demographics

Hispanics are one of the leading demographics in terms of mobile usage, smartphone penetration and web radio listening, according to a new round of studies.

Nielsen found that Hispanics "outpace all other ethnic groups in mobile downloads of music and photos" and are "heavy phone users in general." The demo is 25% more likely to follow a brand online, Nielsen says, and is more likely to consume mobile multimedia.

Meanwhile, eMarketer found that around 43% of Hispanics own a smartphone in 2012 (compared to the overall rate of 36.6%). The company predicts nearly 63% will own a smartphone by 2016.

As we reported last week, The Media Audit found that more than 25% of Hispanics had listened to Internet radio in the past 7 days (RAIN coverage here). That outpaces the overall adult 18+ rate of under 20%.

Interestingly, The Media Audit also found that web radio is popular amongst cellphone-only consumers. And Nielsen found that Hispanics are less likely to have a home broadband connection than the average U.S. consumer (62% compared to 76%).

"If you’re building a mobile app or service -- especially a social or entertainment-focused service," writes TechCrunch, "you would be lucky to have a group that’s as engaged as this one is to tap into."

You can find more on Nielsen's research here and more from eMarketer here.

It's great when users are willing to divulge important demographic information when buying products, or to gain access to entertainment (such as online radio channels). Info like gender, age/year-of-birth, and geographical location not only gives merchants and publishers a better idea of who their customers are, but helps build a valuable database that can be monetized by delivering targeted marketing to specific demo groups, right?

But if your database includes 99-year old Jim Shew, who resides in zip code 90210, the following won't come as a surprise: New research shows that "88% of online buyers had at some point intentionally left registration information blank or used incorrect information when signing up for a new account at a website," reports eMarketer, "up 12 percentage points from 2010."

One caveat: this research does come from a "social login platform company," and naturally, the remedy is to allow users to log in using their Facebook or Twitter accounts. (It's likely that users are more honest about their personal information on their social media profiles.) The research also showed that 77% of U.S. online customers say they desire social sign-on for online retailers.

Read more from eMarketer here.