Spain is the European Leader in Smartphone Use and More Great Digital Trend Data

ComScore's new report, "Spain, Digital Future in Focus 2013", provides some great insights into the Spanish digital market that are quite interesting.

Below are some of the highlights; you can find the full document in Spanish on Comscore's Website.

• More and more content consumed on various devices – mobile has become a very popular way to view content
• Spain is the European leader in Smartphone use with 66% market penetration (followed by the UK with 64% and Italy and France with 53%)
• The number of consumers with a smartphone or tablet has increased 70% in one year
• Tablet use has increased 11% in one year, with over 4 million users
• Social media usage on PC decreased, while access via mobile increased 45%
• Consumers now experiment with buying via mobile – 10% for purchases and 16% to compare products. Apple is the most popular smartphone with which to do so.
• Europeans spend 26.9 hours online per month
• Over 35% of mobile users in Spain are under 35 years old
• 17 million Spaniards use their computer to access the internet per day, a 9% increase over last year
• Online audience:
• Most users between 25-44 years old
• Ages 15-24 and 45-54 same number of users; over 45 is the age group that most grew versus the previous year
• 52% male / 48% female
• Google is the most popular operating system by far with nearly 60% of market share
• Online categories with most growth are Women’s Magazines and Automotive
• Video from PC only increased 0.6% but watching video via mobile increased 164% over the past year. Google leads the sites by far.
• Most online display impressions dominated by Proctor & Gamble with 202 million, Carlsberg with 45 million, L’Oreal with 36 million
• Most impressions come from Social Networks (31%) followed by News (14%)

Is Facebook participation declining in Spain?

According to SocialBakers, Facebook membership has increased to 15.9 million as of March 2012 (that’s a penetration of 34% of the population and 54% of Internet users). I predict, however, that actual participation on the network may have started to wane.

A number of people have recently commented that, although the stats show Facebook gaining members in Spain, members are interacting with the site far less than they used to. Many are opting to spend more time on Twitter instead. The main reasons for this are among the following:

• The Timeline is not user-friendly and there is no choice in making the switch over; and as a side note, why do some people have it and others don’t?
• People prefer not to share all their personal experiences online; they’d rather share this stuff in person –it’s strange to meet up and find friends already know all the news you have to share
• Twitter is more interesting because you can follow a specific topic. People’s focus seems to be shifting to Twitter.

One thing is membership, and another is interaction. The average American Internet user spends approximately 13 minutes per day on Facebook, compared to just over 4 minutes in Spain. This still beats Google+! 

In my opinion, Facebook is moving toward being a brand-focused network. The new timeline is great for companies in many ways, but what about users who just want to see what their friends are up to?

And where does Pinterest fit into this? It’s been slower to take off here, but is now becoming quite a popular topic of discussion in blogs and Twitter, etc. Concepto05 highlighted Pinterest as a huge hit in Spain, showing how it has grown rapidily in a short time, but they caution waiting a few months before determining it the next big social media phenomenon.

What’s your opinion? Are you becoming disenchanted with Facebook? If so, where are you spending your social networking time these days?

Video On Demand in Spain: 3 Major Players Weigh In

The fall of the giant Megaupload, Netflix’s entry into Spain and copyright issues were the main topics of discussion at last night’s Cava&Twitts event at the Old Moritz Factory, which has recently reopened on Avenida Parallel in Barcelona (as a side note, it is awesome and definitely worth a visit!).

Cava&Twitts

Cava&Twitts is a periodic event started in 2008 in which people come together to discuss the latest in online and social media. The event is complimented with a glass of cava, though last night we received a free glass of Moritz (or, better said, un chupito de Moritz).The session “Video on Demand: The Future of Cinema?”  was hosted by Marc Cortes (@marccortes), founder of Cava&Twitts and Professor of Online Marketing at ESADE.  

Three speakers discussed their industry and their business models: Jordi Miró (@jordimirobruix), CTO of Wuaki; Juan Carlos Tous (@jctous), CEO of Filmin; and José Pacheco, Marketing Director of Youzee (pronounced “you see”). This interesting line-up of speakers brought together three competitors of the same market, although Filmin sets itself apart by specializing in Indie films.  I did not see much difference in the offers of Youzee and Wauki, in fact, they seemed to have the same elevator pitch. I left the event thinking that Wauki and Youzee really should join up and attack the market together.

