The 2nd Annual SES Latino Conference and Expo took place in Miami in Mid June. The following were the main issues discussed by the events speakers and attendees:
Share of Worldwide Searches:
650 million searches worldwide
Asia Pacific has highest contribution at 35%
Latin America has 7% & US Hispanic 2%
(ComScore Data)
Growth:
– 16% growth to 45.3 million unique visitors
US Hispanic growth – 5% year over year (ComScore Data)
Major players: Microsoft has been in Latin America for a long time, Yahoo as well and Google started 2 years ago. All these companies have local offices with local voices. More and more companies are seeing the value of the local presence and will be entering the market.
Market share: Google has 72% of the share of the searches in Latin America. Yahoo has 17% and MSN has 2%. The local search players are taking about 9% of the search.
Most active industries in Search Engine Marketing (SEM):
• Retail
• Local (Classifieds)
• Travel
• Finance
• Automotive
•The YP and the classifieds for the local newspapers are really picking up in terms of catching up with the retail. Travel is booming. There are many local players who are growing a lot.
Advertiser base. Will grow almost 5xs in just 4 years.
2006 – 22,000 advertisers
2010 – 100,000 advertisers projected
Who are the advertisers?
Sales Channel Avg Monthly Ticket Category
Direct & Ad Agencies $10,000 Large
TeleSales $1,000 Medium
Online $200 Small
Resellers $10 Micro
Challenges: Some of the major obstacles to the growth of e-commerce right now are the banking issues, the lack of a dominant payment gateway in Latin America, and the delivery issues. Another issue is consumer confidence. In Mexico, for example, people do not buy airline tickets online.
Google’s Expansion and its Argentina’s Latam Headquarters: Gonzalo Alonso, general manager for Spanish-speaking Latin America: What we see around the Latin American community, particularly in Argentina, is a great talent pool, the place is very special, ecommerce is booming. Argentina is a place where everything is happening. Major markets in Latin American are Brazil, Mexico and Argentina. Colombia, is starting to get a nation wide plan for technology. There's critical mass, and advertising dollars. Chile, as well.
CPC price comparisons (English-Spanish):
Real Estate = $2.42, bienes raices = $.42
Credit card = $9.49, tarjeta de credito = $.90