The news was revealed following an analysis of social networking carried out by ComScore, a leader in measuring the digital world.

The ComScore analysis highlighted that Argentina leads the digital world with its citizens spending an average of 9.8 hours per month on social networking sites - more than any other nation.

The country also has Latin America's highest concentration of smart phones, equating to approximately 24 per cent of all mobile devices, while five of the top 10 most highly engaged social networking markets worldwide located in Latin America with 8.1 hours per visitor per month.

In addition Latin Americans spend 56 per cent more time on these sites than the worldwide average with 5.2 hours per visitor per month.

"Over 20 per cent of Argentina's population are aged under 18 and ensuring that they're socially active, offline and online, is a major part of our vision to help the youth of the world connect with important Olympic values," said Buenos Aires 2018 bid chief executive Francisco Irrarazaval, who is also the Buenos Aires Under-Secretary of Sport.

"Fan and athlete communication will be a key feature of our plan to engage young people around the world.

"By introducing exciting new concepts and harnessing the power of social media, we can motivate more youngsters to follow Olympic ideals and take part in sporting activities on a regular basis.

"To achieve this important ambition we must communicate with young people in a language they understand."


Argentina's position as a technologically advanced country was also emphasised when the nation recently surpassed 20 million Facebook users to make it the second most active market in South America.

The figures announced by Alejandro Zuzenberg, the commercial director of Facebook in Argentina, show that nearly half of the country's population are now active on the popular global social networking site.

In a separate study by the National Institute of Statistics and Census of Argentina (INDEC), it was revealed that the percentage of Argentineans with access to the internet increased by 39 per cent in 2012 with 99 per cent of those accessing the internet using broadband technology.

According to Internet Word Stats, Argentina now has the highest internet penetration in South America, with 67 per cent of the population having online access.

Buenos Aires 2018 have promised that both 3G and new 4G networks will be available in every Games venue should the city host the event following the recent roll-out of free wi-fi around many public locations including Roca Park, a major sports zone of Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games Plan.

"Buenos Aires is a truly digital, modern city that is in a great position to empower young people and enthuse them about the Youth Olympics," said Irrarazaval.

"We can maximise the power of Argentina's growing online presence to deliver a dynamic Youth Olympic Games that will tell an engaging and inspiring story to millions of young people across the globe."

Buenos Aires are bidding against Glasgow in Scotland and Medellín in Colombia for the right to stage the 2018 Youth Olympic Games with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) due to vote on the winner this year at their Extraordinary Session in Lausanne on July 4.

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