Overview With almost 42 million users in Mexico, the internet penetration stood at 36.

5% of the total population at the end of 2011. This low penetration can be attributed to the economic disparity in Mexico where a big section of the society still lives under poverty line.

Internet penetration in Mexico

Online Population 37%

Offline Population 64%

However the reach of internet is expected to spread to cover almost half of the nation by end of 2015 as per the estimates of eMarketer. The expected growth in internet penetration is illustrated in the figure below.

Expected Growth of Internet Penetration in Mexico

44.5% 40.5% 35.5% 48.0% 51.1% 53.8%

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

Even though internet penetration is low, the internet engagement is high in Mexicans. According to a report by IAB Mexico, 33% of the population spends more than 5 hours on the internet and 95% of the population spends at least an hour on the internet. The data is illustrated in the figure below.

Time Spent on the internet

More than 12 hours 6% Less than 1 hours 5% 1-2 hours 22%

5-12 hours 27%

2-5 hours 40%

When divided into different age group we observe that the younger population is more active on the internet. Not only there are more users in the youngest age group but when seen in terms of time spent, the younger group again takes the lead. The figures below give us the percentage of online population in terms of number of users in different age category as well in terms of time spent by different age categories.

Age demographics of Internet Users in Mexico

55+ 6%

Age demographics of Internet Users in terms of time spent in Mexico

45-54 10% 15-24 39% 35-44 18% 15-24 44% 55+ 5%

45-54 12%

35-44 20%

25-34 24%

25-34 23%

Different devices are used to access internet by Mexicans. Between 2010 and 2011, there has been signigicant change in the type of devices and their use for internet. The figure given below illustrates the difference.

Use of Device to connect to the internet

Laptop Desktop Cellular Smartphones Gaming Consoles MP3 Tablet PDA/Palm 2.0% 6.0% 14.0% 23.0% 20.0% 19.0% 16.0% 16.0% 34.0% 30.0% 57.0% 54.0% 62.0%

63.0%

2011 2010

2.0% 3.0%

As we can see here, the major shift has been observed in the rise of use of mobile devices for internet connectivity and the decline in use of desktops (-9%). Ironically, Smartphones have risen by 9% within that year. This rise of use of mobile devices can also be seen indirectly when one looks at the shift in places where Mexicans used internet. The figure below illustrates the difference as well as highlights the major places for accessing internet.

Places where Mexicans connect with the internet

Home Work School Internet Caf Other's house On the Street 27.0% 26.0% 22.0% 26.0% 21.0% 19.0% 15.0% 14.0% 42.0% 40.0% 87.0% 83.0%

There has been a 4% rise in home access to the internet. Ironically again 4% is the decline seen by the internet cafes. This is possible an indirect explanation to the decline in use of desktops which are primarily employed by the internet cafes. The rise of internet access almost everywhere else can be attributed to the rise in tablets and Smartphones.

Social Media Social media in Mexico is not just a means to connect but it is also perceived as a major source of information. A survey result done by IAB Mexico reveals that social media is one of the main sources of information for Mexicans, and it is rated right next to search engines. The following figure tells us how social media is placed in Mexico as an information platform.

Major Sources of Information on internet

84.0% 58.0% 36.0%

Search Engine

Social Networks

E-mails

The same study had also put internet ahead of other media in Mexico as is illustrated by the figure below. Considering that, if we look at percentages 58% being the share of social networking as source of information, social media when compared to other media will also share a chunk of that pie.

% Share of different media in Mexico

Magazines Newspapers 8% 7% Internet 29%

Paid TV 25% Radio 16%

Combining the findings from both the figures, Social media is the third most prominent form of media at 17% ahead of Newspapers, Radio and Magazines in Mexico. The figure given below is a snapshot of demographics of social networks in terms of age and gender in 2011. It displays a highly socially active population averaging above 90% penetration in every age segment and both genders. The elder female population (35 and above) are much more active than their male counterparts. Also, social media has penetration of 97% for users under 44 years of age.

