The apps market encompasses all applications from where we can see recommendations to start downloading Android tools and games. They are used to filter the wide variety of utilities offered by Android.

In recent years, their use has increased vertiginously in Latin American countries. In fact, the mobile phone industry represents between 4% and 5% of the region’s economy, while in developed countries such as the United States, it constitutes only 2% of the economy.

Consequently, there was a significant growth in downloads and use of applications in Latin America, according to figures managed by Business Insider. After Sub-Saharan Africa, this side of the world ranks second in terms of rapid growth in the number of mobile phone subscribers.

There are 415 million mobile users, a fairly high number taking into account that in the region there are 640 million inhabitants. Of the total users, approximately 200 million use smartphones.

According to experts, it is estimated that by 2020, 63% of Latinos will have access to mobile internet. These amounts arouse the interest of large global mobile device providers and technology companies in the region.

Mexico and Brazil: the big two of mobile telephony in Latin America

Mexico and Brazil are positioned in the third and fifth places respectively, with the majority of subscribers of the social network Facebook worldwide. These two countries have the largest economy in Latin America; between them, they concentrate 55% of mobile application consumers in the entire region.

Of this percentage, 34% of mobile applications correspond to Brazil. The next country that amounts to 8% with respect to the use of applications is Argentina, followed by Colombia with 6% and Chile with 4%.

In the Dominican Republic and Bolivia, the use of mobile applications is growing at 116% and 155%, respectively. In general, the immense mobile growth in Latin America presents a great opportunity for companies that are targeting the mobile market.

Latin America: a growing region in mobile applications

Latin Americans are important consumers of mobile phones, which they use to connect to the web at high-speed. These users have vertiginously downloaded worldwide applications such as Uber and Facebook, adapting to this technology quickly.

As mentioned earlier, Mexico and Brazil constitute the markets with the highest number of users. But, until now, technology companies have not fully consolidated in the region.

Although there is a great boom and expansion of the apps market throughout this region, there is still much to do to cover the entire possible market. The main limitation facing this sector is that a good part does not use credit cards. Because of this, the world’s largest application providers have failed to monetize these services as in countries such as the United States.

One of Business Insider’s suggestions is that providers must link with mobile service providers to append app subscriptions to monthly billing. This allows users to pay in cash.

Similarly, mobile banking is struggling to position itself in the unbanked Latin market. Startups like Nubank, Clip, and Latin Fintech are moving forward every day. However, attempts to establish mobile money have been a failure. In 2016, a total of 15 million people registered as a new user on different mobile money websites, of which less than half logged in every three months.

Though, many mobile money platforms were created for feature phones, under the idea that unbanked populations did not have enough purchasing power to purchase smartphones. These assumptions are currently relegated and do not apply to Latin America. The introduction of smartphones has increased by 12% annually.

Today, there is a growing population of unbanked millennials with extensive knowledge in technology that have the best smartphones on the market.

This part of the globe has adapted highly recognized mobile applications worldwide, thanks to the fact that in its territories a large population is armed with smartphones. Applications like Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Snapchat, popular in the United States, have also been included in the list of preferences of Latinos.

There are even companies responsible for creating exclusive applications for smartphone users: Rappi, Cornershop, Etermax, Movile.

It is indisputable that the Latin American mobile application market is growing exponentially, and many advances are expected in the coming decades. Brazil and Mexico are at the forefront of this growth, but Argentina and Colombia follow its steps.

With an increasingly evident increase in access to the internet through smartphones, Latin America has turned the gaze of many world-renowned mobile companies. Let’s wait and see what happens!

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