Instagram Users in Latin America Skew Female

Instagram has a willing user base in Latin America among female users, according to data from Latamclick.

Overall, women in the region outnumber men in terms of Instagram usage by a noticeable margin. The digital marketing agency found that 56.2% of Instagram users in Latin America are women.

The countries with the largest proportion of female users were Uruguay, where women made up 63.8% of users, followed by Brazil (58.2%), Venezuela (57.7%) and Peru (56.3%).

Although Brazil ranked second in female user share, the country is home to the largest total Instagram user base in Latin America and second worldwide. eMarketer estimates 44.9 million people in Brazil will use the platform at least once per month in 2017, second only to the US (85.5 million).

On a subregional level, additional data from Latamclick shows the Southern Cone countries account for 63.0% of total monthly Instagram users in Latin America, followed by the Andean region (18.1%), Mexico (13.9%) and Central America (4.9%).

Meanwhile, figures from the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) based on research by Kantar Millward Brown and Netquest illustrate how Instagram has managed to outdo Snapchat in several markets in Latin America.

For example, it found that 86% of mobile social media users in Argentina ages 14 to 24 surveyed in April 2017 said they use Instagram every day, compared with 52% who use Snapchat at that rate. In addition, three-quarters of respondents ages 25 to 34 said they use Instagram daily, while only 27% said the same of Snapchat.

However, in Mexico, the gap between daily mobile Instagram and Snapchat usage among those age groups was not as dramatic.

Even though Instagram faces competition from Snapchat to attract younger users to its platform, the company’s user growth shows no signs of slowing.

“Instagram’s ability to offer photos, videos and animated GIFs are the three most effective formats to engage with a Latin American audience,” said Francesco Bocanelli, CEO at Latamclick, in an interview with eMarketer.

“Similar in nature to what we saw with Facebook’s initial growth in the region, Instagram’s popularity will continue to grow among Latin American millennials and adults throughout the coming years,” he added.

Instagram claims its user base in Latin America is a little more than 115 million, according to Latamclick.

However, eMarketer’s estimates take into consideration duplicate accounts, business profiles and fake users. eMarketer expects more than 107.3 million people in Latin America will log on to Instagram at least once a month this year. By 2021, this total will reach 163.3 million.