The Internet in Latin America
The World Wide Web is a form of new media that incorporates features from the
traditional media: print (newspapers/magazines/outdoor), radio (sound) and television
(video streams). On this page, we will provide information about the Internet in Latin
America. This will undoubtedly be of interest to the Zona Latina visitor, who (1) is using
the World Wide Web and (2) is interested in Latin American media.
WWW INFORMATION PORTALS/NEWS SITES
ZONA LATINA ARTICLES ON THE
INTERNET
WWW ARTICLES ON THE INTERNET IN LATIN
AMERICA
- America
Latina: Internet o InterNOT by Adolfo Casari
- Big
Boom: The Internet in Brazil. April 2000, Brazzil
magazine
- Brazil:
Internet Fever Article by Michael J. Ybarra, in Upside Today
(August 15, 2000)
- Brazil
Shows The Way Article by Stacy Lawrence, in The Industry
Standard (February 7, 2000)
- Can
the Venture Capital Model work for Latin America? By Lisa
Krochmal (in English)
- Ciencia
y Tecnología en las Ciudades del Mercosur. By By
Susana Finquelievich.
- Communications
in Latin America Politics, economics, public relations and the
Internet
- Cyberculture
in Latin America: Article by Barbara Belejack (in English)
- Demographics
& Behavior of the Chilean Internet Population By Miguel Rafael Mendoza
and José A. Alvarez de Toledo.
- Development of WWW
services in Mexico: ISOC paper
- The
Diffusion of the Internet in Chile Article by Marta Caceres and Fay
Sudweeks
- Electronic
Commerce: Issues for the South Article by A. Didar Singh
- En
el mercado latinoamericano del Internet, la juventud lo es todo
By Noah Elkin, Hipermarketing ( November 17, 2000)
- Free
Internet Access Stumbles in Latin America Times of India
(October 30, 2000)
- Information
Technologies and Internet in Latin America By Elmer Lenzen.
- Internet A La Latina:
article by Karen Lynch (Communications Week)
- The
Internet Age: Latin America's Borderless Future Article
by Fernando Espuelas in InfoBrazil.com (June 2-June 8, 2000)
- The
Internet and Poverty Panos Media Briefings (April 1998)
- The
Internet and the South: Superhighway or Dirt Track? Panos
Media Briefings (October 1995)
- Internet
Changing Latin Amercia, but Obstacles Remain Boston Herald
(April 20, 2001)
- Internet
for the People IADB report by David Mangurian
- Internet
Ground Fertile in Calmer Latin America By Jeffrey Zbar (Advertising Age)
- Internet
Growth in Latin America Bankers Trust
- Internet Hoy
Daily Internet news and resources for e-commerce
- Internet in Latin
America: An Overview By Grete Pasch
- Internet
in Latin America and the Caribbean IABIN Conference document
by Eric Arnum
- The Internet in Argentina
(Startel)
- Internet
Indicators
- Internet
¿Un chance para comunicarnos? Article by Hans Graf
- Internet
Use to Boom in Latin America Olaf Jüptner, e-gateway (March
20, 2001)
- Internet
User Survey of Venezuela
- Irrational
Exuberance, Brazilian Style Article by Alcides Ferreira, in
InfoBrazil.com (March 17-23, 2000)
- Latin American
Internet Strategies Newsletter
- The
Latin American Riddle By Max Smetannikov in Inter@tive Week
(September 25, 2000)
- Latin
American Web Users Pegasus Research
- Latin
America's Wireless Internet Business 2.0, December 12, 2000
- Latinas
are Lucrative Net Niche By Elise Batista. Wired News
(June 2, 20000
- Latino
Portals a Narrow Space By Elise Batista. Wired News
(December 28, 2000)
- Latinos
Prefer Mainstream Portals By Elise Batista. Wired News
(June 2, 2000)
- Mensajería
Instantánea en Latinoamérica By Adolfo Ramírez Corona
- México
y Estados Unidos en la Revolución Mundial de las Telecomunicaciones
By Ana Luz Ruelas
- Der
Mythos der Informationsrevolution. Article (in German) by
Torsten Eßer. Published in Matices.
"
In Lateinamerika bleibt dem größten Teil der Bevölkerung der Zugang zu
Telefon und Internet versagt."
- La
prensa latinoamericana en Internet: una instantánea de los primeros años
By Jaime Morfin (Texas Papers on Latin America: Paper 9701)
- Present
and Future of the Internet in Latin America A TILAN Research Report by
Fernando Rodríguez-Alvez, June 1999.
- Publicidad
en Internet incrementa en Latinoamérica
By Noah Elkin, January 3, 2001
- The State of the Internet in
Latin America Paper by Brian Reale (NaftaNet)
- Supercarreteras de
Información en México: Estado Actual y Perspectivas. Presentation by Isaac
Rudomín, Ph. D.