The event was packed with mostly young people who work in or are very interested in social media. Information overload bombarded attendees - a large screen showed Cava&Twitts’ HootSuite interface while a community manager tweeted the discussion in real-time. Most attendees were using their smartphones to join in the conversation, find friends and take photos.  Speakers answered questions as they came in through Twitter and occasionally took their own photos of the audience with their smartphones. By the end I felt an overwhelming need to attend a Yoga class and re-center myself.

The hour-long discussion was quite interesting. It became clear that these companies are looking to Netflix and the US market for a business model to replicate, while simultaneously complaining that the US market is so much easier to succeed in as it consists of 300+ million consumers. I disagree with this assumption; the larger the market, the greater the competition.  It’s never been easy for Netflix. They carved out a niche in 1997 and went at it with all they had to become the market leader. Companies in Spain should spend less time comparing this market to the US and focus their expert knowledge on a unique business model for Spain.

Spain’s video on demand market is one with low entry risk and high commoditization (see analysis). There are a lot of competitors, but none has the vast offering at a low price that consumers are looking for – besides piracy, of course. It’s time to think beyond replicating a business model that worked in one country and tailor the offer to this market, where it is surely possible to be successful.

As I’ve written in the past, piracy is a huge detriment to the success of video on demand companies in Spain. And although Netflix recently had plans to enter the market, they have put that on hold while they focus on the UK. 

Megavideo is proof that people will pay for high(er)-quality streaming – to the tune of 10 EUR/month in the case of Megavideo – a case that still surprises me as people were paying for pirated content. It’s a matter of finding the right balance between offer and price, which I understand is not easy with the difficulties in negotiating copyright and use of intellectual property here. I appreciated the discussion on the topic of intellectual property as I learned a great deal from the speakers, who are clear experts in this area.

All three gentlemen expressed a desire for Netflix to come to Spain. They said Netflix would bring the visibility and publicity necessary for this offer to become main-stream. I disagree with this reasoning in the case of Wauki and Youzee; if Netflix launches here, their businesses will be eaten up. Filmin, however, has a niche offering that could nicely compliment Netflix’s catalog.

The sold-out event was a success, with 683 mentions, 451 of #candt, 126 RTs, a total audience of 398,867 and 1.305.713 impressions. And, as they tweeted last night:  “mil millones de gracias a todos”.

Some lucky attendees received Filmin gift codes for a free movie rental, t-shirts and even a free one-month subscription to Filmin, which was so nicely packaged in a lovely blue box with the Filmin logo; inside was a VHS tape (What’s on it? We’ll never know because no one has a VHS player anymore) with the gift code attached.

You can find all the Tweets from the event in Spanish here: https://twitter.com/#!/cavaandtwitts

Follow Up: Rise of Community Manager Role in Spain

Ein kleiner, niedlicher Jongleur | Flickr

Just days after my post on the Rise of the Community Manager Role in Spain, El Pais has published an article on the same topic (available only in Spanish).

Along with pointing out many of the trends I had observed, the article includes short interviews with various Community Managers in Spain. The most interesting points are anecdotal evidence from those Community Managers as well as some informative statistics from Infojobs.com, one of the largest jobs websites in Spain.

Demand = HIGH | Offer = LOW

At the end of 2010, 164 Community Manager positions had been listed on Infojobs. Jordi Escalé of Infojobs points out that, while the Community Manager role accounts for 0.4% of all offers, there is a huge opportunity for qualified job candidates. 

Escalé believes that any company that cares about its brand reputation must have a Community Manager on board to manage the company's social media presence. He notes that, being a new position, there are very few people in the job market with the appropriate profile.

Companies looking for a Community Manager usually have over 200 employees and are located in Madrid (54%) and Barcelona (33%). Of those companies, 19% of the companies are in the technology sector, 9% are in publicity/advertising and 6% operate within information technology.

