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Internet Users Grow by 20% in Latin America. Which Online Destinations are Gaining Ground?

Local sites remain within the top 20 ranking of the main Latin American online destinations, but do not grow much in the three largest Latin American countries. Facebook grows a lot in Argentina and Taringa in Mexico. In Argentina, the number of Internet users grew by 29% between August 2009 and the same month in 2008, 22% in Brazil and 14% in Mexico. (Lea aquí la versión en español)

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The number of Internet users grew substantially in the three main Latin American countries during the August 2008 – August 2009 period, according to figures released by ComScore. Argentina is the country that grew the most with an annual growth rate of 29% to 11 million users, vs. 22% in Brazil  to 31 million users and 14% in Mexico to more than 13 million users.

What online destination are taking advantage of this growth, which ones are laging behind? Google and Microsoft continue to be in the top position in most Latin American countries. Both media properties’ number of unique users grew by approximately 20% (see the tables at the end of this article).

Mexico is the only large country where Google loses the first position. Microsoft sites lead in Mexico with a difference of over 400,000 unique users over Google.

The Brazilian market, by far the largest one in Latin America, continues to be in the hands of local players. UOL and Organizacoes Globo. However, Brazil Telecom, Terra and Yahoo are growing at a rate of 20%, twice the rate of the leading local players.


Social Networks: Difference between the different countries

The leading social networking properties have different degrees of success. In Argentina, Facebook grew at a very high rate of more than 300% (its user base grew from 1.6 million in August 2008 to 6.5 million in August 2009). The very high growth rate allowed Facebook to be the third largest online destination in Argentina after Google and Microsoft sites.

However, Facebook has not been able to replicate its good results in Argentina in the Brazilian market, where it does not rank among the top 20 websites. Orkut, a Google owned property , leads among Brazilian Social Networking destinations. Twitter, on its part, does not figure among the top 20 in Argentina or Mexico, but it does in Brazil.


Local players

As noted above, local players are most succesful in Brazil. In the Argentinean market Clarín is in the top 5, however its growth rate of 3% is far lower than the country’s overall growth rate of 29%. Televisa Digital sites in Mexico occupies the Nr, 10 position, behind nine online destinations that are headquartered outside of Mexico (interestingly Batanga has a place in the top 10 ranking with a growth rate of 55%). However, Televisa Digital sites’ number of unique users grew by more than 50%, far more than Mexico’s average of 14%.

Taringa.net is another Latin American based website that grew a lot. In Argentina, where it is headquartered it grew by 78%, while in Mexico it grew by 200% reaching more than 3 million unique users.

 

Top 20 Properties – Argentina
August 2009 vs. August 2008

Source: comScore Media Metrix                            

Audience: All Persons at Argentina Home/Work/College-University Locations

 

 Total Unique Visitors (000)

Property

 Aug-2008

 Aug-2009

 % Changes

Total Internet : Total Audience

8,928

11,493

29

Google Sites

7,770

9,488

22

Microsoft Sites

7,804

9,404

21

FACEBOOK.COM

1,633

6,544

301

Yahoo! Sites

5,150

5,782

12

Grupo Clarin

4,671

4,797

3

MercadoLibre

4,573

4,711

3

TARINGA.NET

2,376

4,240

78

Wikimedia Foundation Sites

3,167

3,902

23

Hi-Media Group

4,053

3,108

-23

Terra – Telefonica

3,231

3,073

-5

Grupo La Nacion

2,340

2,730

17

WordPress

2,087

2,378

14

RapidShare AG

1,150

2,349

104

Batanga

1,996

2,302

15

AOL LLC

2,189

2,174

-1

NetShelter Technology Media

125

2,118

1,596

MUSICA.COM

1,470

1,948

33

Telecom Argentina

N/A

1,948

N/A

MEGAUPLOAD.COM

604

1,900

215

PSICOFXP.COM

1,443

1,695

17

Top 20 Properties – Brazil
August 2009 vs. August 2008

Source: comScore Media Metrix                            

Audience: All Persons at Brazil Home/Work/College-University Locations

 

 Total Unique Visitors(000)

Property

 Aug-2008

 Aug-2009

 % Changes

Total Internet : Total Audience

25,745

31,487

22

Google Sites

23,553

26,139

11

Microsoft Sites

22,653

24,943

10

UOL

18,364

20,487

12

Organizacoes Globo

15,232

16,862

11

Grupo Brasil Telecom

14,038

16,820

20

Terra – Telefonica

14,267

16,819

18

Yahoo! Sites

13,809

16,602

20

MercadoLibre

10,383

9,999

-4

WordPress

6,740

9,906

47

Wikimedia Foundation Sites

8,035

9,636

20

BuscaPe.com Inc.

5,134

9,033

76

Lojas Americanas

8,382

7,906

-6

Grupo Abril

4,419

7,846

78

Ask Network

2,950

6,422

118

4SHARED.COM

2,622

6,257

139

The Mozilla Organization

2,195

5,413

147

RapidShare AG

2,940

5,092

73

CAIXA.GOV.BR

3,494

4,879

40

Oi – Grupo Telemar

3,558

4,811

35

TWITTER.COM

1,595

4,631

190

 

Top 20 Properties – Mexico
August 2009 vs. August 2008

Source: comScore Media Metrix                            

Audience: All Persons at Mexico Home/Work/College-University Locations

 

 Total Unique Visitors(000)

Property

 Aug-2008

 Aug-2009

 % Changes

Total Internet : Total Audience

12,126

13,813

14

Microsoft Sites

10,349

12,708

23

Google Sites

9,952

12,367

24

Yahoo! Sites

6,569

8,076

23

Wikimedia Foundation Sites

4,517

5,497

22

MercadoLibre

4,734

5,344

13

HI5.COM

3,733

4,968

33

Batanga

3,096

4,804

55

FACEBOOK.COM

1,836

4,099

123

WordPress

2,723

3,856

42

Televisa Digital Sites

2,506

3,756

50

TARINGA.NET

1,075

3,281

205

Terra – Telefonica

2,479

3,234

30

Fox Interactive Media

2,720

3,161

16

NetShelter Technology Media

203

2,940

1,345

Apple Inc.

2,156

2,712

26

Hispavista Sites

1,592

2,670

68

Orange Sites

2,580

2,605

1

Grupo Carso

2,086

2,571

23

MUSICA.COM

1,718

2,429

41

Ask Network

1,664

2,375

43

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