Microsoft Inspires U.S. Hispanics to Live the Vida Digital Latina
At 44 million (1), Hispanics in the United States are now America’s largest minority (2). Comprising more than 14 percent (3) of the entire population, recent growth has seen their numbers grow by 25 percent between 2000 and 2006 (4) alone (accounting for more than half the nation’s overall population growth during this time (5)). By 2050, Latinos are expected to make up 29 percent of the US populace (6).
It’s a youthful community with a median age of 27 - compared to 40 among white Americans (7) - and disposable income projected to top $863 billion last year (8). It’s also richly diverse, spanning people of Mexican, Puerto Rican and Cuban heritage alongside people from the length and breadth of Central and South America (8). And they present a similar heterogeneity when it comes to technology usage. Hispanics are on the leading edge in many activities, observes Jose Pinero, Director of Multicultural Marketing at Microsoft. “What we find is, among Hispanics that are already online, they’re ahead of the general market in their adoption of [online] chat and downloading music, video and ringtones.”