Brazil's mobile opportunity combines a massive subscriber base with
sustained growth in online ad spending, creative local talent and
experience with global brands. By 2012, eMarketer projects Brazil will
have around 44 million mobile Internet subscribers, roughly 25% of its
total mobile user base of 176 million. This will be up from 7.1 million
mobile Internet users in 2008.
Such growth in mobile Internet is expected to drive a significant
portion of Brazil's online advertising economy. While the overall size
of Brazil's online ad market—$326 million by 2011, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)—is far smaller than that of the US, Europe and parts of Asia-Pacific,
Brazil is unmatched in Latin America in terms of raw economic scale.
Brazil's total advertising market is expected to exceed $14 billion
by 2011, at which time its 195 million people will constitute the
fifth-largest population in the world.
This inherent economic scale is combined with high mobile
penetration. According to telecommunications regulator Agência Nacional de Telecomunicações (Anatel), Brazil surpassed 125 million mobile
access lines as of March 2008, which places the mobile penetration rate
at nearly 66%. By the end of 2008, that teledensity figure is expected
to grow to 73%. Future projections for Brazil's mobile population call
for over 180 million users by 2010, according to
IE Market Research.
Over 80% of Brazilian mobile users are prepaid. This high usage of prepaid bodes well for marketers looking to
subsidize basic and value-added services. In terms of non-voice-related
usage, a March 2008 study by Ipsos Public Affairs revealed that 51% of Brazil's mobile population
used text messaging, while 15% sent and received photos or images.
Other non-voice services such as accessing music, videos and ringtones
and accessing the Internet ranked lower, at 11% and 5%, respectively.
"Brazil has a high portion of prepaid mobile
users. This means that free-to-consumer promotions such as free airtime
or free alerts have a lot more potential than in other markets," said Federico Pisani Massamormile, CEO of Hanzo, in an interview with eMarketer.
While certain longstanding industry practices might need to change
for Brazil to reap the full benefits of its merging mobile and
marketing ecosystems, that is likely to happen quickly once mobile
plays a larger role in Brazil's interactive marketing story.
"Brazil represents a first opportunity for global brands: Either Coke (for example) will be on
the phone from the start, or another brand will displace them," said John du Pre Gauntt, senior analyst at eMarketer.