What Community Managers Say

Xavi Menós is a Community Manager for the American comapny, Nexus Management Group, he is responsible for managing online reputations, including that of Shakira. Menós believes that spending time online and reading Tweets and Facebook posts are the best ways to learn what is required in this role.  

This is in contrary to those who believe courses and 'degrees' are the best option. El Pais's article points out that the University of Barcelona now offers the first official postgraduate course in Community Management and Social Media.

Menós recommends that college students study courses in design or photography; that they can learn all they need to know online and with a bit of HTML added on, as well as top writing skills, they'll have all they need to fill a Community Manager role. 

Sira Coll, Community Manager at Grupo Planeta, says that in role, she handles the same responsibilities as she did before the role emerged, but now Facebook has been added to her list of tasks. She says that today, only large companies can afford to have a media / comms manager and a community manager on staff.

Idaira Vega, Community Manager for Sony and Heineken, among other companies, believes that the rise in Community Manager positions highlights the existence of a social media bubble around this position - one that always existed but is now being renamed and called 'innovative'. 

This may come from the fact that there is no one definition of Community Manager. Even the Asociación Española de Responsables de Comunidades Online (AERCO)  [Association of Spanish Online Communities] cannot come up with one difinitive definition. 

Community Managers also point out that this position requires them to work at all hours, to ensure that a conversation is maintained between the 'brand' and customers who are now online 24/7.

Coll says that it's very important that companies know what they're doing. She cites the David Bisbal social media fiasco as a warning to all businesses. 

What does it pay?

Another point made in the article is that there is no salary range yet defined for this position. Some potisions are unpaid, others offer low-paid internships, while others are true positions in the Marketing or Communications department.

The article says that, when the typical responsibilities of a Community Manager are handled alongside other tasks, this is the arrangement that is most beneficial for the company.

This article is yet another indication that brand management through social media is an area that is rapidly growing in Spain. It has yet to be determined, however, if this is another bubble produced by the social media boom, or if it's a role that's here to stay.

The full article in Spanish can be found on the El Pais website here: http://www.elpais.com/articulo/Pantallas/necesita/community/manager/elpepirtv/20110327elpepirtv_1/Tes

Posted from 30,000 feed above Nebraska using Delta Airlines' WiFi from GoGoInFlight.com

How do top Spanish companies use social media? (Pt. 1)

I’ve been mulling over this question for a while, and decided to first look at Spanish companies' participation on Facebook. The other day I came across a new report, which highlights exactly the information I was looking for: Sociatria’s analysis of SocialBakers' report asks the question: “What Spanish brands have the greatest pull on Facebook?” It examines the level of participation with Spanish brands by Facebook Fans.

Before looking at the report, however, it’s helpful to know the standing of Spanish brands both within Spain and internationally. Superbrands found that, of the 350 most recognized brands in Spain, 35% are Spanish brands, while 33% are European, 25% are American and 7% are Asian. The most recognized of the Spanish brands are: El Corte Inglés, Zara y Telefónica.

On a global scale,  according to InterBrand’s Best Global Brands 2010 report, the Spanish brands with the highest value worldwide are Zara (#50) and Banco Santander (#68).

A study by the Universidad Carlos III for El Foro de Marcas Renombradas Españolas, showed that the most internationally recognized Spanish brands are: Santander and Mango (recognized by 50% of people interviewed) and Real Madrid with 45%. Other highly recognized brands are Seat, Telefónica, BBVA, Fútbol Club Barcelona, Sol Meliá, Iberia, Endesa, Iberdrola, Repsol, Freixenet, Bodegas Torres, Porcelanosa, Roca, NH Hoteles and Carbonell.

This report, updated regularly on SocialBakers, highlights the Spanish brands with the most Fans on Facebook. It shows that, in the past three months, 12 Spanish brands appear in the top 20 brands with the most Fans on Facebook in Spain. It’s notable that all of the Spanish brands have grown their fan base by at least 5%, in most cases more. The online shopping group Privalia has grown by nearly 42% and Telepizza has increased by an impressive 84%.

