Latin America

There were an estimated 136,166,279 internet users in South America (representing about 34.7% of the region population), according to statistics updated on 30^th September 2009 by Internet World Stats. This represents an increase of 852.7% compared to 2000. 

South America top 10 countries:
1. Brazil: 67,510,400 (34.0% of the population in the country)
2. Argentina: 20,000,000 (48.9%)
3. Colombia: 19,792,718 (45.3%)
4. Chile: 8,369,036 (50.4%)
5. Peru: 7,636,400 (25.8%)
6. Venezuela: 7,552,570 (28.2%)
7. Ecuador: 1,759,472 (12.1%)
8. Uruguay: 1,340,000 (38.3%)
9. Bolivia: 1,000,000 (10.2%)
10. Paraguay: 894,200 (12.8%)
(Internet World Stats, November 2009)

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The number of internet users in Latin America and Puerto Rico is growing quickly, because of affordable computers, more broadband availability and interest in applications such as social networking. Those are the main findings of a study conducted by Pyramid Research for Google and cited in The Miami Herald.

Pyramid projected the regional residential base of internet users would reach 160 million in five years, up from 100 million in 2009. 

Although e-mail and Web surfing are popular with Latin American Web users, as they are in other regions, social networking is especially prevalent.  In Brazil, for example, about 80% of internet users visit social networking sites to chat with friends, meet new people, exchange music and videos and post photos. 

A separate study conducted in September 2008 by comScore World Metrix confirmed the Pyramid/Google findings. More than eight out of 10 internet users surveyed in Latin America said they used online social networks. 

Leading social networks in Latin America include MySpace, Facebook, Hi5, Orkut and Sonico, according to comScore. (eMarketer, January 2009)

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In Latin America the internet audience exceeds 53 million, according to comScore. 

Brazil comprises the largest online population with 15.8 million monthly unique visitors, though internet penetration is 11%. By contrast, the internet population in Chile is 5.6 million, but registers an internet penetration of 45%.

Internet users across Latin America tend to spend more time online each month than the global average of 25 hours. In June 2007, Latin American internet browsers averaged 29 hours. 

Latin American internet usage, June 2007:

• Total Latin American Audience: 53,664,000 (13%)
• Argentina: 7,233,000 (24%)
• Brazil: 15,849,000 (11%)
• Chile: 5,593,000 (45%)
• Colombia: 2,708,000 (9%)
• Mexico: 10,731,000 (14%)
• Puerto Rico: 809,000 (26%)

Yahoo and Google may receive the most unique visitors in the US, though in Latin America Microsoft attracts the most uniques visitors with 47.3 million visits, and 88 percent reach. Global companies like Google (46.5 million unique visitors); Yahoo (35.1 million); and Terra Networks (27.4 million) follow behind Microsoft. Additional unique traffic goes to MercadoLibre (23.7 million unique visitors); Wikipedia (21 million); UOL Red (14.7 million); Ares Galaxy (14.6 million); Fox Interactive Media (14.1 million); and France Telecom (13.8 million). (ClickZ.com, July 2007)

6 out of 10 Latin American consumers surveyed in April 2008 by AméricaEconomía and Visa said they thought it was safe to make online purchases. 

Consumers in Latin America who believe purchasing online is secure, by country, April 2008 (% of respondents):

• Argentina: 60%
• Bolivia: 56%
• Brazil: 55%
• Chile: 66%
• Colombia: 58%
• Costa Rica: 69%
• Ecuador: 64%
• Guatemala: 69%
• Mexico: 67%
• Panama: 67%
• Paraguay: 53%
• Peru: 51%
• Uruguay: 60%
• Venezuela: 72%
• TOTAL: 60%

(eMarketer, September 2008)

Travelocity has introduced a Spanish-language site for consumers in Latin America. The site targets travellers throughout Spanish-speaking Latin America with a focus on consumers in Chile, Columbia and Peru. 

The new site offers a wide range of options including 70,000 hotels, in addition to flights, car rentals and more, for destinations worldwide.