Unpaid TV 15%

Social Networking Demographic reach in Mexico

94.3% 91.9% 97.8% 93.3% 99.0% 96.9% 96.8% 96.6% 96.1% 95.9%

55+

45-54

Female Male

35-44

25-34

15-24

In terms of average time spent on social networks we see a major difference between the young and the older generations. While the average time spent by users in 15-24 age category is 11 hours, it suddenly drops as we move further. Users in age category 25-34 spend almost half the time (6.5) compared to the younger generation. This fall in time spent continues gradually with its lowest at 45-54 age category at 4.4 hours. The average time spent is 6.44 hours on social networking sites.

Age demographics of time Spent on Social Networks(in hours)

11.1

6.5 5.3 4.4 4.9

15-24

25-34

35-44

45-54

55+

The Social media landscape has gone through major changes since 2010. The previously more popular social networking sites such as Hi5 have been declining and the global social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter are gaining market share in Mexico. The figure below illustrates the changing social networking situation.

Top Social Networks in Mexico

Facebook Twitter Hi5 MySpace Sonico Metroflog 28.0% 19.0% 24.0% 18.0% 25.0% 45.0% 39.0% 39.0% 36.0% 55.0% 86.0% 94.0%

2011 2010

Facebook again sits at the top of the charts as in many other countries followed by Twitter. As we can see, that while Hi5 still sat as 3rd most popular social networking site in 2011, it had lost almost 16% of its users. Similarly MySpace, Sonico and Metrofolg have all declined by 8%, 5% and 7% respectively. The reasons for the change could be many, but the evidence is also supported by the increased activity of Mexican social network on the new global social networking sites while at the same time a decline of similar activities on the previously popular sites. The figure below illustrates the change.

% Change in uploading of videos/photos on Social Networking Sites

Facebook YouTube Hi5 Twitter MySpace 0.0% 12.0% 19.0% 19.0% 87.0% 42.0%

29.0% 36.0%

2011
64.0%

2010

28.0%

We can see here that uploading of photos and videos have increased by almost 3 times in Facebook. Similarly Twitter has grown from nothing in this respect to 19% and YouTube has grown by 6%. These growths have come when same activities on Hi5 and MySpace have declined by 45% and 16% respectively. One needs to note here that there is no YouTube in the first list despite Mexico being a prominent online video watcher. This could be possibly because the survey took into account only the profile based social networking sites in Mexico, which would explain the absence of YouTube from the list.

In August 2012, Mexico recorded 14 hours per viewer as time spent watching videos. There were 23 million watchers representing 81% of the internet users in Mexico. This was a rise of 14% from 2011 in terms of users. The rise in number of videos watched was 47% from 2010 to 2011. Mexicans on average watched 155 videos per month which totals to 3.5 billion videos per month. Compared to other Latin American countries Mexico second only to Chile in terms of number of videos per month, and is the biggest online video viewer in Latin America.

Growth of Video Audience from 2010 to 2011

4.7

2.7

2.9

Total Videos Watched (in billions)

1.66 1.5 0.83 1.0 0.51

Total Videos Watched 2010(in billion)

Brazil

Mexico

Argentina

Chile

Similar results have come up from a comScore study. Google sites with the help of YouTube dominate the online video market of Mexico in terms of number of videos as well as in terms of time spent. Facebook also features as one of the top 5 websites hosting videos. This fact is further supported by a study done by Garritz Online Media and comScore, 86% videos were watched on YouTube and 39% watched videos on Facebook. Facebook With 39 million users, Mexico stands as the 5th largest country for Facebook in 2013. Facebook is the undisputed leader of social networking sites in Mexico. Social networking site next in line is almost halfway back in terms of users or in terms of time spent. Popular sites such as Hi5 have gradually been replaced by Facebook and Twitter, with Facebook causing major shifts in social networking users. Facebook not only is a top social networking site, but it also feeds to the need of online videos in Mexico. The following figure shows the growth of Facebook in Mexico in 2010-11, when the penetration was so high that 9 out of 10 Mexican social network users have a facebook account.

