Latin America is Totally Hooked with Social Networking (Just Like Everyone Else)

The Latin American social networking audience grew by 16 percent last year, according to The Rise of Social Networking in Latin America from comScore. The total time spent on social networking sites in the region has also increased 88 percent.

In June this year, 114.5 million people in Latin America visited a social networking site, representing 96 percent of the entire population in the region. Facebook is huge in the area, reaching more than 91 million visitors. Windows Live Profile is a far second with more than 35.5 million visitors. Orkut has a foothold on Brazil though.

Alejandro Fosk, comScore senior vice president for Latin America,

“Social networking has become an essential part of consumers’ digital lives over the past several years. As it has become more widely adopted throughout the region and across demographic segments, it has redefined the way consumers interact with content and with each other. Social media is also changing the way marketing messages are disseminated and offers a new channel to engage with current and potential customers, which presents a variety of attractive opportunities for brands to effectively integrate social into their digital strategies.”

The Latin Americans are strongly engaged with social networking. Half of the top 10 worldwide markets ranked by time spent on social networking sites are in Latin America. Argentina leads the region at 10 hours per month in June 2011.

The region’s social networking audience is almost equal. Females, however, account for a larger share of social networking time spent (54.6%) compared to males (46.4%).

There is no doubt that the Latin American region is a huge market for social networking sites, just like anywhere actually.