Social networking a major activity in Argentina, Chile

The study also looked at the top social networking destinations in these two markets and found that Facebook maintained a strong lead, reaching 9 out of 10 Internet users in January 2011.

"We have witnessed social networking play an increasingly central role in consumers' digital lives over the past year," said Alejandro Fosk, comScore senior vice president of Latin America for comScore. "Today, social networking not only reaches a large percentage of online users in Chile and Argentina, but also accounts for a growing share of time spent online. For marketers and advertisers, understanding how and where consumers are choosing to spend their time online is critically important information in increasingly competitive and fast-growing markets."

Visitors spending more time social networking, less time on email and instant messenger

An analysis of how Internet users in Argentina and Chile spend their time online revealed a shift in behaviour toward leisure-oriented content categories. In Argentina, portals account for the largest share of time spent online in January 2011 at 29%, but declined nearly 10 percentage points from the previous year, while social networking surged 12.6 percentage points to account for 27.8% of Argentineans' total time online. The instant messenger category (down 6.6 percentage points to 19.6% of time spent) and email (down 2.1 percentage points to 7.1% of time spent) both witnessed declines as consumers made use of an increasing array of communication methods including social networking and mobile devices to stay connected.

*Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

Internet users in Chile displayed trends similar to those in Argentina. In Chile, social networking ranked as the top online activity by time spent, accounting for 28.5% of total online minutes, up 8.9 percentage points from the previous year, as portals, instant messengers and email all witnessed a decline in share of minutes. Entertainment sites, which accounted for 10.9% of total minutes, gained 1.6 percentage points versus the previous year as online users continued to spend an increasing amount of time consuming entertainment content.

*Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.

Facebook holds strong lead in Chile and Argentina

An analysis of the top social networking destinations in Argentina and Chile revealed that Facebook.com was the most popular social networking destination in both markets. In Argentina, 11.3 million visitors age 15+ visited Facebook.com from a home or work location, representing 88% of the Argentine online population. In Chile, 6.5 million visitors (approximately 90% of the online population) visited Facebook.com in January 2011.

Latin America is also home to some of the most highly penetrated markets for Twitter. In Chile, Twitter.com reached 13.1% of all online users (nearly 1 million visitors) to rank 11th globally in terms of reach. In Argentina, Twitter.com reached 12.5% of all online users (1.6 million visitors), ranking 13th globally.

Fotolog and Windows Live Profile each ranked among the top three social networking sites in both markets, while Sonico, Badoo and Linkedin also held solid positions within the top 10.

*Excludes visitation from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.