SocialBakers.com

Topping the list in terms of number of fans are Bershka and Mango, with 2.4m and 1.6m fans respectively. Both have grown over 11% in the past three months. Followed quite far behind, then, is Blanco (350k). Strangely, Zara is not on the list. As I recommended in a previous post, they must connect their new social media endeavor Zara People! to their Facebook Page.

Having a lot of Fans is great, of course, but the important point of how companies interact with Fans is key.

Another report from SocialBakers highlights just that. They look at the brands with the greatest pull on Facebook in Spain. The report was analyzed by Sociatria in Spanish, and I have summarized the findings in English below.

Notably, only three Spanish brands appear in the top 10 in terms of activity on their Facebook pages. The top three brands with the highest Facebook activity are international automotive companies, followed by the Spanish brand Purificacion Garcia.  Two other Spanish brands appear on the list: Voll-Damm at #5 and Yoigo at #8.

SocialBakers.com

Another important indication of the impact of brand’s effort on Facebook is how the Fans interact with the brand. Socialbakers has created what they call the “Wall Activity Index” to further analyze participation; this Index is comprised of the number of publications posted by fans on the brand’s wall divided by the total number of fans.  There are a few Spanish brands on this top 10 list as well, including Yoigo, ONO and Iberia Airlines.

SocialBakers.com

I'm surprised at how few fans actually publish on Page's wall. I was sure it would be more. We should bear in mind that there are many other actions a Fan can take, however, such as viewing photos, sharing with friends, recommending the page, taking part in activities such as polls and competitions. 

I've observed that Spanish companies are still using social media as a way to broadcast a message, instead of ‘interacting’ and ‘holding a conversations’ with Fans and Followers. In an upcoming post on the role of the Community Manager in Spain, I will analyze just that.

Repost: Social CRM at a Crossroads? (www.zdnet.com)

Insightful overview of the current state of social crm and where it could go from here by Graham Hill. Highlights of case studies in each of three categories:

• Those who see Social CRM as just another communication channel to market; 
• those who see Social CRM as a new technology; 
• and finally, those who see Social CRM as an enabler for value co-creation throughout the customer and product lifecycles. 

I think we all want to be in group 3, but probably don't know how to get there.

The full article is definitely worth reading. It's located here on zdnet.com.

Zara launches new social network: Zara People!

The Spanish clothing empire, Zara, ranked #48 in Interbrand’s Best Global Brands 2010, is attempting to tap into the social shopping phenomenon with Zara People!.  

Zara People! is Zara's take on an already extremely popular online activity called a ‘lookbook’ or ‘street style’ combined with Social Shopping. This phenomenon has already exploded in the tween and teen online demographic.

Recently, eMarketer published a study on teen girls and social shopping  in which they point out:

Teen girls have a passion for continuously experimenting with new looks as a form of trying on different identities. They are greatly influenced by peers, pop culture and celebrity. Given their sheer number, potential spending power, internet and social media usage, teen girls represent an enormous opportunity. Retailers that tap this vein will attract new customers turned on by the viral buzz that girls themselves create.

Zara People! invites you to create and account and upload photos of yourself wearing at least two articles of clothing from the current collection (with each article referenced). 

Each week, Zara will select 10 photos of the best ‘looks’ and post them to Zara People!, as well as using them for commercial promotional purposes. 

Those 10 people who own the chosen looks will receive a prize of €300 (in exchange for giving up rights to the look and the image). That's €3,000 per week to reach potentially millions of custmores worldwide. For a company with the size and success of Zara, I don't think they'll be feeling a pinch in the budget.

Suite101.net points out that this is an interesting endeavor for Zara to take as normally Grupo Inditex, its parent company, prefers to be conservative with advertising and lets the stores and clothes advertise themselves. 

According to Modae.es, the Zara brand is one of the top 20 most liked on Facebook. As of publishing this article, Zara has 8.1 million fans. Curiously, however, with such a huge fan base, Zara has not yet announced Zara People! on Facebook nor created a fan page for it. 

The launch of Zara People! in Spain has not been widely publicized, and finding information in English is nearly impossible at the moment. 

Perhaps the goal is for Zara People to virally publicize itself?

