World markets: how to succeed in India and Brazil

We continue our review of growing mobile markets with tremendous opportunities for publishers and advertisers. Next in line is India and Brazil. Both countries are characterized by a combination of constantly improving infrastructure, cheap tariffs and the very rapid spread of smartphones among the population, as well as the success of local companies with a good market sense.

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In numbers

India

There are now over 1 billion mobile users in India. At the end of 2016, about 200 million of them are users with smartphones (more only in China), and this, in fact, is just the beginning.

Tablet PCs (mobile devices with a screen with a diagonal of 5 to 7 inches) occupy 61% of the market, much more than in the US. And although the most popular category of devices is clear, there are at least a dozen manufacturers on the market, including the leader, Samsung (with a 40% share), as well as lesser-known brands like Redmi and Micromax.
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Mobile traffic prices are high, but an increasing number of smartphones and expanding coverage in rural areas lead to lower prices (by about 50% over the past year) - and this is a key factor for increasing the number of users and developing e-commerce (see below).

The personal use of mobile devices in India peaks at 9 o'clock in the evening. Indians are not very active in the morning. Mobile users in India care about their privacy, and, today, they do not often use mobile payments (approximately 360 million dollars in 2016, only a small fraction of the 27 billion dollars of mobile payments in the US alone), but in the coming months and years this figure will grow rapidly with the spread of smartphones among the population, the decline in prices for the mobile Internet and the spread of demonetization effects.

Brazil

The past few years, the Brazilian economy has been in a state of recession, but now there are signs that the situation will change. In fact, it has already been predicted that the recession is over and in 2017 the Brazilian economy will grow again.
Brazilian passion for mobile technology can be one of the reasons for this growth. About 64 million of 208 million mobile users own smartphones , more than a third of all users in Latin America. As in India, this figure is growing - by 2018, smartphone penetration is expected to reach 48% , 10 points higher than in 2015. This is great news for the trade and mobile advertising market, since Brazilians are truly insatiable consumers of digital content.

Brazil is already the largest retail market in Latin America, despite the economic downturn. Electronic commerce in Brazil is already in the first place among the countries of Latin America and its volumes will continue to grow by about 12.5% ​​per year . One of the important reasons for this growth is the high penetration of credit cards (50%) and alternative payment methods offered by local companies, including Boleto Bancario , a government-supported electronic payment system, through which about a quarter of digital payments in the country pass.

Brazilians are far more relaxed about advertising than Indians, and advertisers spend 50% of the advertising budgets of all of Latin America in Brazil alone - and the forecast for 2019 is $ 5.8 billion . In addition, in Brazil, the highest percentage of full viewing video ads in the world.

Application Trends

India

Application usage in India is growing almost four times faster than worldwide (India = 43% a year from a year; the whole world = 11%). This creates an explosive demand for bandwidth and availability of mobile Internet. In the meantime, the infrastructure cannot meet the needs of the market, Indian consumers use Softonic's UC Browser , a very small application that can filter more than 80% of traffic and reduce communication costs.

Android dominates India (97% as of the second quarter of 2016), several app stores are available here, including Amazon and Opera, as well as local stores like GetJar , the largest of the open app stores in the world. UC Browser is by far the leader among browsers in India, being the 6th most popular application in India's Top 10 apps , in order: WhatsApp, YouTube, Google, Gmail, SHAREit, UC, Google Maps, MX Player, Facebook and Facebook Messenger. Interestingly, India is the only country in the top of which there are two video applications at once (YouTube and MX Player): for publishers and advertisers, this is an obvious hint at the effectiveness and potential of video advertising in this huge and growing market.

In 2016, the category “Music, Multimedia and Entertainment” boasted the largest increase in use volumes (188%), the second place was the category “Business and Finance” (176%), and the third place was “Utilities and Productivity” (99%). Another feature of the Indian market is the popularity of health and fitness applications (a growth of 27%), which Indian consumers like very much, along with wearable devices for tracking health and achieving fitness goals.

Brazil

Brazil has a very social culture and this is reflected in the ranking - in the first places are Top 10 social apps and instant messengers (YouTube, WhatsApp, Google, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Chrome, Google Maps, Hangouts, Gmail chat, Google+).

