, or other languages. It is a wonderful idea in theory but, in the real world, Spanish SEO just is not worth it.

At one point, this may have been true. Over the last 10 years, however, the Hispanic market has changed. More and more Spanish-speaking people all across Latin America are becoming connected and, as this has happened, the amount of Spanish content on the net has increased dramatically. The other, and more relevant, effect worth mentioning is that more and more Spanish speakers are performing searches. The last decade, where Spanish SEO campaigns experienced little to no success, is not at all indicative of the future.

So, just how much of an increase has the Internet seen of Spanish content in the last few years?  Well, consider this: in the early- to mid-'90s the search engines were in English. Anyone conducting a Web search had to do it in English; there was no other option. As technology caught up around the world, the Web has become a multilingual platform and foreign Web growth has been astonishing. While in 1996, 75% of all Web searches were conducted in English, today, according to InternetWordsStats.com, English searches account for only 25%. Search engines and directories understood the importance of this non-English segment and today it is becoming easier and easier to find content in your mother tongue.

Spanish searches are representative of that growth. As of two years ago, by number of users, the Spanish-speaking community was the third-largest language community on the Internet, being outnumbered only by English and Mandarin speakers.

One recent statistic showed that the number of Spanish-speaking Internet users is increasing at a rate of 619.3%, far outpacing the growth seen in users speaking other languages. A significant portion of that growth is seen in Hispanic consumers in the United States being able to afford having their homes connected to high-speed Internet.

Eduardo Crespo, CEO at Hispanic Market Solutions, shared with me recently a report by Nielsen titled, "A Snapshot of Hispanic Media Usage in the U.S." The report indicates that almost 40% of mostly-English speakers report using some Spanish-language Internet daily. The Nielsen report also shows that computer ownership continues to grow among Hispanics and half of Spanish-only speakers now have Internet.

  

The growth of the digital Hispanic market would be ignored at one's own peril, and any business looking to generate traffic from new sources would do well to look beyond the languages of the BRIC nations, Brazil, Russia, India and China. There are many tools available to promote and engage your visitors, here are just a few examples. As more Spanish speakers connect to the net, both in the U.S. and abroad in Latin America, the opportunity for success in SEO campaigns in Spanish will continue to increase dramatically in the coming years. Those who take the time to invest in catering to this growing market now will likely be the ones seeing the greatest growth in this segment in the coming years.

To sum up, while it's clear that consumers are neither one dimensional nor language-centric, for those businesses that are serious about reaching the entire spectrum of the U.S. Hispanic community, then, connecting to the Spanish-preferred and Spanish-reliant audience through a cost-effective Spanish SEO campaign can be an integral part of the overall Hispanic search engine marketing strategy. We recommend looking at your options and integrate a cost-effective system as part of reaching the hispanic community.

This commentary is insightful. I recommend it to others.

Post your response to the public Engage:Hispanics blog.

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Sebastian Aroca is an entrepreneur and a customer centric Spanish SEO/SEM professional. He has over 10 years of professional experience managing regional customer programs and client acquisition strategies in the areas of sales and marketing

Welcome to "El Sitio Social"

Welcome to "El Sitio Social" soon to become the #1 destination on the web for Latinos and Hispanic users.

Hispanic Space will be a social, online community that will provide users with access to robust, bilingual content, information sharing, and other topics of high relevance to Hispanic users.

Our social web will be developed "By Latinos For Latinos", with a mix of what we know works. As latinos we have crossed boundaries, country borders and using the music industy coined phrased "crossed-over". You will find "El Sitio Social" to be a great mix of the new, the old, with a twist of "Sabor Latino" in every area of the site.

We will include blogs, live chat, dating, and culturally relevant channels in the areas of entertainment, business, fashion, health, lifestyle, Latin America, sports, recipes and tv.

As the world wide social network expands our circle of friends appears to be closer than ever before.  Everyday we are sharing and meeting new people from all parts of the world.  The web has allowed us to travel from one country to another with the click of the mouse, or choosing an app on our smart phones.   

El Sitio Social will provide a place where you will be able to access your friends, family, contacts and information across all your social networks.   Like moving into a new town, a new city, starting a new job or moving into your new home, we want you to feel "at home"; you will be able to bring all your relationships from Facebook, Myspace, Gmail, AOL, MSN, Yahoo, YouTube, Linkedin, and others, with a click of the mouse.

Latinos will be able to email, IM, report and see news, send gifts, sign in to live radio, shop, free classified listings, free business listings, custom toolbars, translator, your own video, and much, much more.

As we foucs our attention to the design of "El Sitio Social" we welcome everyones collaboration, ideas and input. Feel free to email us your suggestions and comments to:
ElSitioSocial@live.com

Or you can leave your comment on this blog post.

We know that you will soon call "El Sitio Social" your new home on the world wide web.

Celebrating Latin Food "Hispanic Kitchen"