- Systematization
of the Peruvian Scientific Network Experience. José
Soriano, Peruvian Scientific Network
- Trends
in Latin American Networking. From LANIC.
- The
Zapatistas and the Electronic Fabric of Struggle Article by
Harry Cleaver
WWW OFFICIAL INFORMATION
INTERNET RESEARCH COMPANIES
INTERNET DOMAIN/NODE SURVEYS
The most basic quantitative information is the domain (or node) survey, which is
a count of the number of Internet domains/nodes. A good example is the semi-annual Internet Domain Survey conducted
by Network Wizards, which contains these statistics broken down by country.
Latin
American domain survey data are available for Brazil,
Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama. Netsizer
provides an estimate of hosts on a daily basis. Domain surveys
are somewhat unsatisfactory, since they only count the number of domain/nodes and do not
provide direct estimates the number of actual users. A domain/node may have no users or
many users. For example, a public access location may accommodate many different users
every day.
The Internet
Traffic Report, Netsizer and StatMarket
provide current information on dataflow (such as
response time and packet loss) around the world, including Latin America.
DEMOGRAPHIC SURVEYS
To estimate the number of users, a different type of survey must be used. Such a
demographic survey is usually conducted among a general population. In addition to
obtaining an Internet user count, it is also of interest to determine the 'demographic'
profile of these users. Such Internet demographic surveys have been conducted in
many countries (see Nua Surveys for a listing). There
are also other demographic surveys of voluntary web users (e.g.
Hermes and GVU),
but those survey results may not be representative because the samples are self-selected.
Another method is to institute some form of intercepts at large web sites to
survey the users. Such survey results cannot be extended beyond the universe of
visitors to this web site. On top of that, the response rate is usually so poor
(less than 5%) that perhaps the proper measured universe ought to the set of people who
come to the web site AND who are willing to fill out the survey. (See Encuesta Internet en Español by Areas/Mundo
Latino).
A collection of various Latin American Internet studies are summarized by Nua.
LOS MEDIOS Y MECADOS DE LATINOAMERICA
When the incidence is low, a general population survey may prove to be very
expensive to conduct for this purpose only. Sometimes, it is possible to add special
questions to other surveys (known colloquially as 'hitchhike' or 'piggyback'). In Los
Medios y Mercados de Latinoamérica, which is an annual multi-purpose survey
of a general population, we asked a number of Internet-related questions (see survey design). This
allows for a pan-regional perspective of the Internet in Latin America. We will present
some numbers here for one year.
The survey conducted during October-December 1996 had a universe based upon
280,964,000 million persons between the ages of 12 to 64 in 19 Latin American countries.
Within this survey universe, we found that 3,810,000 million persons (=1.8%) have access
to the Internet from home and 3,382,000 million persons (=1.2%) have access to the
Internet at work/school.
For the home users, we observe that
- The largest number of users is in Mexico (2,156,000 persons), followed by Brasil
(484,000 persons). In terms of penetration percent, Mexico is highest at 3.5%, followed by
Puerto Rico at 1.9%, whereas Brazil is only at 0.5%.
- 55% of home users are male
- 27% of home users are between 12 and 17, and 24% between 35 and 49, both these
levels being higher than the general population.
- 41% of home users have 12 or more years of education
- 48% of home users are from socio-economic level A, which constitutes only 10% of
the general population. This means that the home users are much more affluent.
- 15% of home users can read English, which is about five times higher than the
general population. As English is the dominant language on the World Wide Web at this
time, the ability to read English is helpful.
- Roughly speaking, the home user profile is an affluent, well-educated,
middle-aged family, in which both the parents and the children use the Internet.
For the work/school users, we observe that
- The largest number of users is in Brazil (856,000 persons), followed by Mexico
(459,000 persons). In terms of penetration percent, the highest percent is in Puerto Rico
(2.3%), followed by Chile (1.7%).
- 57% of these users are male
- 68% of these users are between the ages of 18 and 34
- 28% of these users are students, and 14% are professionals, managers or
administrators. Both these levels are higher than the general population, but would be
expected given that the Internet access is either through work or school.
- 65% of these users have received 12 or more years of education.
- 27% of these users can read English, which is about 8.5 times higher than the
general population.
- 45% of these users are in socio-economic level A, which accounts for only 10% of
the general population.
- Roughly speaking, there are two different types of users: students who use the
Internet at school and professionals who use the Internet at work. Both groups are
well-educated and affluent.
We should qualify this information by noting that the sampling errors associated
with these estimates may be substantial due to the low penetration levels at this time. We
have only presented the numbers for one year and we have not discussed any trends that can
be seen through this annually conducted survey.
 |
Postscript
(8/1/99): The Los
Medios y Mercados de Latinoamérica study was conducted annually from 1994
to 1998. Consequently, the numbers described in the preceding note
were available for all five years. The details are reported in the
book Telecommunications
in Latin America. |
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