South America

BRAZIL : SP
Mobility in Brazil

TLIGHT

The Brazilian mobile device market is booming. Mobile phone penetration levels are reported to be well over 100% [Source: Wireless Intelligence]. However, a 2011 Nielsen report into global youth mobile ownership shows the country has a high level of multiple subscriptions among the younger generation, which have skewed the true figures. Despite the size of this market, mobility in the workplace has yet to be investigated. To rectify this, in June we interviewed a select group of 33 IT and business professionals to gain an insight into Brazilian mobility within the office. The results, though small, help provide a greater understanding of business mobile use in Brazil.

88% 14%

Business & IT professionals [work and/or personal] National average

% of Brazilians who own a smartphone, [source: IDG Connect & US Media Consulting]

Findings: A Picture of Smartphones

Nationally smartphone adoption is low, around the 15% mark [Source: US Media Consulting], yet within our select study, the figure rose to almost 90%. This sample though relatively small, helps paint a picture of the business environment within Brazil, and should pave the way for future research in this area. Just under half of participants only owned a personal phone, while 40% had both. A surprisingly high number (15%) only owned a work phone, and that only one participant did not have any sort of mobile device is indicative of Brazils wholesome adoption of mobile phones in general. Android proved the most popular choice across the survey, but as a business choice the split was far more evenly divided. Of those that had both a work and personal phone, half owned the same type of device for both.

18% 2010 % of business and IT professionals dont own a personal phone, [source: IDG Connect]

125% 2011

145% 2012

Brazils mobile subcription rate - end 2011: 125%, Predicted - end 2012: 145%, [source: Wireless Intelligence & Budde]

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Work phone ownership:

Personal phone ownership:

100 80 60 40 20 0

52%
of which

82%
of which

54%

Work phone Personal phone

25% 13%
ne

4% 40%
dr oi d

17% 20%
Ot h er

93%

91%

27%

% that own smartphones [source: IDG Connect]

Work/personal phone breakdown [source: IDG Connect]

Findings: A Picture of Tablets

We found that tablet ownership overall was surprisingly high; the national ownership rate lies around the 12% mark according to UM, but our research shows around half of business professionals owned such a device. However, the vast majority are for personal use, not work. We found that none of the participants only owned a work tablet, and very few own both. There was very little difference between brand choices, with a very slight preference for Apple.

While national smartphone adoption is around 15%, within our study this figure rose to almost 100%. For tablets the figure rose from 12% to 50%.

Overall there was a varied spread of IT stack combination, but personal devices were far more common than work devices, and tablets are yet to make their way into the workplace in a meaningful way. However, this research does suggest a growing adoption of these devices among the business community and mirrors the trend in the wider public, just at a much faster rate.
60 50

53% 41%

6% Yes

40 30

94% No

48% No

52% Yes

20 10 0

Bl ac kB er ry

ho iP

An

6%
ro id An d ad iP Ki nd le

Do you own a work tablet? [source: IDG Connect]

Do you own a personal tablet? [source: IDG Connect]

Personal tablet ownership [source: IDG Connect]

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Background
In March Forbes called e-commerce Brazils most promising sector. And its not hard to see why. According to Nielsen, internet users reached 80 million by the end of last year, the fifth highest in the world and achieving a 42% penetration. Though this is a good base, current broadband connection is very low and many areas, especially rural ones, are lacking proper coverage. This is an issue which the government and providers are addressing with new fibre-optics and undersea cables. Buoyed by the news that 3G subscriptions grew by 99% last year, the government recently looked ahead to 4G, raising 2.93 billion reals ($1.4 billion) in an auction of wireless airways to mobile operators. The winning bids need to have infrastructure in place by April for the host cities of next years Confederations Cup, and the end of next year for the cities involved with the 2014 World Cup. Also a good base for e-commerce is the sheer number of mobile phone owners. Penetration stands at well over 100% (around 253 million subscriptions), and looks set to reach around 145% by the end of the year. However, distribution isnt even, with people owning multiple phones a common occurrence. Just like across the world, its the young who lead ownership and use. Its not all positive though. Telecoms companies run municipal monopolies, as shown by the fact of the entire area covered by mobile internet; only 12.6% of municipalities have two or more competing market operators. Price is also an issue, Telecoms companies run municipal as currently Brazil has one of the highest phone rates in the monopolies; of the entire area world. And although they are set to fall, this wont be until 2014 or even later. These high costs are why nearly 80% of mobile covered by mobile internet, only owners opt to use a pre-paid plan. 12% of municipalities have two or Some interesting research by Opera showed 62% of the [Source: Forbes] respondents said they would be willing to spend up to R$10 on a monthly basis for mobile broadband, 55% would like to use their mobile devices for shopping. If mobile operators take this on board and dont price themselves out, the introduction of 4G could be the moment that mobile internet takes off.