The sign-up website is logically located at https://people.zara.com/, but the location of the site itself is more hidden and not directly connected to the account page: http://www.zara.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/category/es/es/zara-S2011/69502/PEOPLE%2B

The first ‘looks’ came out this week: http://www.demujer.es/zara-people/

My predictions is that this will be a huge success. I’m interested to see how it evolves…

Review: Tuenti's sign-up practice requires analysis

I had been hesitant to sign up for Tuenti for some time because their subscription practice seemed little strange to me. I was not sure I could choose who Tuenti would contact on my behalf to request an invitation to join. However, reading the small print on the sign-up page assured me that I had nothing to worry about.

Yet today, my concern was confirmed. I was quite surprised (and angered) to learn that Tuenti will be contacting people from my address book on my behalf without my permission. And I am definitely not okay with this practice.

There is a huge difference between allowing me to exclude contacts from their initial search and giving me the option to choose who Tuenti actually contacts once they've found out which of my contacts has an account.

www.tuenti.com

After reading the instructions, I realized that Tuenti would search my Gmail address list and look for anyone with a Tuenti account and then tell me if anyone I know has an account. 

I was assured I would then be allowed to choose who to contact. Not so.

Here is the process as Tuenti describes it, copied directly from the website:

Get a Tuenti account

Tuenti is an invitation-only social platform. In order to join Tuenti, you must be invited by someone who already has a Tuenti account. To find out if any of your friends have a Tuenti account and request an invitation from them, you can follow these simple steps:

1. Import your address book from Gmail or Yahoo by clicking on the button below
2. We’ll look to see if any of your contacts have a Tuenti account
3. If we find any matches, we’ll tell those users that you want a Tuenti invitation. If they choose to send you one, you’ll be able to create your own Tuenti account!

The fine print on the next step says:

We do not save your login information or send out invites to any of your contacts without your permission.

They gave me the choice to remove any emails from the search, but after that step, once you give them your list of contacts, they say:

Confirmation

Your contacts have been imported correctly. If any of your contacts have a Tuenti account, we will inform them that you want an invitation! If they send you one, it will arrive at the email account you used to import your contacts.

That is NOT what I agreed to. I agreed to have the choice about who Tuenti contacts on my behalf.

Now I have no idea who is getting an email from me asking to join me to Tuenti. This list could include colleagues, professors, and people I don’t actually know but they were once on a mass email I received.

If Tuenti wants to increase its number of subscribers and improve upon its mostly tween/teen demographic, it needs to take a serious look at its subscription practice.  In the mobile world, contact is so important, and unwanted contacts should be avoided at all costs.

Update: 6 days later and still no invitations. Who received "my" request from Tuenti? I have no idea!

Spain leads all markets with Smartphone adoption

ComScore's 2010 Mobile Year in Review, a look at the top highlights in mobile across the U.S., EU5 (UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain) and Japan. With the importance of mobile growing not only for mobile marketers, but digital marketers in general, the report delivers insights into the rapidly evolving mobile landscape.


Below are some of the highlights for Spain:
Spain leads all markets with Smartphone adoption of 38.0 percent, up 10.4 percentage points from last year. It surpassed Italy at the end of the year and is well above the rate of adoption in the U.S., which appears to be levelling out. It looks like the UK could quickly catch up to Spain in 2011.

Nokia is by far the most popular smart phone of choice in Europe and occupies 47% of the market share in Spain.

In Europe the fastest growing age segment in smartphone adoption was in 13-17 year olds and 18-24 year olds, up 66% and 54% respectively.

2011 Predictions for Social Media in Spain

Interactividad.org recently published their annual Social Media Predictions report for the third year in a row. In 2008, 18 contributors predicted what social media would look like in 2009; in 2009, 27 professionals gave their expert opinions; and this year 40 Social CRM-ers participated. Below is a summary of each contributor’s top prediction.

As you’ll see, the majority are focused on Spain – logically. I noted that many of the predictions seem to follow the developments that have taken place in U.S. by a year or two (i.e., candidates using social networks to campaign for the May 2011 elections, social media becoming a part of daily life, and the explosion in use of online coupons and personalized discount offers).

Can we determine what will succeed and what will fall by the wayside by analyzing what came before it in the U.S.? My prediction is that we cannot. But we’ll have to wait until January 2012 to find out.

