Latin America leads as the most socially-engaged global region

The latest research shows that more than 127 million Latin Americans ages 15 and older visited a social networking destination from a home or work computer in April 2012, with the average visitor spending 7.5 hours social networking during the month. The report also provided analysis on emerging social network Pinterest.com, which saw its audience increase eightfold in the first four months of the year to reach 1.3 million Latin Americans in April.

"Not does nearly 100% of the Latin American Internet population visit social networking destinations each month, but they also spend a lot of time on the sites," said Alejandro Fosk, comScore senior vice president of Latin America. "While social networking isn't a new phenomenon, we are still seeing strong market growth, changing dynamics among the leading players, and the emergence of new social sites that make it an especially interesting market to watch right now."

Facebook accounts for 1 in every 4 minutes spent online in Latin America

In April 2012, Latin America's social networking audience reached 127.3 million visitors, an increase of 12% from the previous year. Facebook held a strong leadership position in the market with 114.5 million visitors, an increase of 37% from the previous year. Twitter.com followed with 27.4 million visitors, while Orkut ranked third with 25.7 million visitors coming almost exclusively from Brazil. Tumblr.com was the fastest-growing destination of the top 10, doubling its audience in the past year to 7.2 million visitors.

Facebook was far and away the most engaging social network with an average visitor spending 7.7 hours on the site in April. It also ranked as the most engaging web property overall in the region, accounting for 1 of every 4 minutes spent online.

*Does not include visits from public access computers, such as Internet cafes, mobile phones or PDAs

Pinterest visitors most engaged in Puerto Rico and Argentina

Pinterest is among the most recent and fastest-growing entrants in the social media space. The site, which allows users to create and share photo pinboards based on different themes, has quickly amassed a global audience of nearly 30 million visitors. Pinterest's Latin American audience reached 1.3 million visitors in April 2012, up from just 153 000 visitors at the beginning of the year.

A geographic analysis of the audience found that Brazil accounted for 27.8% of regional visitors to Pinterest.com, followed by Mexico (16.1%) and Argentina (10.2%). Puerto Rico was home to the most engaged pinners with visitors averaging 24.3 minutes on the site during April, followed by Argentina (15.3 minutes per visitor) and Mexico (12.1 minutes per visitor).

*Does not include visits from public Access computers, such as Internet cafes, mobile phones or PDAs

Women account for the majority of activity on Pinterest

Further analysis of the Pinterest.com audience revealed that females accounted for the majority of visitors and an even greater share of content consumption, a gender skew that has been observed in markets across the globe as well. More than half of Latin American visitors to Pinterest were female (57.2%), with women accounting for 62.5% of all page views and 65.2% of time spent on the site. One in three visitors was between the ages of 25-34, while another 28% was age 15-24.

* Does not include visits from public Access computers, such as Internet cafes, mobile phones or PDAs

Fosk continued, "Even though Pinterest currently reaches just 1% of the regional audience, its impressive growth since the beginning of the year suggests it could quickly become a key player in Latin America's vibrant social scene."