Web 2.0: Who’s serving the Latino market?
21
February
Short answer: nobody.
I live in San Francisco, the heart of internet innovation, and on a daily basis I am barraged with emailed articles and blog posts from friends and colleagues raving about “the next killer app” in this thing dubbed “Web 2.0″. And because of my line of work, I am also bombarded with data and news on the “illusive” and lucrative Latino market. It seems everyone is after a piece of the pie, except internet companies.
In researching for a post on another blog, I took a look at the Web 2.0 “innovation map” that Fourio came up with. This Google Maps-based app tracks companies around the world dedicated to some new Web 2.0 concept. While I was happy to see that there were “innovators” in Spanish-speaking countries, I was surprised that all of them (they are only located in, according to this very non-scientific map, Chile and Spain) have chosen to pursue a mainstream English-speaking m
arket.
True: go where the money is. False: the Latino market worldwide has no money to spend.
No one has yet been willing to step up to the plate. Spanish-speaking users around the world have cheaply translated knockoffs of portals and search engines at their disposal, but nothing truly theirs. I wonder when the internet world will start to see value in a market that traditional marketers are fighting for tooth and nail.
Since when is technology slower to the game than corporate America?
1. Juanjo Rodríguez | February 22nd, 2006 at 8:26 am
From a Web 2.0 point of view, Latino style is just not cool enough. Oh, pardon me, it is cool enough for naming companies: Pandora, Planzo, Zoozio, Jambo, etc.
On a more serious line of thought, Latinos are a probably considered a segment of a smaller size that general English-speakers, and they will be targeted only after the main segment is covered.
2. Octavio Isaac Rojas Orduña | February 22nd, 2006 at 9:26 am
Puedes tener razón, pero también hay iniciativas estratégicas como las que todos conocemos”.
Asimismo, en España hay CMS y directorios/buscadores con buena pinta.
Para mí, el problema es la masa crítica y su “monetarización”.
Si bien el número de internautas de habla española es alta, su poder adquisitivo (y predisposición al consumo) no es comparable con los americanos ni los ingleses.
Sólo hay que pensar que sitios web con el mismo número de visitantes y páginas vistas provenientes de los países de Latinoamérica no son tan rentables como los americanos/ingleses.
Saludos.
3. Andy Rosillo | March 2nd, 2006 at 3:10 am
Id like to invite you to our project. www.vivamigente.com, in a nutshell, the Latin version of Myspace.com. We will be doing some things differently of course. Our website is built on Ruby on Rails and we will be implementing more Web 2.0 technologies.
We are in beta and have not launched yet.
We are based in Los Angeles and hope to launch by the Rebelde concert March 18.
Your thoughts and feedback would be appreciated.
4. Michelle Moscona | March 9th, 2006 at 8:53 am
Let me introduce you to Captura Group (http://www.capturagroup.com), a leading Hispanic interactive agency which has been in business 5+ years. Founded by Hispanic online pioneer, Lee Vann, Captura Group enables companies to connect with the Hispanic online market. We have worked with many leading companies and organizations including Pfizer, Ford, Sears, and the US Federal Government on the development of in-language and in-culture online solutions. Whether you define the work we are doing on behalf of our clients as Web 2.0 or otherwise, out break-through solutions have generated measurable results for our clients in the Hispanic online market. Check out our site to learn more about our approach and let me know what you think…