Tiago Bianchi
Research expert covering internet & gaming in Latin America and Spain
Messaging apps in Latin America - statistics & facts
Messaging apps have become ubiquitous in Latin America and the Caribbean’s social media landscape and communications. With engaged audiences and a high social media penetration rate, these services found fertile ground in the region to overhaul themselves from simple peer-to-peer connection tools to channels for sales and services, community engagement, institutional information, and, in some cases, even turning into matters of political issue.
News and politics aside, the power of instant communication is very well employed by Latin Americans for business. With an already established reach, Meta’s platforms became the tools of choice for ordering products and services, offering the necessary features for trading and selling not only via messaging apps but also through Facebook and Instagram, as seen in Mexico and Brazil.
Meanwhile, the penetration of Meta’s Facebook Messenger and the amplification of business functionalities through Facebook Marketplace and Instagram Shopping Bag have consolidated the corporation’s e-commerce territory in Latin America.
But despite a first blast, Telegram’s rise has slowed down across the Americas, while Signal’s downloads never repeated its spike from 2021. Other networks like Discord managed to find their audiences and enjoy relative success across Latin America, while Microsoft Teams and Zoom expanded as work and education-focused solutions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The massive audiences of Brazil and Mexico also led both countries to the first rows of the WhatsApp Business expansion, both of which generate the most revenue for the app worldwide. Additionally, after Brazil’s Central Bank recently approved WhatsApp to process payments from debit, credit, and pre-paid cards via the platform, possibilities of online payments in the country and making business via messaging apps are now multiplied for the region’s largest e-commerce market.
Why are messaging apps so popular in Latin America?
The recent developments in mobile connectivity have been helping Latin America’s even most remote and disadvantaged communities to access the web, thus making the penetration of social networks boom throughout the region. Despite having to overcome structural difficulties in the burgeoning territory, messengers found their spot in the hearts and smartphones of Latin Americans: reaching almost all demographic groups, chat apps became not only a tool for direct communication but opened a whole new avenue of doing business and sharing information.How do Latin Americans use messaging apps?
Keeping in touch with each other is the most frequent reason to use social media for most Latin Americans, a fact that is reflected in the success of messengers in the region. The ease of access and sharing media also turned messaging apps into powerful tools for news consumption, which also dragged apps like WhatsApp and Telegram to the center of political discussion in Brazil during the country’s last federal election.News and politics aside, the power of instant communication is very well employed by Latin Americans for business. With an already established reach, Meta’s platforms became the tools of choice for ordering products and services, offering the necessary features for trading and selling not only via messaging apps but also through Facebook and Instagram, as seen in Mexico and Brazil.
Meta’s monopoly
If there is one platform that perfectly answered Latin Americans’ needs, it is WhatsApp: free and accessible for almost every mobile device, it is the most used and frequently favorite platform, being the absolute leader in almost every messaging and social media segment across the region. Its popularity in Brazil is so big that the app is installed on virtually every smartphone, while the country is frequently used as a test field for the platform’s innovation releases like WhatsApp Pay, for example.Meanwhile, the penetration of Meta’s Facebook Messenger and the amplification of business functionalities through Facebook Marketplace and Instagram Shopping Bag have consolidated the corporation’s e-commerce territory in Latin America.
What about other messengers?
After releasing a controversial mandatory privacy policy update at the beginning of 2021, users worldwide started searching for alternative messaging solutions to WhatsApp. The same was also true in Latin America, where users discovered the likes of Telegram and Signal, enjoying its group and channel functionalities, with supposedly more dynamic and secure information sharing.But despite a first blast, Telegram’s rise has slowed down across the Americas, while Signal’s downloads never repeated its spike from 2021. Other networks like Discord managed to find their audiences and enjoy relative success across Latin America, while Microsoft Teams and Zoom expanded as work and education-focused solutions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Business talks: messaging commerce in Brazil
But no matter what, WhatsApp’s enormous reach and ability to adapt to the needs of Latin America’s audiences helped it maintain Meta’s Goliath-like stake in the region. WhatsApp’s versatility and low cost have consolidated not only as an online sales channel but a platform for technical support for products and services in Brazil, while Telegram and Facebook Messenger still tend to be used for receiving promotional offers and making purchases.The massive audiences of Brazil and Mexico also led both countries to the first rows of the WhatsApp Business expansion, both of which generate the most revenue for the app worldwide. Additionally, after Brazil’s Central Bank recently approved WhatsApp to process payments from debit, credit, and pre-paid cards via the platform, possibilities of online payments in the country and making business via messaging apps are now multiplied for the region’s largest e-commerce market.
