Thursday, August 27, 2026
Add RCR Wireless as a preferred source on Google
Americas

LatAm Wrap-Up: Facebook to open office in Colombia; mobile boosts Chilean Internet

by Roberta Prescott
written by Roberta Prescott Share
LinkedinEmail

With 250 million active users in the region (about 21% of total users), Facebook is looking at Latin America as a strategic area for the company. For example, over the next year, Facebook will open its fifth office serving Latin America. Located in Colombia, the new subsidiary will focus on that country’s users. The other offices that serve the region are in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Miami.

During a press meeting in São Paulo last week, Alexandre Hohagen, Facebook’s vice-president for Latin America, told RCR Wireless News that the company decided to launch a local office in Colombia because of the country’s current growth.

In Brazil, the number of Facebook users jumped from 12 million to 76 million within three years, and now Brazil accounts for 30% of total Latin American users. Approximately, 47 million people access Facebook every day, which places Brazil second in daily use behind the U.S. “Currently, our platform is seen as a generator of sales and a business driver for our customers,” Hohagen said.

Leonardo Tristao, Facebook’s country director, said that the 2014 plan includes expanding a case study on advertising, increasing the so-called “second screen” enhancement and developing talent. “Currently, 40% of users access Facebook while watching TV, and this opens a window of possibilities to connect brands to target audiences,” Tristão said.

Chilean numbers—Chile closed the first half of 2013 with a 44% Internet penetration rate. Mobile Internet accounts for the largest share with 5,556,093 connections (a 31.6% penetration), double that of fixed Internet. The growth was boosted by smartphones, which represent about 81% of total mobile connections. chilecelulares

Chile also had 24,488,235 active mobile lines by the end of the first half, which represents a penetration of 140%. Prepaid services are still 70% of the total market. Movistar surpassed Entel as the leading carrier and as of June 2013 had a 37.34%  market share. Entel has 37.26%, followed by Claro (24.11%), Nextel (0.50%), Virgin (0.43%) and VTR (0.31%).

Mexico—The Ministry of Communications and Transport (SCT) agreed with operators that hold concessions in the 2.5 GHz band to return 130 MHz of the 190 MHz of spectrum capacity to the telecoms.  At the same time, the government also increased the amount operators will pay to manage the frequencies.

Investment in Brazil—Brazilian telecom operators invested a total of R$11.2 billion (about U.S.$5 billion) in the first half of 2013, according to SindiTeleBrasil. This is 8.7% more compared to the same period last year. The majority of investment were focused on network expansion, increasing coverage and improving quality of services. image002

More news from the Latin American market:

Be sure not to miss what’s happening in Latin America’s wireless markets. Check out RCR Wireless News wrap ups.

You Might Also Like

Editor, [email protected] Roberta Prescott is responsible for Latin America reporting news and analysis, interviewing key stakeholders. Roberta has worked as an IT and telecommunication journalist since March 2005, when she started as a reporter with InformationWeek Brasil magazine and its website IT Web. In July 2006, Prescott was promoted to be the editor-in-chief, and, beyond the magazine and website, was in charge for all ICT products, such as IT events and CIO awards. In mid-2010, she was promoted to the position of executive editor, with responsibility for all the editorial products and content of IT Mídia. Prescott has worked as a journalist since 1998 and has three journalism prizes. In 2009, she won, along with InformationWeek Brasil team, the press prize 11th Prêmio Imprensa Embratel. In 2008, she won the 7th Unisys Journalism Prize and in 2006 was the editor-in-chief when InformationWeek Brasil won the 20th media award Prêmio Veículos de Comunicação. She graduated in Journalism by the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas, has done specialization in journalism at the Universidad de Navarra (Spain, 2003) and Master in Journalism at IICS – Universidad de Navarra (Brazil, 2010) and MBA – Executive Education at the Getulio Vargas Foundation.

@2020 - All Right Reserved. Designed and Developed by PenciDesign