Not only are they the fastest growing demographic in the U.S.; Hispanic-Americans are trendsetters when it comest to digital device ownership and online usage, according to a new study from Nielsen.
Nearly 3 out of 4 (72%) Hispanics owned smartphones as of 3Q13, and just shy of half of them (49%) intend to upgrade or replace their mobile handsets in the next six months. That compares with just 30% of U.S. consumers overall, according to Nielsen’s, “Digital Consumer Report.”
Hispanic-Americans are also twice as likely to buy tablets over the next six months, “showing that this demographic is poised to continue expanding its digital influence in the next few years,” according to a post on the Nielsen Newswire.
Nielsen also found that Hispanic-Americans spend more time using digital devices on average. They also own smartphones at a higher rate than U.S. users overall. Their data usage is 16% more than the average mobile consumer, consuming nearly 1 gigabyte (962 MBs) of 3G/4G data per month.
Social media is a big factor in Hispanic-Americans’ digital media usage. Ninety-five percent of those who own smartphones (23 million Hispanics) used social sites and apps in July 2013.
Hispanic-Americans also make up a growing percentage of mobile shoppers, accounting for nearly 1 in 8 U.S. consumers using their smartphones and tablets to shop.
Mobile video usage is also on the rise among Hispanics, Nielsen found. Ten million watch video on their mobile phones. In addition, they have been quick to adopt multi-screen video viewing.
Hispanics account for 47 million of traditional TV viewers in the U.S., according to Nielsen, and on average they have added two hours of online and mobile video viewing since 2011.
“The average Latino spends more than eight hours viewing online videos each month,” Nielsen writes, “which is more than 1.5 hours longer than the U.S. average in Q3 2013.” And that excludes mobile video viewing and video viewing via game consoles.