Google will not buy Twitter	Jose  Luis  Antúnez, Founder of YouAre and Coorganizer of the Spain Blog Event
The most important verbs to focus on in 2011 are: evangalize, train, edúcate, inspire, motívate and wager.	Enrique Burgos, Marketing Responsible for Unidad Editorial
2011 is an election year; parties and candidates will enter into the realm of the internet and social networks, especially from March 2011	Cesar  Calderón , Socio Director for Autoritas Consulting
ROI is the key word for social web	Javier Celya, CEO, Grupo Dosdoce de Comunicacion Cultural
It will be absolutely necessary to link all Social Media activity to the business it generates.	Marc Cortés, Socio-Director RocaSalvatella, Electronic Marketing Professor at ESADE
The consumer will become the center of the buying process	Roberto Carreras, Independent Marketing and Communication Consultant
The big consumer brands will continue throwing money (and large multinational agencies will continue to collect it)	Fernando de la Rosa, Independent Marketing Consultant
Customers talk and business better know what they are saying – and programming a Google Alert will not be enough	Roger Domino, Editorial Director Duesto/  Gestión 2000/ Alienta/  CEAC
In 2011, we will have to continue explaining to companies that this is not a matter of ´tools´ [for following/measuring social media]	Fernando Egido, Director Banca 2.0/ Banca Cívica
2011 will be the first year in which the sector moves toward maturity	Tristán  Elósegui , Online Manager at Secuoyas, Organizer of The Monday Reading Club
The “rules of the game” will have to change before we can talk about 2.0 policy	Ricard Espelt, Regidor de Nuevas Tecnologias de Copons; Trainer;  Member of  Redall Comunicación; Entrepreneur
The year of consecration of mobility and the triumph of real time Web.	Mauro Fuentes, Social Media Director of Tinkle
Digital strategy: it’s social or it doesn’t exist	Alber  García  Pujadas, Entrepreneur; Founder of OneMojito
Social media will become part of the day-to-day for people, professionals and businesses.	Javier  Martín, Blogger and Entrepreneur
It will be the year of virtual money. After years of talk, it will begin to be used in mass, thanks especially to the success of Facebook as a platform.	Jose Antonio de Moral, CEO of Alianzo
2011 will be the year of the #hashtag, of conversation, more than the number of fans or followers.	José Luis Orihuela, Professor at the University of Navarra
28 things that will not happen in 2011 [see full report]	José Luis Orihuela, Professor at the University of Navarra
E-commerce in social networks and the “coupon effect”	Christian Palau, Director of fotocasa.com
Social media will allow for activity managed by a centralized identity	Ismael Peña, Professor at the Universitat Obert de Catalunya
In 2011, brands will measure their activity and presence in social networks by one concrete indication: the contrubtion they make to the bottom line.	Juan Luis y Fernando Polo, CEO and Socio Director of Strategy (respectively) for Territorio Creativo
2011 will be the year in which we once again attempt to normalize processes	Genis Roca, Socio Director RocaSalvatella
The complete decentralization of social networks	Marc Vidal, Entrepreneur

Social media predictions 2011

View more documents from Marc Cortes.

¿Por qué usar Social CRM?

Por el alcance y el poder que tienen las redes sociales. Por la cantidad de gente que las usa. Por las nuevas canales de comunicación. Por las opciones de mantener una conversación con tus clientes. 

Algunas cifras sorprendentes:

• Facebook es el 3º sitio más visitado en España
• España es dentro de los Top 10 países que más usan Twitter
• Las 4 palabras más buscadas en Google en España son Facebook, Youtube, Tuente y Twitter
• En 2009 la audiencia de habla española en Youtube creció 80%
• Wikipedia tiene 15 millones de artículos escritos de los cuales 697 mil son en castellano, 297 mil en catalán, 65 mil en gallego y 61 mil en euskara
• España es el 7º país del mundo que mas usa de las redes sociales
• 80% de los internautas españolas pertenece a alguna red social y 20% las usa cada día

¿Por qué debería importarle a las empresas?