more competing market operators.

Brazil
192m 80m 54.2m 27% 71%

US
Total population 300m 245m 156m 50% 61% Online population Facebook users Facebook penetration of total population Facebook penetration of online population

Sources: Socialbakers, Wikipedia, Nielsen, Internet world stats [figures as of Aug 2012]

Brazil is also massive on social media. With over 50 million Facebook users, it has the second highest number in the world after the US. A critical difference however is Brazil is only at 27% penetration, meaning theres still a huge market out there to sign up. According to Socialbakers, over seven million have joined in the last three months, an increase of 15%. Brazil also wins silver for number of Twitter subscribers, overtaking Japan at the start of the year with a massive 33.3 million accounts, though the land of the rising sun remains more active on the micro-blogging site. Brazilians are also far better at engaging with content through the likes of comments than most other countries, and are more likely to follow user-generated content.

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In countries like the UK and US, the challenge for social media is trying to monetise the huge amounts of mobile users, but in Brazil, they needn't bother. Internet access from mobiles stands at around 3%, desktops being the most popular way of accessing the internet by a country mile.

Expert Opinion
Gabriel Cogo,
Web Entrepreneur, Sales Analyst and Masters Student in Systems Administration

Conclusion
Brazil has huge numbers of mobile users, and efforts to bring the mobile internet up to the same levels are underway. Meanwhile the smartphone revolution is still on-going, but slowly business professionals are adopting devices such as Android powered phones. Our research shows that businesses currently adopting a policy of separate work phones are low in number, and while around half of professionals own a personal tablet practically none are using work tablet. The concerns associated with BYOD have been very well documented, only time will tell what impact this will have on Brazilian business over the next 12 months.

Mobility in Brazil
The popularisation of technology in Brazil has brought several changes to the way people relate to one another. iPads, iPhones, Galaxies; they are all easy to carry, easy to use and not as expensive as they once were. And it was inevitable these changes wouldnt be able to stay out of the workplace. With this proliferation of mobile devices comes a new area of study that tries to comprehend in what way these devices affect companies. Bring-Your-OwnDevice (BYOD) is coming, but who is really ready for this? In many companies, the governance policy for outside technology using corporate internet is still stuck in the past, banning everything and putting their heads in the sand. While these businesses are carrying on trying to ignore the future, many others try to benefit from this new trend. Theres the good side of all this access to people, information, and whatever else you can imagine. I use an iPad and an Android smartphone, but I still use my good old desktop while writing this piece. Many workers have acquired state of the art technology, but how many of them use at least 30% of what their devices are capable of? Another problem that many Brazilians are facing with the evolution of technology is the spread of always on culture. Not that this is a new thing at all, but is a problem that is being made worse by constant access to work. While BlackBerry is still running in the corporate area in Brazil, theres no denial that tablets and other smartphones are gaining territory. If prepared and trained for them, they can be a great upgrade for our daily tasks, and can make life much easier. But there is always the risk that they can become not an accessory but a necessity, as many other devices are in our life. The main question is going to be how many different technologies we can use at the same time. I believe Im about to reach my limit. What about you?

About IDG Connect

IDG Connect is the demand generation division of International Data Group (IDG), the worlds largest technology media company. Established in 2005, it utilises access to 35 million business decision makers details to unite technology marketers with relevant targets from any country in the world. Committed to engaging a disparate global IT audience with truly localised messaging, IDG Connect also publishes market specific thought leadership papers on behalf of its clients, and produces research for B2B marketers worldwide. For more information visit: http://www.idgconnect.com/