The comScore, Inc. - the leader in measuring the digital world - has released the findings of its study on the U. S. Hispanic Internet market. The comScore study articulates that the Hispanic online population reached a record 20.3 million visitors in February 2009, representing 11 percent of the total U. S. online market.

According to the comScore study, during the past year, the growth of the U. S Hispanic Internet audience outpaced that of the total U. S. online population in terms of number of visitors, time spent and pages consumed, as Hispanic online adoption and engagement accelerated.

Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix, said, "It's well known that the Hispanic market is a growing and increasingly important segment to advertisers and marketers. However, any business attempting to effectively reach this segment needs to understand the behavior of the U. S. Hispanic online consumer as a fundamental component of their marketing and media strategies."

The comScore study states that the U. S. Hispanic online population reached 20.3 million visitors in February 2009, an increase of 6 percent from the previous year.

Hispanic Internet users also exhibited a surge in online engagement, including strong increases in time spent and pages consumed. The total amount of time spent online by Hispanics increased 6.9 percent in 2009 (3.9 times faster than the total U. S. online population), while total pages consumed grew 6 percent (3.6 times faster than the total U. S. population).

The comScore study says though they represent 11 percent of the total U. S. online audience, Hispanics account for just 9 percent of total time spent online. To understand where Hispanics are most likely to consume content online, the study looked at the site categories where they spent an above average share of their online time.

According to the comScore study, the top ranked category was Community - Teens, where U. S. Hispanics accounted for 18 percent of total time spent in the category, followed by Gaming Information at 13 percent. Other entertainment- and leisure-related categories were heavily represented on the list, including Radio (13 percent), Multimedia (12 percent), Discussion/Chat, Instant Messengers (11 percent) and Music (11 percent).