Are Latinos mobileaholics?
May 29, 2006 – 11:42 pmLatinos love mobile phones more than Americans and most Europeans (except Italy), that’s a fact. The following are some reasons why:
- Affordable: Almost all Latin-Americans can afford a mobile phone with SMS, games, and at least monophonic ringtones. In fact, low income users make up one of the largest segments of mobile users, as many have no home phone.
- Brand in hand: The mobile phone is an extremely portable gadget, and you can always have it with you. If you are bored you pass the time with it, if you need a calculator, it is
right there, if you need to call friends, partners or clients, it is right there.
- Status symbol: Latinos are a collectivist culture, and we are always looking for acceptance. That’s because we need to show how successful we are. Mobile phones became the best symbol for that, because we always carry them with us. We cannot show off our car when we are in a meeting (unless, for example, we meet with a client in our garage, something that I don’t recommend at all), but we can show everybody our new Motorola with a camera, mp3s, and, if possible, with a cool new look.
Now it should seem easy to understand why Latinos change their mobile phones two or three times more often than Americans, even when Americans receive comparatively higher wages.
Mobile phones in Latin America are great gadgets with just one big issue. People cannot actually use them for making calls. It probably sounds funny, but it’s true. Mobile call services in Latin America are so expensive (taking into account the level of salaries), that more than 70% of mobile phone users have a restricted service. This means that they pay for fixed amount of money and receive that amount in calls. They can only talk for that amount of money unless they charge more credit. If you are talking with a big client and your credit ends, the call ends and your client will probably receive a message saying, “The person with whom you are talking have no more credit” (could you imagine this situation? Well, it’s something completely normal).
What I’ve mentioned above could be the reason for the awesome success of SMS in Latin America. In Argentina alone almost 70 million SMS are sent every day (it is important to note that the total population of the country is 38 million), and 25 million SMS are sent daily in Venezuela. People of all ages use SMS on a daily basis, even those who’ve never even tried using a computer.
Can you imagine a market like this covered with Mobile Marketing? I can…but this topic deserves its own post.
Juan Manuel Damia
