AOL Latino targets Hispanics kept away from the Internet by English-only service providers.
By Associated Press
Published October 1, 2003
NEW YORK - America Online is launching a service Wednesday for the rapidly growing number of U.S. households in which Spanish is the main or the only language spoken.
The AOL Latino service is wholly in Spanish, from the familiar "You've got mail" - "Tienes e-mail" - greeting down to the instructions on the installation CDs.
The U.S. Hispanic population has grown over the past two years at nearly four times the rate of the overall population, and Hispanics are now the country's largest minority group.
Yahoo! Inc. already has a "Yahoo! En Espanol" site, with news, maps and even greeting cards in Spanish, while Microsoft's MSN has acquired the Spanish-language Yupi portal. Both companies also offer instant-messaging software and Web-based e-mail in Spanish.
But AOL's service goes further, offering a complete package - including software to connect, send e-mail and browse the Web in Spanish and a toll-free number for Spanish-language customer support.
"The Internet experience today is very much in English," said Charlene Li, an analyst at Forrester Research. "If you are a predominantly Spanish speaker, AOL Latino really serves that market."
AOL Latino service will cost the same as regular AOL service: $23.90 a month for unlimited use.
According to a Commerce Department study last year, 14 percent of Hispanics in Spanish-only households were online, compared with 38 percent of Hispanics in bilingual and English-dominant households.
AOL already has 2.3-million Hispanic subscribers in the United States, but they tend to be English speakers.
"Now it's time for the second phase," said David Wellisch, general manager for AOL Latino. "Language has acted as a barrier that we are now ready to resolve."
The Commerce study shows Hispanics still trailing whites and Asians in the percentage of those who are online, though their growth rate is higher.
"We're still in kind of the first phase of this mad dash land grab for the Latino audience and their purchasing power," said Juliana Deeks, an analyst with Jupiter Research.
Recognizing that not all Hispanics are alike - that those from Puerto Rico, Mexico and Bolivia, for example, can vary widely in their interests - AOL is teaming up with about 20 U.S. providers of Hispanic content. It is also getting original content from such subsidiaries as AOL Argentina and from freelancers in U.S. cities.
Spanish-language components include a welcome screen highlighting daily news and information, bilingual installation instructions and personalized "Expressions" features - AOL Instant Messenger, Buddy Lists and SuperBuddy icons that react to common Spanish chat phrases and "emoticons."
Bilingual spell checking of e-mails and instant messages has been established, along with a toll-free number to reach a Spanish-speaking AOL representative.
Channels for Spanish-dominant and bilingual subscribers include:
AOL Noticias (News) from partners including Univision, La Opinion, the Associated Press, EFE News Wire, the BBC Mundo, and numerous U.S. and Latin American newspapers.
AOL Deportes (Sports), which focuses on international soccer, baseball from the Americas, major boxing title fights and coverage of Hispanic athletes around the world.
AOL Musica (Music), featuring Primer Sonido (First Listen) songs from Latin artists before they're released on radio. Latin stars will also perform unplugged on SesionesAOL (SessionsAOL) and stream their music on AOL's Zona Estreno (Listening Party).
"It's not just AOL in Spanish. It's about issues Hispanic communities face - immigration, issues about their countries," said Wellisch, 33, who emigrated from Ecuador at 18.
He said AOL Latino has more than a dozen but fewer than 100 employees. He would not be more specific, other than to say a few are located in Miami and other cities with large Hispanic populations.
The company has hired a separate ad agency to target Hispanics and has identified festivals, stores and other channels for distributing AOL Latino installation software on CD. The software can also be downloaded.
- Information from Knight Ridder News Service was used in this report.