In fact, 92% of Internet users in Brazil , both mobile and in general, use social networks. Brazilians are 10% of all social traffic in the world . This socialization creates a huge amount of traffic: as many as 34% of application sessions throughout Latin America come from Brazil, much more than from any other country, including Mexico. Confidentiality is often not important; advertising that adapts to the tone of social discourse usually succeeds.

As in India, Android dominates with about 90% of the market (here, of course, the fact that the iPhone in Brazil is more expensive than anywhere else helps). In addition to Google Play, popular options for searching and downloading apps, ringtones, and other content are local Aptoide , Mobile9 and Mobogenie markets. Mobile Internet requirements are not a problem in Brazil, where everything is much better than in India. Approximately 20% of smartphone users have constant access to 4G networks , and WiFi (the Brazilians' favorite way to connect to the network) is available everywhere.

Active players in these markets

India

A 66% forecast for smartphone penetration in 2018 - a huge jump of 40 points from 2015 - shows that India’s mobile market is extremely active. In telecommunications, Jio is the lead innovator, while Vodafone and Airtel have begun the process of consolidating the market through a series of takeovers and mergers.

If you look at public processes, it is worth noting that the government has invested $ 3 billion in the creation of a national optical network of the National Fiber Optic Network , as well as plans to organize free WiFi access to more than 1,000 remote villages. These and other bold initiatives by Indian entrepreneurs, of course, only accelerate the distribution of applications.
Lookup , a startup from Bangalore, which, using chat, connects customers to stores nearby, one of the potential market leaders. Having received seed investments from sources such as Vinod Khosla and Biz Stone from Twitter, the company was quickly bought by NowFloats .

Brazil

The Brazilian mobile market is full of local applications. It is necessary to leave the top ten, named above, and you will immediately meet very strong and popular Brazilian local products, such as Palco - a music streaming service . This is the sixth social feeling of Brazilians and is the reason why local products are so popular with them. Another reason for the success of local companies is their understanding of how the Brazilian economy works.

Despite the fact that most of the 208 million Brazilian citizens live in cities, as many as 40% of Brazilians are not part of the traditional banking system . But as you remember, smartphones are very widespread (and continue to spread) in Brazil. Therefore, financial technology, especially mobile financial technology, is a very hot industry. Brands and application publishers go to any lengths to create a reliable and affordable financial application that would lure Brazilian consumers and meet their unique needs.

Nubank may become a leading candidate, having already received more than 234 million dollars for four rounds of investments and from the sale of shares. This mobile credit card business is just the tip of the iceberg of hundreds of other participants in the Brazilian financial technology boom .

Forecasts

By 2020, there will be more than 2.5 billion smartphone users in growing markets, and the demand for mobile Internet will increase almost 10 times.

While demonetization and evolving infrastructure are key reasons for the growth of India as a global market, the future of this market is determined by changes in user behavior, such as the distribution of content in social media and the rapid growth of online sales and mobile payments. There is an obvious link between the spread of smartphones and economic well-being, and the fastest growing mobile market is doomed to set new records in mobile commerce.

In Brazil, where by 2019 almost 80 million people will have smartphones ( half of them with access to 4G ), growth will not even be entertainment and commerce, but useful and practical applications. Brazilians, who are very social in their nature, quickly accept and distribute new technologies (including mobile financial technologies), and chatbots, embedded in instant messaging applications that are incredibly popular throughout the country, will become commonplace in the lives of Brazilian consumers.

The fate of these unique, diverse and exciting markets will ultimately be determined by the very individual consumers with a smartphone or tablet phone in their hands - they determine the direction and trajectory of growth of these markets.


About the translator

The article is translated in Alconost.

Alconost is engaged in the localization of applications, games and websites in 68 languages. Language translators, linguistic testing, cloud platform with API, continuous localization, 24/7 project managers, any formats of string resources, translation of technical texts .

We also make advertising and training videos - for websites selling, image, advertising, training, teasers, expliners, trailers for Google Play and the App Store.

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