Pinterest Remains a Niche Service in Mexico despite High Growth Rates

In June 2013, Pinterest ranked as the fifth fastest-growing social network in Mexico, expanding 127% when compared with the same month in 2012, according to comScore. The improvement came from a very small base, however, and it pushed the number of subscribers in Mexico up to 500,000 only, comScore found.

Other sources confirm the unimpressive overall uptake of the social media property among internet users in Mexico, though the figures vary considerably. GlobalWebIndex estimated there were 1.2 million Pinterest users in the country in Q1 2013. By comparison, the firm put Twitter and LinkedIn at 11.6 million and 3.2 million subscribers, respectively, during the same period. Pinterest launched in 2012 and has been regarded as one of the most promising new social media properties in the US, where an estimated 24 million social network users subscribed to the service in Q1 2013, according to GlobalWebIndex estimates.

While the Pinterest population in Mexico is nowhere near the user base seen in the US, the typical Pinterest user profile in Mexico shares one trait: It is mostly women who subscribe to it. According to Google, 12.3% of female smartphone owners used the visual social networking platform on a computer in February 2013. Penetration among males in the same category reached only 4.6% that month. However, the differential between male and female participation is actually much narrower in Mexico vs. the US.

Among women, Pinterest usage in Mexico seems to be taking a slightly different path than in the US. According to the Google report, female smartphone owners ages 55 and older were far and away the most likely age group in Mexico to use the network, at 49.1%. This could also reflect the limited uptake of smartphones among this age group, however, thus suggesting that older women who do own the devices are among the most web savvy users. The next highest penetration rate in Mexico among women by age group was smartphone owners ages 18 to 24. But participation among this group reached only 14.9%. Meanwhile, the age group most likely to participate in the US was women ages 25 to 34, at 48.9%.

Courtesy of eMarketer

 

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