Acision | March 30, 2011 | Press Release
Reading, United Kingdom, 03/30/2011 – Acision announced the launch of its seventh edition of MAVAM – The Acision Mobile VAS Monitor – which reveals a significant increase in Brazilian wireless operator revenues driven by messaging and other mobile data services – Acision.com
The research tool, which is part of Acision’s analysis to monitor the main usage trends for mobile value-added services in markets such as Brazil on a quarterly basis, indicates that operator revenues grew by 3.09 billion BRL in the fourth quarter of 2010, with total revenues for the year reaching over 10 billion BRL, a 16.9% increase and a significant slice of overall operator revenues.
In this edition, the Acision MAVAM research offers market analysis on mobile advertising, highlighting that 89% of research respondents had received messages containing some sort of advertisement, of which 53% stated they paid close attention to these messages. “The high numbers found in the report indicates that mobile marketing is already becoming an accepted trend in Brazil, with SMS being the most prevalent route to send advertisements to mobile users because of its ease of use and interoperability with any network and device, through application-to-person (A2P) messaging. This in itself is also driving growth in SMS,” said Rafael Steinhauser, president and head of Acision Latin America. “The most revealing verdict was that users paid attention to the messages, reinforcing the relevance of this form of media.” The research also found that mobile operators were responsible for the majority of mobile advertising messages sent (78%) followed by consumer goods companies (13%).
A major issue that was identified in the research was that of privacy. 79.1% of interviewees said that operators should obtain prior consent from users before sending mobile advertising messages. However, research participants also proved to be quite open to approaches providing them with some type of benefit, such as discounts and offers for products and services, with one example being willingness to receive advertising messages in exchange for additional voice minutes and SMS usage.
Users were also outspoken about the type of products and services they wanted to receive from advertisers, reiterating that they wanted these to be relevant to their profile and geographic location. Companies looking at investing in mobile advertising should also bear in mind that 39% of research respondents purchasing decisions could be influenced by messages received on their mobile devices, making it an extremely viable commercial model.
Acision MAVAM – Results from the 7th Edition
As highlighted above, value added services – VAS, which include services such as SMS, MMS, mobile broadband, music and entertainment, mobile banking, social networks and other messaging tools, currently represents a major portion of operator revenues, increasing ARPU at a time when basic voice service usage is dropping internationally.
• SMS remains the most widely used value added service in Brazil by volume. 88% of those interviewed said they had used the service during the research period. The survey also found that Brazilians send around 25 to 30 messages monthly. Reasons stated for not using SMS in Brazil included lack of interest as users prefer to place voice calls. The issue of price came second on the list of reasons limiting usage.
• Instant Messaging (IM) is growing quickly in Brazil. 14.5% of users use the service frequently.
• Growth in the uptake of messaging services is likely to be stimulated by the increased adoption smart and feature phones.
• 10.2% of interviewees use push email daily or weekly and 16.5% use a web browser to access their email.
• 32% of those surveyed use the mobile internet. The price factor was seen to be the biggest obstacle to further service adoption.
• Accessing social networks on a mobile device was performed by 6.6% of the sample, with users accessing these networks around 16 times a month.
• Around 10% of interviewees have accessed an app store and 46% have downloaded more than one application during the survey period.
About Convergencia Research
Since 1998, Convergencia Research (convergencia.com) is the Consulting and Market Intelligence division of Grupo Convergencia that focuses on the leading players in the Latin America market. Services include: quarterly reports on the evolution of fixed and mobile broadband in Latin America; new mobile services demand; contribution of mobile telephony to the regional economies; satellite supply and demand; cable TV markets; Triple Play and IPTV; and M2M in Latin America, among others.
Since 1995, Grupo Convergencia is the leading provider of information on the Communications industry. Of its business units, Convergencia Latina (convergencialatina.com) carries out the daily follow-up of panregional issues and Convergencia Eventos takes the lead in academic debates and business networking.
