Audience Growth…
The total US Internet audience grew by 4% in 2008, while the Hispanic growth more than doubled that figure by posting a 9% growth rate.
Nonetheless, US Hispanics are still underrepresented online. While they comprise over 15% of the country’s total population, they account for just over 10.5 percent of the country’s online population.
Jockeying for 1st….
The below chart shows the top 25 most visited sites by US Hispanics in 2008. Those in dark green show websites that grew their Hispanic audience by up to 25%. Those in bright green grew their audiences by more than 25%. Meanwhile those in red saw their Hispanic audience shrink in 2008.
Wresting 1st place away from Yahoo! are Google Sites, which given the volume of traffic going to their sites—over 15.75 million, representing more than 75% of the total Hispanic audience—posted an impressive 21% growth in audience over 2007.
While Yahoo! sites were garnered the most audience in December of 2007, they lost their top position to Google sites after posting just 6% growth in the past year.
|
|
Total Unique Visitors (000)
|
|
Dec-07
|
Dec-08
|
% Change
|
|
Total Internet : Total US Audience
|
183,619
|
190,650
|
4
|
|
Total US Hispanic Audience
|
18,535
|
20,158
|
9
|
|
Google Sites
|
13,002
|
15,795
|
21
|
|
Yahoo! Sites
|
14,208
|
15,123
|
6
|
|
Microsoft Sites
|
11,671
|
13,313
|
14
|
|
Fox Interactive Media
|
8,757
|
10,603
|
21
|
|
AOL LLC
|
N/A
|
10,288
|
N/A
|
|
eBay
|
7,453
|
7,314
|
-2
|
|
Ask Network
|
5,146
|
7,142
|
39
|
|
Amazon Sites
|
5,105
|
6,062
|
19
|
|
Glam Media
|
2,325
|
5,535
|
138
|
|
Apple Inc.
|
4,200
|
5,372
|
28
|
|
Wikimedia Foundation Sites
|
4,608
|
5,343
|
16
|
|
Viacom Digital
|
4,127
|
4,716
|
14
|
|
FACEBOOK.COM
|
2,633
|
4,698
|
78
|
|
CBS Corporation
|
1,465
|
4,655
|
218
|
|
Wal-Mart
|
3,908
|
4,395
|
12
|
|
Turner Network
|
N/A
|
4,085
|
N/A
|
|
Target Corporation
|
3,444
|
3,986
|
16
|
|
New York Times Digital
|
3,452
|
3,729
|
8
|
|
Weather Channel, The
|
3,408
|
3,333
|
-2
|
|
Photobucket.com LLC
|
2,193
|
3,210
|
46
|
|
Adobe Sites
|
3,178
|
3,202
|
1
|
|
Disney Online
|
3,470
|
3,173
|
-9
|
|
AT&T Interactive Network
|
1,941
|
3,048
|
57
|
|
AT&T, Inc.
|
2,709
|
2,976
|
10
|
|
Verizon Communications Corporation
|
2,424
|
2,954
|
22
|
Source: comScore
The Superstars…
2008 was a year that saw dramatic gains for certain companies, particularly those marked in bright green.
In absolute terms, CBS Corporation and Glam Media added the most visitors, each tacking on about 3.2 million in the past year. CBS Corporation posted a soaring 218% growth rate for the year, tripling its audience, while Glam more than doubled its audience in the same period.
Social networking site Facebook had a banner year as well, boosting its Hispanic numbers by 78% to almost 4.7 million.
The Losers…
It’s hard to characterize any site on the top 25 a loser, but technically that’s what the companies highlighted in red are, each one having registered fewer visitors in December of ’08 than in ’07.
Interesting to note is that these are all big-name companies: eBay, down 2%, The Weather Channel down 2%, and Disney Online down 9%.