Growing Competition Challenging Twitter in Mexico.

While teen internet users in Mexico were slightly less likely to use social media (86%) than the general online population (88%) in 2012, according to Interactive Advertising Bureau México (IAB México) and Millward Brown data, they fueled Twitter’s success last year. Fully 69% of teen social network users subscribed to the microblogging service in 2012. By comparison, 58% of all social network users did so.

Twitter’s stellar performance in 2012, both among teen and overall social network users, may be eclipsed by a stronger and growing social media offer this year. According to the August 2013 comScore report “Futuro Digital México 2013 y Tendencias de Medición” showcasing June 2013 data, LinkedIn took second place among social networks ranked by unique visitors with its 6.4 million users, clearly outperforming third-place Twitter that month. comScore’s numbers include users ages 6 and older from home and work locations and exclude access from mobile devices.

Two other social network properties popular among young social network users were also closing in on Twitter. According to comScore, Ask.fm, a Latvian social media property that allows anonymous Q&A interactions among users, registered an annual 5,056% increase to reach 2.7 million unique visitors in Mexico in June 2013. Meanwhile, Tumblr, the blogging platform recently purchased by Yahoo!, also expanded at a heated 80% rate to reach 2.4 million users during that period.

Despite a slowdown in usage intensity in recent months in Mexico, the growing number of social media properties available in Mexico, especially those catering to teen internet users, will likely support further social networking uptake. eMarketer predicts their will be 38.4 million social network users—defined as internet users who use a social network site via any device at least once per month—in Mexico in 2013, a 20.6% increase from the previous year.

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