Last week Ipsos, a leading survey-based market research company, released the results of a survey they completed looking into U.S. Hispanic Internet penetration and behavior.

According to Ipsos, 63% of Hispanics living in the U.S. have access to the Internet. A couple of interesting notes on that statistic:
– This includes all Hispanics, not just Spanish dominant, English dominant or bilingual subgroups
– The survey was performed using phone interviews, removing the bias toward connected Hispanics in other research formats (including panels)
– The survey asked if they accessed the internet at least once a month, so the total having some Internet access is probably higher

There was also an interesting break-out by age:
o 71% of 18-34 year old Hispanics went online at least once a month
o 63% of 34-54 year old Hispanics went online at least once a month
o 42% of 55+ Hispanics old Hispanics went online at least once a month (I didn’t expect that number to be so high)

Even when only looking at Hispanics that preferred Internet usage in Spanish, 49% had access to the Internet.

Another interesting data point released was that 40% of those U.S. Hispanics that go online at least once a month maintain social network profiles. Although the question used to generate this statistic referenced MySpace, Facebook and MiGente, it did not provide texture on what social networks Hispanics use. I would assume that Facebook is the most popular, followed by MySpace and then 2nd networks like MiGente and Hi5. It was also interesting to note that men were heavier social network users than women (44% to 36%, respectively).

So what is the story here? Per Ipsos, the notion that most Hispanics or even a significant percentage of Hispanics do not have access to the Internet is no longer the case.

Most importantly, the data in this report shows that Hispanic internet access slices across all demographic groups, whether it’s age, language preference, income or gender.

What’s the implication for marketers?

The question is no longer whether a particular Hispanic segment has access to the Internet, but how many and what their behavior.

Hopefully this data will move the discussion away from whether the Internet is a relevant medium to reach any particular Hispanic group, and instead to a more thoughtful discussion about how to best reach them online.

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