While their ranks
continue to grow, the share of Hispanic adults online--54%--still trails the total share of U.S. adults--69%--now surfing the Web, according to a report released Thursday by Scarborough Research.
Thanks to strong broadband adoption rates, however, Hispanic Web users now constitute "avid downloaders of digital content," according to Scarborough--a joint venture between Arbitron
and The Nielsen Co.
Indeed, among Hispanics who are online, 68% have a broadband connection in their household, which compares favorably to the 71% of total U.S. Internet users.
About 42% of
Hispanic Internet users reported downloading some sort of digital content over the past 30 days--compared to 35% of Internet users in general.
In line with general trends, Hispanic Internet users
are most likely to download music--as 32% reported having done so in the previous 30 days, compared to 24% of all Web users.
Also, 17% of online Hispanics reported downloading "other video" over
the past 30 days--compared to 14% of all Web users.
Meanwhile, 11% of Hispanics reported recently downloading audio clips, 9% downloaded movies, 8% downloaded TV programs, 6% downloaded video
games, and 3% downloaded podcasts.
Younger Hispanic adults were more likely to have downloaded digital content in the previous 30 days, with 51% of the 18- to-34-year-olds reporting such
activity.
In the area of ecommerce, Hispanic Web users lag, as 62% of online Hispanic adults reported having made at least one online purchase over the past year, compared to 70% of all Web
users.
Among those who did make a purchase, the average Hispanic spent an average of $762 compared to the $861 spent by the average U.S. Web user.
In addition, among Hispanic cell-phone
subscribers, 55% use it for text messaging, 28% for picture messaging, 22% for instant messaging, 15% for downloading video games, 15% for e-mail, and 11% for "other" uses.