94% 86.0%

87%

2010
29.0%

2011

% of Social Network Users

Uploading of Photos and videos

Over the years video sharing has also increased heavily in Facebook. In the year 2011, there were 3 times more videos uploaded as compared to 2010. Facebook also ranked in the top 5 of platforms where videos where watched in terms of both the number of users as well as the amount time spend. The Mexican social media population is one of the highest consumers of video content in Latin America and this very well may have contributed to the extraordinary growth of Facebook in such a short span of time. The growth of Facebook in Mexico has been displayed in the figure below.

Growth of Facebook in Mexico

37.7 32.7 27.8 21.0 15.2

Total Number of Users (in millions)

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

When compared with the second ranked social networking site in Mexico, Twitter, the difference between Twitter and Facebook is extraordinary. Number of Facebook users is more than double compared to twitter. One can safely say that Facebook rules the social networking sites in Mexico and with the current growth will continue to do that in the future. YouTube While YouTube has somehow been ignored when measuring top social networking sites in Mexico by the IAB study, its presence in Mexico is felt by the overwhelming number of video watchers. We have already discussed the video watching habits of Mexicans. The same study reveals statistics which are presented through the figures below.

Total No. of Videos on different sites in Mexico (in mn)

Google Sites VEVO Viacom Digital Grupo Televisa Facebook.com 57.5 44.3 28.5 229.5 2,187.8

The total number of online videos on Google sites measures in billions (2.2 billion) when the second in line VEVO had 229.5 million videos. Most of these videos on Google sites are contributed by YouTube

Time Spent on Videos on different sites in Mexico (in minutes)

393.6 91.2 82.7 60.3 45.8

Google Sites Grupo Televisa Hispavista Sites VEVO Ustream

With so many videos, it is natural that maximum time is spent on Google sites which comes out to be 393.6 minutes. The difference here is also as big as it was in terms of number of videos with the second ranked Groupo Televisa at 91.2 minutes of user time spent on watching videos.

Twitter Mexican social networking users are one of the most active users in the world as of 2nd quarter of 2012. According to a report by GlobalWebIndex Mexico is the fifth most active population in Twitter in the world as is illustrated by the figure below.

Top 5 countries for Twitter (Active Users)

35.5 33 22.9 19.6 11.7

China India US Brazil Mexico

Not only Mexico ranks highly in terms of active users for Twitter, it is also one of the most engaged audiences for twitter. In terms of sharing personal photos via Twitter, Mexico was behind only China and India, as is displayed through the figure below.

Photo Sharing in Twitter

61%

49% 44%

China

India

Mexico

Social Media monitoring tools Mexico has the largest Spanish speaking population in the world. Therefore social media monitoring tools which can support Spanish languages will be well suited for social media in Mexico. Some of them are given below. Synthesio can be used to track social media conversations in Mexico. It not only supports the Spanish language but also can take into account the difference in Spanish being spoken in Mexico as compared to Spanish being spoken in Spain. This is a big advantage since social media conversation will have a lot of local slang in it. Socialmetrix is another option for analytics. This tool also has a support for Spanish languages.

Simplify 360 is another option very similar to socialmetrix. Buzzwatcher can also be used for social media monitoring. It has filters to select country specific languages, therefore it should also be able to differentiate between Mexican Spanish and Spanish in Spain. Acuity4 Social is another social media monitoring tool which has come out of partnership between Inmega Investigacion de Mercados (Inmega) and Voxco. Brandtology by Media monitors is another option for social media monitoring. It supports all media types and is run in many other countries as well.

