From MediaPost's Engage: Hispanics postings, the "10 Things You Should Know About U.S. Hispanics" is a must read if you are trying to connect with the growing population segment. The radio cluster I work with has a Hispanic Station with a great website and putting ourselves into touch with the culture is a vital piece to the sales presentation and the products and solutions we develop for them, you'll have to read the article for the details, but let us paraphrase the list as it relates to technology adaption....
1.Hispanics are connecting twice as fast as the general market (14% growth vs. 7%) adding over a million users per year. In 2008, 23 million Hispanics online, about 52% of the Hispanic population. In 2012, more than 29 million will be online, increasing Internet penetration to 58.6%.
2.The growing Hispanic middle class is super connected: 88% of Hispanics with a household income of $50,000 + are online.
3.Hispanics are early adopters of mobile technology: 31 million have a mobile phone. By the age of 15, penetration of wireless services is 64%, by 17, it rises to 78%. Hispanics have the highest proportion of cord-cutters among all segments.
4.Hispanics will spend money on what they really want: They spend 42% more on mobile devices and 35% more on data services than the average user.
5.Roughly half of the Hispanics online prefer Spanish, and for 66% it's important to be recognized as Hispanic through culturally relevant content.
6.Hispanics are dynamic content creators and consumers: Two-thirds of online Hispanics use the Web to view other consumers' content and 40% create content and provide their opinions online.
7.Entertainment content main appeal for online engagement: 37% listen to Internet radio vs. just 30% of non-Hispanics and 36% download music vs. just 29% of non-Hispanics.
8.An online collective life: 77% engage in some kind of online socializing. And 40% are part of a social network. An estimated 20% of Hispanics online are considered "Hispanic-fluentials."
9.Multi-tasking: Part of the Hispanic DNA. On average, Hispanics spend 17 hours per week online, but they spend 14 hours per day with a technology device (versus 8 hours for the general population).
10. Hispanic online landscape is less crowded: Interactive Advertising Media Investment represented 4.6% in 2007, while in the general market, it is around 7%.