comScore – Top Latin America Web Rankings for April 2008

comScore, Inc. released an overview f Internet usage in Latin America, a region that is home to nearly 62 million of the 850 million worldwide Internet users (age 15 and older at home and work locations), as measured by the comScore World Metrix audience measurement service.

In April, Brazil had the largest Internet audience in Latin America with more than 19 million Internet users. Brazilians also exhibited heavy engagement, with the average Internet user spending 30.2 hours online during the month, substantially higher than the Latin American (28.6 hours) and worldwide (25.7 hours) averages. Argentina (32.4 hours) and Venezuela (31.5 hours) also exhibited heavy engagement. Despite their heavy engagement while online, Latin Americans are less frequent Internet users, with most countries falling below the worldwide average for usage days per month.

“The Latin American Internet audience has grown significantly during the past year and at a substantially faster rate than more established Internet markets like North America and Europe,” said Jack Flanagan, comScore executive vice president. “The high engagement among Latin American Internet users, combined with this rapidly expanding audience, represents a sizable market opportunity for Internet companies choosing to focus their efforts on this region.”

Google Sites ranked as the top property in Latin America with more than 55 million visitors in April, (approximately 90 percent of the total Latin American audience), an increase of 22 percent versus the same month last year. The property has been bolstered by the growth of several Google-owned entities, including YouTube.com (up 81 percent to 30.6 million visitors), Blogger.com (up 65 percent to 27.8 million visitors) and Orkut (up 31 percent to 15.2 visitors).

Latin Americans spend the most time online — nearly 29 hours per month on average — compared to other worldwide regions. Usage of various online communication media drives much of their online engagement. Users spend a significant portion of their time each month on instant messengers (9.2 hours per visitor), social networking sites (5.9 hours per visitor), and e-mail (4.1 hours per visitor). Portals, which aggregate a variety of content across a network of sites, ranked as the most engaging site category, with 13.4 hours per visitor.

To view charts CLICK above on ‘More Images’.

For more information at http://www.comscore.com