It's interesting that Brazil always stands out as Latin America's Internet bellwether. To a large degree, Brazil's status is a function of the fact that nearly 90 percent of its Internet users participate in some type of social media site -- in fact, Brazilians are the world's most active users of social media.
Having previously lived in Brazil for five years, I am not surprised that Brazil (and to a somewhat lesser extent, Argentina) serves as a hotbed for this kind of innovation. Brazilians and Latins in general are by nature very social.
It's only natural that, when given the opportunity to engage in enjoyable activities online, Brazilians would jump at the chance. And so they have, with the rest of Latin America not far behind. As Tomy Lorsch, the Argentine director of the Madrid-based digital consulting group Findasense, has said: "Spanish is the third language of the world, and the Latin American market is one of the fastest growing worldwide.... This expansion was inevitable."
A recent survey of 1,277 highly active Internet users from Brazil revealed some interesting trends:
Twitter stands out as the most frequently used social media site (visited by 38.5 percent of respondents), followed by Orkut (26.9 percent), blogs (14.2 percent), email groups (3.6 percent), and Facebook (3.1 percent)
The vast majority of respondents have signed up to a new social media site within the past three months. Twitter's adoption appears to have occurred in the past few months
When asked why they visited social media sites, respondents stated that they visit Twitter in order to stay up to date on topics of interest; Orkut is generally used to stay in touch with friends; and YouTube is identified with entertainment
The survey was conducted by Brazilian Internet analysis firm E.life
in partnership with PR agency Porter Novelli.
Twitter's astounding figures, particularly compared to Orkut and Facebook, are surprising; however, the survey is targeted toward heavy Internet users (17 percent of respondents work at an ad/PR agency).
What is perhaps more meaningful is the speed and intensity with which Latin American Internet users adopt new Web technologies and sites. Latin Americans are also coming to rely on Spanish- and Portuguese-language social networks for the same activities that have distinguished their English-language counterparts: connecting and (reconnecting) with friends and family members; sharing news, stories, videos, and music; and playing an assortment of video games.
Could a single online social network come to dominate the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking online community, across North America, Mexico, and South America? Such a migration is not as far-fetched as it might seem. Even users loyal to existing sites can be induced to make such a switch; consider the fate of MySpace in the Facebook era.
A social networking site targeting the Latino community would serve not as a substitute for Facebook or other popular social networks, but rather as a complement to them.
What tomorrow holds for social media no one can say precisely, but if the current numbers from Brazil and other Latin American nations are any indication, there's a bright future for these kinds of sites -- a future filled with opportunities for users and site designers alike.
— John C. Abbott is the CEO of Quepasa Corp. He has over 15 years of experience in entrepreneurship.
I still think your article can make some people think that Spanish is an official language in Brazil, which is not. It would be useful if you add at least a foot note in case someone couldn't tell which the capital of Brazil is or its official language.
As it seems Orkut has a high percentage of Brazilian members, (55.78% of the total Orkut community) it would have been more accurate to say "Survey Reveals Portuguese Language Opportunity" instead of stating something which could bring confusion to some readers.
Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese (as they differentiate it from the Portuguese spoken in Portugal) are the official and working languages of the MERCOSUR. That is one reason why Spanish has become more popular in Brazil, the same as Portuguese in some of the Southern Spanish speaking countries, like Argentina, where Portuguese is offered in high schools as one of the options for the study of foreign languages together with English, French, Italian and German. In the cities close to the border with Brazil Spanish and Portuguese are taught respectively.
Meanwhile Spanish is becoming more popular in Brazil, which gives more users to Spanish speaking forums and social media like the ones you mention, we can't really say that Orkut and HIS will lead over Facebook as they are more oriented to local users only and not to a multilingual and global one, as Facebook is.
Facebook is gaining market in Latin America, as in anywhere else, because it is international, global, it offers the site in different languages. People can choose the language they prefer and still communicate with people around the globe. That doesn't happen with Orkut and HIS.
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Orkut Popularity in Brazil
Although Orkut.com traces its roots to the USA, it has a very high percentage of Brazilian members, with 55.78% of the total Orkut community coming from that country, followed by the USA (18.94%) and India (14.06%). Usage is also noteworthy in Pakistan (1.45%), Iran (0.71%), the United Kingdom (0.61%), Japan (0.43%), Portugal (0.41%), Canada (0.37%) and Mexico (0.36%).
I don't see any real Spanish language opportunity here. Maybe you meant to say Portuguese language opportunity instead?
Or maybe you meant to say a growing opportunity for social networks in Spanish/Portuguese speaking countries? Even though the survey you refer to was conducted only in Brazil.
A recent survey of 1,277 highly active Internet users from Brazil revealed some interesting trends:
Twitter stands out as the most frequently used social media site (visited by 38.5 percent of respondents), followed by Orkut (26.9 percent), blogs (14.2 percent), email groups (3.6 percent), and Facebook (3.1 percent)
The vast majority of respondents have signed up to a new social media site within the past three months. Twitter's adoption appears to have occurred in the past few months
When asked why they visited social media sites, respondents stated that they visit Twitter in order to stay up to date on topics of interest; Orkut is generally used to stay in touch with friends; and YouTube is identified with entertainment
True. at least in the Dominican Republic, where I live, Hi5 was the social network a few years ago - everyone had one. But we live in a very 'americanized' society, and as soon as things started to change in the States, we changed as well. I guess the same happened in the other Latin American countries.
John, if there is an inner social network, why do people use outer social network. Like in Russia, most of the people use 2 domestic social networks.Well, of course there are people on facebook, but most of them have international friends and very few use it to be connected with their Russian friends. So, I think large Spanish and Portuguese communities on Orkrut- is an extremely interesting phenomenon
It's also an incredibly simple interface that requires little/no translation -- unlike the ransom note nightmare that Facebook has become, all cluttered with quizzes and apps and prompts and pokes et al. Simplicity wins again.
You're right, Orkut was not originally designed for Brazil but saw huge viral adoption there about 5-6 years ago. Sites can grow virally in certain geographies for totally random reasons.
Facebook is gaining market share in Latin America (at the expense of sites such as Orkut and Hi5) based on its highly innovative product strategies.
Agree, portanol is a very common thing among Brazilians.
What I wanted to ask was... is Orkut designed for that Brazilian crowd? it just happened to get there first (or at the right time). What can Facebook change in order to suit the Spanish speaking countries? other than the language (which they already do), there's nothing to it. You can think that the apps still need some work, but you don't need a whole new ship to install a brand new gun.
You bring up a good point, Susan, and Jonathan will be along to address it, I'm sure. That said, I offer a quote from a language tutoring site: "Even in countries where Spanish is not the official language, such as Belize and Brazil, Spanish is still spoken, either natively or as a second language, by massive numbers of the population."
And social networking as Jonathan refers to it is offered in Spanish.
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