Valentina Duque
Marketing Manager
AMI
Every year, the figures say the same thing: more users, more hours connected, more digital dependence. LatAm currently has a 65% penetration rate for mobile internet usage, and in 2024 the region had an estimated 413 million users.1 In addition, networks such as Reddit saw a 95% increase in users in LatAm in the last year.2
No wonder: everything we need is here. From paying the rent, ordering food or groceries, to sending an email or entertaining ourselves by watching videos that we didn’t ask for—but somehow end up watching, anyway.
However, although the numbers speak of growth, what experience shows us is something quite different: Latin Americans are tired of the internet. We’re tired of networks, we’re tired of advertising, we’re tired of algorithms that seem to know more about us than we do. A Bain & Company survey reveals that nearly a third of consumers in the region expect to reduce their digital activities by 2025, with an alarming 25% of those associating digital activity with damage to their health and well-being.3
What Latin American Consumers
Value the Most
Key 2025 insights on what Latin American consumers value: essentials, local brands, health, and human touch in service.
The “thorn” of social networks and influencers
In Colombia, people have been talking about “bodegas” (warehouses), which describes the activity of underhandedly hiring content creators or creating fake accounts to spread political propaganda or discredit candidates and political parties. The word bodegas is quite apt: it makes you imagine dozens of people in a warehouse creating fake news and memes. Something similar has been seen in Mexico and Chile in the hiring of influencers for political campaigns. In short, we could say that there is already a pattern throughout LatAm.
For the average Internet user, cases like this confirm their most cynical suspicions: nothing on the Internet is genuine or sincere—and anyone could be a shill for a politician or a corporation or some other entity. Beyond information fatigue, Latin Americans are suffering from the emotional fatigue of navigating in an environment where it is difficult to distinguish what is genuine and what is manipulation. If we used to follow online figures because we trusted their voices, now we wonder how many are reading a script from a sponsor.
Given this, it’s no surprise that trust in influencers is plummeting in Latin America. In 2022, 58% of Latin American consumers said they trusted publications by content creators, but in 2024, that figure fell by 20 percentage points (38%).4
This trend, already dubbed “disinfluence”, reflects a change in the behavior of the regional Internet user. Nearly 80% of respondents say they prefer an honest review of a product from an ordinary user over the recommendation of a famous influencer (which convinces only 7.6%). It’s a remarkable turnaround: users are looking to go back to the voice of the average Joe rather than the Instagram guru. Authenticity, that intangible quality, has become the most sought-after value amidst the online noise.
What’s most interesting is that despite the hard evidence that LatAm Internet users mistrust influencers, influencer marketing in the region is still on the rise. The market is expected to grow by 9.54% between 2025 and 2029.5 After all, it seems to work, so why not? But at what cost? Ironically, a 2024 survey revealed that 72% of marketers are concerned about fraud by content creators.6
What about news consumption?
Although digital fatigue has become evident, access to news is one of the most demanded assets on the Internet today, and even more so with the decline of traditional media (except for TV). In Latin America, social networks and digital platforms are the gateway to daily information for a large part of the population.
The problem is that, as these platforms consolidate as information channels, suspicion about what is consumed there is also growing. According to a Reuters analysis, 64% of people in Latin America say they are concerned about their ability to distinguish between real and fake news.7
It is not an unfounded fear: users themselves perceive content creators and politicians as two of the main sources of disinformation on the Internet, according to the same report, and according to what we recently mentioned.
Therefore, although the networks remain the main way to find out what is going on, a more defensive and skeptical attitude is also growing. Many users say that before believing a piece of news, they check it in several media, and prefer to rely on official channels or trusted journalists, although these have less and less visibility within the digital ecosystem.
The conclusion is simple: in a world of infinite feeds, perhaps the best marketing strategy is sometimes knowing how to shut up in time.
report
Mapping Online Media Consumption for Latin America in 2025
Next Steps
For marketers, all of the above poses enormous challenges. How to reach a saturated and skeptical consumer, who skips ads, distrusts content creators and shuns empty content?
A well-crafted market study can be a solution. The market studies we conduct at Americas Market Intelligence on the Latin American consumer can serve to put the pieces of the puzzle together.
These studies can change depending on your industry and the nature of your services. We combine market intelligence, competitive analysis and customized consumer behavior studies that help answer strategic questions for your business. Among other things, clearly understand what the user really expects and what you can offer them as a brand: platforms of preference, how they perceive advertising, what they trust and what messages they reject out of hand.
Sources:
- GSMA. (2025). La economía móvil en América Latina 2025. ↩︎
- Comscore. (2025). Tendencias digitales, definiendo el rumbo del 2025. ↩︎
- Rodríguez, M., Perez de Rosso, A. (2025). ¿Cómo están pensando, sintiendo y actuando los consumidores latinoamericanos? Bain & Company ↩︎
- LatAm Intersect PR (Diciembre, 2024). 2025: El Futuro del Consumo de Redes Sociales en América Latina ↩︎
- Wambugu, J. (May 30, 2025). Influencer Marketing in South America – Statistics & Forecast (2025). AWISEE ↩︎
- LatAm Intersect PR (Diciembre, 2024). 2025: El Futuro del Consumo de Redes Sociales en América Latina ↩︎
- Reuters Institute. (2025). Digital News Report 2025 ↩︎
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