Mobile Landscape in Latin America

Part 2

There are a few estimates that put Latin America around 390 million mobile phones active at any given moment (this includes all different types of mobile devices). That makes Latin America one of the fastest growing continents in the mobile arena. But as you all know smart phones are the future when it comes to incremental revenue growth, engagement and measurement of new marketing initiatives. According to a Credit Suisse Report, Smartphone penetration has grown 10 times since it was first introduced in 2007 from 1% to a total of 11% overall in 2012. The study also projects that smart phone penetration will be at around 21% by the year 2015.

Last year, a study called “Our Mobile Planet” developed in partnership between Google, Mobile Marketing Association and the Interactive Advertising Bureau and implemented by Ipsos Media CT, found Argentina, Mexico and Brazil at the forefront of smartphone adoption. Other interesting stats I found were daily internet mobile usage, type of key activities performed on the smart phones and level of engagement over social media networks.

So with that in mind, we found a few highlights that are peculiar to Argentinians, Brazilians and Mexicans. These countries, according to many studies, are the top markets in Latin America so far, when trying to extend a brand’s footprint in the region.

Argentina leads the group when accessing the internet via their mobiles multiple times monthly at approximately 45%. When it comes to key activities, Mexico tends to use more applications than Argentina or Brazil. Leading the pack with 50% of smartphone users. Brazil performs more searches on their phones than Argentina and Mexico, with 57% and Argentina spends more time looking for local business information on their smart phones, with 39%. Last but not least, it seems that all three countries access social media networks on a daily basis, but Argentina seems to be leading the group with approximately 73% visiting a social media network, when compared with 71% for brazil and 70% for Mexico.