Tiago Bianchi
Research expert covering internet & gaming in Latin America and Spain
Social media usage in the Caribbean - Statistics & Facts
With a great variety of cultural and political landscapes, the social contrasts of the Caribbean are also reflected online. Home to nearly 30.46 million internet users, only 22.5 million of those are active on social media. The overall picture of internet access, and therefore the penetration of social platforms, is highly specific within every Caribbean country and territory and to understand how the internet and social media reach the islands, it is necessary to dive deeper into its divisions.
Despite its prominence in the region, Facebook is not exactly omnipresent in Jamaica, accounting for the relatively lower rate of 60 percent of the country’s social media site visits in 2022. Still, Meta holds the top of “the rock” island (as kindly nicknamed by its citizens) alongside Instagram, which displayed a remarkable growth until 2022 despite representing only around 16.59 percent of the country’s total social media visit share.
With a long history of foreign occupation, fully sovereign countries portray varying and specific levels of online inclusivity depending on their overall developments, while other territories may or may not reflect the opportunities for internet access of their respective homesteading countries. On a more positive note, countries like the Bahamas and Barbados have some of the best access to social platforms in the whole of Latin America and the Caribbean, while territories like Aruba or the Cayman Islands present some of the highest internet penetration rates in the subregion.
This picture is clear like water in Puerto Rico: with a variety of musical genres, ranging from salsa to reggaeton, the unincorporated United States territory is home to artists like Ozuna and Bad Bunny, owners of extremely popular YouTube channels. Not to forget, it was the self-proclaimed “island of enchantment” that presented the world with Despacito, Luis Fonsi’s and Daddy Yankee’s biggest hit and second most viewed YouTube video of all time, the most-viewed YouTube music video by a Latin artist of all time, and the first video in the history of YouTube to surpass six billion views.
Caribbean’s largest social media markets
Social media platforms find great opportunities in established markets like the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico, whereas the first represents alone 31.5 percent of all active social users in the region. Since Meta dominates the Caribbean social media market, the company’s flagship platform Facebook plays a major role in the Dominican Republic, concentrating over 88 percent of its social audience during 2022.Despite its prominence in the region, Facebook is not exactly omnipresent in Jamaica, accounting for the relatively lower rate of 60 percent of the country’s social media site visits in 2022. Still, Meta holds the top of “the rock” island (as kindly nicknamed by its citizens) alongside Instagram, which displayed a remarkable growth until 2022 despite representing only around 16.59 percent of the country’s total social media visit share.
Matters of access and history
Unfortunately, not everything is blue skies: despite ranking second and third in the number of internet users in the region, Cuba and Haiti have much more stormy social media landscapes. Cuba’s tight internet restrictions and tolerance of social media aligned with poor-quality internet connections, and Haiti’s persisting social and economic turmoil, as well as vulnerability to natural hazards, are among the main factors that restrict the potential of these countries for social networks.With a long history of foreign occupation, fully sovereign countries portray varying and specific levels of online inclusivity depending on their overall developments, while other territories may or may not reflect the opportunities for internet access of their respective homesteading countries. On a more positive note, countries like the Bahamas and Barbados have some of the best access to social platforms in the whole of Latin America and the Caribbean, while territories like Aruba or the Cayman Islands present some of the highest internet penetration rates in the subregion.
Where music (and video) set the tone
Despite being relatively smaller in geographical and audience size, the Caribbean still proves its immense social popularity with unique and vibrant cultural diversity, especially when it comes to music. Aligned with the overall advance of TikTok in Latin America, the regional increase of mobile connectivity and global video consumption turn music into of the biggest assets for social media of the region.This picture is clear like water in Puerto Rico: with a variety of musical genres, ranging from salsa to reggaeton, the unincorporated United States territory is home to artists like Ozuna and Bad Bunny, owners of extremely popular YouTube channels. Not to forget, it was the self-proclaimed “island of enchantment” that presented the world with Despacito, Luis Fonsi’s and Daddy Yankee’s biggest hit and second most viewed YouTube video of all time, the most-viewed YouTube music video by a Latin artist of all time, and the first video in the history of YouTube to surpass six billion views.
