This article, published on the may issue of “Research World” magazine was written by one of Livra’s co-founders.

Too often Latin America ends up in the wrong Top 10 lists. Brazil is the most expensive place in the world to buy an iPod, Argentina shares the same transparency index spot as Libya and Burkina Faso and Colombia ranks fourth worldwide in the number of child combatants.

But once in a while we stand out in some of the good rankings. One area where the region has done spectacularly well in the last few years is the internet and in particular, social media.

According to the latest data from Nielsen Online, over 30% of the population in Latin America is now web active. This accounts for over 170 million people and in countries like Chile, Colombia and Argentina, internet penetration is now close to 50%.

Furthermore, Latin America, followed by Eastern Europe, is the fastest growing region in terms of broadband adoption. Broadband grew at a compound annual rate of 48% from 2003 to 2008 and continues to expand.

Savvy users

Unlike USA or Europe, most Latin Americans only discovered the internet in the last few years, and haven’t had to go through the pains of slow dial up, unfriendly browsers and search engines. The only internet they know is the fluid world of social media – and they love it. Brazilians for example are the top online social net-workers worldwide, with more than 85% active users according to Comscore.

One interesting difference is that some leading sites such as Fotolog and Orkut have only succeeded locally. Another difference is that users here aren’t used to dealing with laborious online surveys and are far more sophisticated and savvy surfers than the average user in the US and Europe at the time when online research exploded there. Users here were born in the era of social media and the web they know is social and engaging, with mass collaboration and co-creation at its core.

It is estimated that less than 1% of research is done online in the Latin American region so the potential for growth is enormous, hence the recent arrival of some of the large online panel companies.

Some tips

So, if you have the cojones to start doing online in Latin America (at Livra we’ve been doing it for over eight years), we can give you a few suggestions:

• Don’t treat Latin American users as Internet infants. We are digital grown ups, in fact users in some countries are more advanced than in the US and Europe.
• If terrible long surveys work badly elsewhere, they will have an even worse effect in Latin America. Brazil has one of the highest numbers of Twitter users in the world, think 140 characters and not 140 questions!
• People love expressing their opinion in Latin America; they do it through Facebook, Blogs, Twitter. They will be happy to complete surveys if the experience is consistent with the internet they know.
• Don’t forget Latin America is very diverse. The culture in Brazil is completely different from Mexico, Argentina or Chile. So a “one size fits all approach” may not work.

If we all keep these guidelines in mind, we may be able to have something unheard of -internet users loving online surveys!

By Diego Meller, CEO of Livra.com

The full magazine can be downloaded from here