Social networking is a top online destination category for Internet users in Brazil, with 85 percent of the country's online population age 15 and up visiting a social networking site in September, up from 76 percent last year, the latest comScore study on the state of the Internet in Brazil indicates.

Compared to other countries with more than 10 million monthly unique Internet visitors, Brazil ranked in the second spot in terms of percentage of reach in the social networking category, with 85 percent, only slightly behind Canada with 87 percent, according to the comScore press release posted on Biz Yahoo!.

"For Internet users in Brazil, social networking continues to flourish as a hugely popular activity. One likely reason for social networking's success in Brazil is that its concept of online community closely aligns with the culture in Brazil, which is also centred on a strong sense of community and social activity," Alex Banks, managing director of Latin America for comScore, said at the webinar.

Social networking has become a popular trend across Latin America. During September 2008, nearly nine out of 10 in the region visited a social networking site, up nine percent compare to the same period in 2007. Brazil topped with the highest reach, while Chile and Colombia followed not far behind with more than 80 percent reach, according to comScore. Even though Puerto Rico had the lowest penetration (71 percent), it still saw the largest gain (10 percent) year-over-year.

In September 2008, Google-owned Orkut was the most popular social network site in Brazil, with 21 million unique visitors. They spent 496 minutes on average during the month, and visited the site for an average of 28 times per person, which made Orkut as the social networking site with the highest engagement as well, according to the article posted on Biz Yahoo!.

"With more than five times the number of unique visitors as any other social networking site in Brazil, Orkut has a commanding position in the marketplace," Banks added. "The site is a particularly attractive venue for advertisers because it is able to deliver both a large and highly engaged audience."

comScore will hold another Portuguese-language webinar and present a strategic view of global Internet trends and specific insights into Internet usage in Brazil, on Wednesday, November 26 at 3 p.m. São Paulo time. Details can be found on comScore Web site.