The mobile content market, distributed by mobile operators, reached around $2.4bn in Latin America in 2009 and has about 63 million users across the region, with Mexico(38%) and Brazil (31%) presenting the largest portion of mobile content users, according to a report from Frost & Sullivan.
The market analyst said that the total mobile services market in Latin America is nearing saturation in terms of number of subscribers. Mobile penetration rates were 92.2, 84.3, and 77.2% in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico, respectively. It expects the mobile content services market to grow by a double-digit rate in these countries.
According to the report, mobile penetration in Argentina, Chile, and Venezuela reached 119.2%, 103.8%, and 105.1%, respectively in 2009. Mobile content penetration among mobile users in these countries reached 14.8%, 12.1%, and 9.5%, respectively.
Frost & Sullivan said that in Latin America, 65% of the total mobile content services market revenues came from subscription services, in which users pay to receive information by message. These services include information on various topics, such as soccer, horoscopes and even economics. Total content revenues and music and games download account to 16% and 15% of revenues of mobile content services.
The market observer expects video and TV to have the highest growth in the Latin America over the next five years though they still represent very little of the revenue with content services. It expects the market for mobile content services in the region to reach about 150.4 million users by 2014.
Bruno Neto, Industry Analyst at Frost & Sullivan, said: "The high prices for data plans in Latin America, coupled with a common perception of mobile data as a high-cost service, inhibit the demand for advanced contents."