Latin America is a region with great e-commerce potential, according to Travelocity Latin America. 

In 2007, Travelocity had launched a site for consumers in Mexico and in April 2008, the company launched a site specifically for consumers in Argentina. (EyeforTravel, October 2008)

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With favourable external factors such as broadband growth and macro economic situation, online travel intermediaries are gaining in popularity as a distribution channel in the hospitality industry in the Latin American market. 

Suppliers are giving recognition to Online Travel Agencies (OTAs), even as they are focusing on their own direct channels. For example, in March 2007, Hyatt translated its sites to be 100% bookable in Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese languages. Some suppliers feel that some sort of progress has been made by OTAs but still there is a long way to go as far as Latin-based savvy distribution sites are concerned.

Among the OTAs in the region, Hoteldo.com has been around for seven years. On how hoteliers are working with online intermediaries to expand reach with a cost-effective distribution model, Alejandro Calligaris, Hoteldo.com CEO said that as of today, hotels do see the online distributors as a channel which helps them to work with much more flexibility regarding fares and a larger product distribution based on a regional and worldwide level. Working with a few intermediaries, they reach to millions of customers.

Hoteliers in Latin America say the challenges for them include improving distribution in areas where costs are high, connectivity is challenging and returns are minimal. For example, Hyatt International Corporation acknowledges that this will continue to be a struggle as they try to meet the demands of its owners yet trying to establish a presence in the electronic distribution community. 

On this, Calligaris acknowledged that Latin America is eight years behind USA. It is being felt that with travellers needing help in understanding the diversity in destinations and how suppliers’ offerings shape up, that’s where an online partner enters the picture in Latin America. (EyeforTravel, August 2007)

In Latin America, in terms of broadband connectivity Argentina still has a way to go before catching Brazil and Mexico, the region's other economic powerhouses. Brazil had over three times as many high-speed subscriptions as Argentina in Q3 2008, and Mexico had almost twice as many, according to Point Topic.

Broadband subscriptions in the Americas, Q3 2008:
- US: 78,746,000
- Canada: 9,213,000
- Brazil: 9,101,000
- Mexico: 5,702,000
- Argentina: 2,830,000
- Other: 5,949,000
- Total: 111,541,000
(eMarketer, March 2009)

There will be 22.8 million digital TV (DTV) subscriber households in Latin America by 2012, up from 5.9 million in 2006, according to Informa Telecoms and Media's "Americas TV" report. 

Two-thirds of Latin American DTV households are currently in Brazil and Mexico, but that will drop to 55% in 2012 as DTV catches on in other countries. The US will account for 77% of all North and South American DTV subscribers by 2012, down from 85% in 2006, when there were 67.6 million US DTV subscribers. (eMarketer, June 2007)

Almost every Latin American mobile operator launched 3G services in 2008, as the region's carriers scrambled to push data services in order to offset falling voice revenues and satisfy consumers' growing hunger for value added products, according to Informa Telecoms & Media.

There were more than 6.8 million active WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) connections across Latin America at the end of March 2009, an increase of 50% in just one quarter. Possibly the most striking growth of all has been in Brazil, where there were 3.8 million WCDMA subscriptions at the end of March 2009, up from 2.2 million three months earlier.

The analyst predicts that there will be more than 15 million WCDMA subscriptions in Latin America at the end of 2009, or less than 3% of the total 522 million mobile subscriptions in the region. However, WCDMA subscriptions are forecast to grow to 320 million at the end of 2014, or 46% of the region's 689 million predicted total mobile subscriptions at that time. (telecoms.com, June 2009)

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The Latin American mobile messaging market has gained $2.4 billion in 2005 and is predicted to reach $7.8 billion in 2011 for the mobile operators. Frost & Sullivan reported that messaging services are becoming ever bigger revenue earners.

Adopted content strategies that promote mobile messaging as entertainment rather than just a communication tool are partially responsible for the growth. 

(eMarketer, January 2007)