Mobile devices are clearly a key component of social media. So, to understand the trend and opportunity it pays to look at what mobile and network vendors are thinking. According to a recent study, Cisco believes that mobile video will grow at a CAGR of 150% between 2008 and 2013 outpacing overall mobile traffic (131% CAGR in the same period). Leading the way in growth, Latin America.
Findings from the Cisco VNI Mobile Forecast:
- Global mobile traffic will exceed two exabytes per month by 2013.
- Global mobile data traffic reached one exabyte per month in half the time that fixed data traffic did.
- Nearly 64 percent of the world’s mobile traffic will be video by 2013.
- Mobile video will grow at a CAGR of 150 percent between 2008 and 2013.
- Mobile broadband handsets with higher than 3G speeds and laptop air or data cards will constitute more than 80 percent of global mobile traffic by 2013.
- Latin America will have the strongest mobile growth at 166 percent CAGR, followed by the Asia-Pacific region at 146 percent.
- Asia-Pacific will account for one-third of all mobile data traffic by 2013.
*An exabyte is equal to: 1 billion gigabytes; 1,000 petabytes; 250 million DVDs
While the smallest market except for Central/Eastern Europe, it shows the impact video will have as Latin America develops further. If you consider how mobile video has been an indicator of social media adoption, this is important.
Another player poised in this market is Microsoft. In a recently announced partnership with Telefónica, Microsoft will offer its Windows Live Services expanding its reach across 12 countries further penetrating Argentina and Chili. Through a partnership with Vivo, Microsoft already has reach within Brazil.
Lastly, Opera released its mobile report in August highlighting Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela as the large consumers of mobile web usage.
Select highlights for Latin America:
- Brazil leads the way in mobile Web usage in Latin America, followed closely by Mexico, Venezuela and Argentina.
- Orkut, metroFLOG and hi5 are the most prevalent social-networking sites in Latin America, although Facebook is the fourth-most-popular site in Venezuela.
- Local domains are few and far between in the top 10. Brazil leads all Latin American countries with two, while most have one or no local domains in the top 10.
Opera also shows a significant rise in social network participation.
So how big is this? Consider that an ITU census of mobile lines in Latin America is 388 million.
This looks like a perfect storm and opportunity for marketers looking to reach customers in Latin America. Similar to other emerging markets, mobile devices may be the key to connect.
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Filed under: marketing technology, networking, social media , cisco, latam, Latin America, Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, mobile media, mobile usage, mobile video, Mobile Web, opera, social media, Social network, Social network service, social web, Telefónica
Here’s an interesting quote on social media:
“Learn from it, have fun with it, leverage it, don’t overrate it, fail at it, definitely ignore it at times (don’t be so social that you become anti-social), and remember – regardless of whether you have 800 ideas, 800 clients, 800 followers, 800 blog entries or 800 customer support numbers – everyone is involved, but if everyone’s an expert, no one is.”
http://bit.ly/mindblasting
Do you think that social media is hyped for Latin America? Or, are you less enamored by social media as a disruptive technology?
[...] Looking at my long tail search and traffic trends I’ve found the aspect of timing to be key. My blogs on metrics spike at times when people are planning or at quarterly transitions. When iPhone begins leaking information on upcoming products or features, the couple of posts on my obsession with my iPhone go up. I also find that posts that aren’t big on particular days, seem to be consistently pulling in traffic and I’m thinking this also has to do with the readiness of readers to address the blog topic, like mobile opportunity in Latin America. [...]