Hispanic Surfers an Untapped Bounty

Despite logging on in increasing numbers, and enjoying a growing selection of Spanish-language sites, Hispanics remain slow to embrace the Net--and both they and the Web are missing out, reports say.

At a 30 percent growth rate over last year, the Hispanic online community is among those increasing the fastest, according to recent Commerce Department reports. But it still falls short: 31.6 percent of Hispanics use the Internet, while about 60 percent of Asian Americans and 60 percent of whites are online, say the reports. New Hispanic Web sites are appearing, but Spanish-language sites are still a single-digit fraction of the selection. As a result, the Hispanic community lacks access to useful resources, and Internet marketers are overlooking about 12 percent of the U.S. population.

Many Hispanics have bigger challenges than mastering the Internet, says Georgina Falu, who has been running computer classes in Spanish Harlem for 14 years. She attributes the disparity to such issues as health, education, low income, crime, and poverty, as well as to a lack of phone lines, PCs, and Internet connections.

"They don't even know why they should use the Internet," she says.

Knowledge Barrier

The problem is not only a lack of money but a lack of knowledge, says Felipe Korzenny, author of a survey on Hispanic Internet-use trends. Unfamiliarity with the use of computers and the Internet seems more acute in the Hispanic community than in any other, Korzenny says.

For example, Hispanics estimated the cost of a PC and an Internet connection to be double what they are, in the survey by Korzenny's Cheskin Group, a California-based market research company. Nearly half of those surveyed could not identify any computer brand.

Most Latinos don't know how to use auction sites like EBay to buy cheaper PCs, or to use search engines to find Spanish-language Web sites, Korzenny says.

The survey points out a chicken-and-egg situation that researchers consider common in the Latino community: Its members don't know enough about the Internet, so they don't use it; but since they don't use it, they aren't learning about it or effectively tapping its resources.

"Not only is it a matter of not knowing about computers or English, but Hispanics don't know enough about surfing the Web," says Ricardo Lopez, president of the Hispanic Research Group.

Behind the lack of awareness is an income barrier. According to the 2000 U.S. census, Hispanic people earn less than their white counterparts. The Commerce Department study shows they are less likely to own PCs, and therefore less likely to have access to the Internet from home.

David Morse, president of the Cultural Access Group, points to a disparity in quality of usage. The Commerce Department study says Hispanic children are twice as likely as white children to log on from a public PC, at a public library, or at school. This could mean Hispanic children use the Net for shorter periods of time, Morse says.

"These children often go to older schools, which need to be wired again to get Internet connections--and that costs money," says Ruben Villegas, editor of the Hispanic Business Journal, a business news magazine in Dallas.

Tapping a Unique Culture

Less than 3 percent of all the content on the Web in 1999 was in Spanish, according to an Online Computer Literacy Center study. It isn't easy to find, adds David Perez, president and founder of Lumina Americas, a New York-based market research firm.

Typically, Hispanics who use the Net can speak English, Morse says. But some in the community may be deterred by the shortage of Spanish-language sites. A growing awareness of the Latino market has spurred a profusion of Latino and Spanish-language Web sites in the last few years, he notes. They could be the first market for the 35.3 million Hispanic people--with an estimated $500 billion in spending power--counted in the 2000 U.S. Census, Cheskin researchers note.

Simply translating Web pages into Spanish is not a solution, Perez says. He urges instead creating "culturally relevant" content.

"The mainstream media ignores news generated by Hispanic people, and their art and culture," says magazine editor Villegas. "There is a lot going on in the Hispanic world, but the Web ignores it, like the media."

Hispanics have slightly different surfing habits than other Internet users. For example, they represent some of the most frequent visitors to international news sites, according to the Cheskin report.

"My 81-year-old father checks the Bolivian papers online every day," Perez says. Although they may have left home countries decades ago, Hispanic Americans get a connection to those distant communities through the Web.

Hispanics are often very community- and family-oriented, and the computer-savvy frequently use e-mail to help them keep in touch with family and friends in Latin America, Korzenny says. "The Net is a unifier; Hispanic people like it because they are more connected to family and community," he adds.

Steps to Progress

Advocates for the Hispanic community say they are taking steps to encourage greater use of technology. However, they suggest the route might not be as long as it appears.

Internet usage may actually be underreported by Hispanics, suggest Perez and Morse. Members of the community are often very concerned with privacy and are reluctant to release personal information online. "They are less trusting of government and other institutions," Perez says. He believes more Hispanics may be surfing than the Commerce Department study indicates.

Still, an acute lack of awareness in the Hispanic community remains the primary challenge to encouraging technical skills, analysts say. To demystify Internet use among Hispanic people, they suggest training in tools like search engines, so users can find sites of interest. Also, Hispanics will be among those who benefit from efforts to wire schools and to provide easy access to PCs at libraries and at other public locations. Such movements can help bridge the economic gap.

But education remains the greatest challenge and solution, they suggest.

"Big marketers, like Compaq, Apple, and [Hewlett-Packard] need to reach out to Hispanic people and educate them about computers and the Internet," says Korzenny. With $500 billion of spending power and a rapidly growing market, the Hispanic community may well give an economic boost to the PC industry, if only the industry taps into this market resource.