• El 63% de los usuarios de Twitter recomienda productos y el 61% se quejan sobre ellos
• El 52% se convierte en seguidor de alguna marca – pero el 84% no le importa recibir mensajes de marcas en las redes sociales
• 20% de los Tweets hablan de alguna marca o producto

Es cierto que las empresas que usan social media superan a la competencia en ingresos y beneficios. El caso de @delloutlet es buen ejemplo: ya tiene 1,5 millones de seguidores y ganó $6,5 millones en solo dos años publicando ofertas y productos.

Gracias a la empresa 101cientouno por su buena presentación publicado el 11 de enero 2011.

Social Media Landscape in Spain

It seems we can’t get enough of hearing about the growth and reach of Social Media around the world and how it’s going to change our lives – as marketers and as consumers.

Facebook reached 500 million users in 2010, which set off an infographic frenzy forecasting how many users the social network would have in 2012, 2015, 2050.

All this infographic-ing prompted me to ask, what about social media in Spain? 

How popular is it? 

Who’s online and what are they doing?

I recently came across a fantastic video by the Spanish design and online marketing agency 101cientouno, which highlights the statistics of social media usage in Spain:

I’ve attempted to highlight some of the most interesting statistics below.

With a population of 47 million people, Spain is the 27^th largest country in the world, yet it ranks in the Top 10 countries on Twitter.  In the past year, Facebook membership in Spain has increased 50% to 12 million users – that’s ¼ of the population!  

The presentation Social Media around the World by InSites Consulting is one I reference often. Within the data, we find that 98% of Spaniards know of Facebook, much higher than the world average of 73% and equaling that of only the Brazil and the UK.

Social Media around the World

View more presentations from InSites Consulting.

Spain is the 7^th country in social network use. 80% of internet users are members of at least one social network and 20% visit their social network(s) of choice every day.   


Are kids 'connected'? In the report “Minors and Social Networks” produced by the Spanish organization Foro Generaciones Interactivas (01/2011), nearly 13,000 children between the ages of 6 and 18 from 78 private and public educational institutions were interviewed to learn about their Internet usage. The study found that, among many other interesting facts, the majority of children who use the Internet regularly in Spain are members of at least one social nework (70%), which they use to converse with ‘real’ friends and to entertain themselves in their spare time. 


The most popular sites among children in Spain are Tuenti (60%), Facebook (21%) and Windows Live Spaces (14%), followed by MySpace and Hi5 with a combined small percentage of the users.


How about Search? The four most searched words on Google in Spain are Facebook, Youtube, Tuenti and Twitter.

What is Tuenti? It’s the “Spanish Facebook”… sort of. The company describes itself as a “private social platform” which can be joined by invitation only. Tuenti is similar in form and function to Facebook, but with stricter privacy policies and less advertising. The stricter privacy policies must be an important feature in Spain, which has an online culture more concerned with personal privacy than that of the United States or the UK. Comscore reports that the number of visitors to Tuenti increased 21% from September 2009 to September 2010, in which 8.2 million people visited the site in Spain, making it the 10^th visited site in the country.

Tuenti was created by a group of friends from Madrid in 2006 and has grown steadily; in 2010 Telefonica purchased a majority share in the company (85%) for 70 million Euros. The site recently launched a service similar to Facebook Places called Tuenti Sitios. 

In the area of wikis, Wikipedia contains 15 million articles, 697,000 of which are in Spanish, 297,000 in Catalan (the language of the Cataluña, Valencia and the Balearic Islands of Spain as well as parts of France), 65,000 in Gallego (the language of Galicia in north-western Spain), and 61,000 in Euskara (the language of the Basque country, Spain).


I have to admit that after researching and discovering the depth of social media use in Spain, I was rather surprised. In terms of advertising and communication by companies online, I don’t feel the reach of social media here like I do when I visit America, where it seems every company, brand and product is accosting you with invitations to follow them on Twitter and Facebook.  At times it can be overwhelming, yet the infographics tell us that it is the future of marketing. [The use of social media by businesses is a topic I will cover in a future post.]

The statistics speak for themselves. Social media is thriving in Spain. And now is the right time for companies and organizations to begin taking advantage of the medium.