Tips for Social Marketers Social media is growing very rapidly in Latin America and Mexico is one of the high potential markets. The low internet penetration has provided an opportunity to social media platforms. As the internet grows social media will automatically grow on the back of it as the new internet generation will be exposed to social media as soon as they log on. Some of the things that a social media marketer must keep in mind in Mexico are given as follows: While the internet penetration may be low, engagement is high on the internet among Mexicans. The largest Spanish speaking population represents an opportunity as a test market for Spanish population. Social Media is perceived as a major source of information by users. Its importance as a news medium exceeds that of radio, newspapers and magazines. Therefore a lot of content marketing is advised in Mexico to reach the consumers. There has been a big surge in the use of Smartphones in 2011. This growth is expected to continue as internet use on Smartphones can rise faster than the broadband in Mexico. Social marketers will do well to keep Smartphones apps. and platforms on top of their priority list. More use of internet at home and rising smartphone penetration indicate that the time when internet is being most used is before and after office hours. This can provide a window in the timeline of consumer and help in better targeting of time slot when to reach the customer. The social networking penetration is highest among people falling in the 35-44 age category. This gives social marketers a look into the largest demographic of social network users and the marketing message can be tailored accordingly. The young generation (age category 15-24) spends the most time on social networks (11.1 hours) and the average penetration rate is 96% among online users. Social marketers would be wise to monitor the conversation of this particular demographic to anticipate and formulate their future strategies for Mexico. One of the most popular social networking activities among Mexican users is the sharing of photos and videos. While this has always been the most popular activity, the platform for it has

shifted from Hi5 and others towards Facebook and Twitter. Rich engaging visually effective content will be very useful in Mexican social networking landscape. Mexicans are one of the biggest videos watchers and contributors to the online world. While YouTube is the obvious choice for videos, Facebook is also among the top 5 video sites. This will need to be taken into account considering Facebook well may reach 100% penetration among online users. This is possible because of the low internet penetration and the already rising Facebook having captured more than 90% of the online population as of 2013. Mexico also has one of the most active twitter populations and in terms of photo sharing it is only behind China and India. The active use of twitter for reporting drug related crimes makes it an important tool for information in Mexico where conventional means of information are hesitant to report many crimes. In all, Facebook and YouTube for video engagement, Twitter for photo/visual engagement and YouTube and Twitter for information/content marketing are the most ideal platforms in Mexico.

References Internet World Stats, http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats2.htm Social Networks Capture Users and Engagement in Mexico http://www.emarketer.com/Article/SocialNetworks-Capture-Users-Engagement-Mexico/1008960

Adoption slowed by low internet user penetration,

http://www.emarketer.com/newsroom/index.php/people-social-networks-mexico/

Internet Users in Mexico Watch More than 14 Hours of Online Video to Lead as the Most Engaged Audience in Latin America http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Press_Releases/2012/10/Internet_Users_in_Mexico_Watch_ More_than_14_Hours_of_Online_Video Twitter Grows Stronger in Mexico, www.emarketer.com/Article/Twitter-Grows-StrongerMexico/1009370
Voxco and Inmega Partners to Address the Growing Mexican Social Media Monitoring Market, http://www.voxco.com/en/news/voxco-and-inmega-partners-to-address-the-growing-mexican-socialmedia-monitoring-market.php

Futuro Digital - Latinoamrica 2012 http://www.comscore.com/Request/Webinars/2012/Futuro_Digital_Latinoamerica_2012 Estudio de consumo de medios digitales entre internautas mexicanos, http://www.slideshare.net/iabmexico/estudio-de-consumo-de-medios-digitales-entre-internautasmexicanos

Top 10 Need-to-Knows About Social Networking and Where Its Headed, http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Presentations_and_Whitepapers/2011/it_is_a_social_world_t op_10_need-to-knows_about_social_networking New media Trend Watch, European Travel Commission, http://www.newmediatrendwatch.com/markets-by-country/11-long-haul/56-mexico