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. 
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. 
More news from the Latin American market:
- TIM is planning to invest R$1.5 billion (U.S.$660 million) to deploy its LTE services between this year and 2015.
- Chile is continuing to debate a potential DTT law (digital terrestrial television). The draft of the legislation is expected to be finished in two weeks. If enacted, the new law is expected to open the DTT market in Chile to foreign investors.
- CNT will deploy Ecuador’s first 4G LTE, covering the cities of Guayaquil, Cuenca, Machala and Loja as well as most of the major cities in Ecuador’s Pacific coast and southern regions. Alcatel-Lucent is the provider.
- Brazilian carrier Oi is planning to launch commercial 4G services in the city of São Paulo “in the coming weeks,” the company president Zeinal Bava said at a conference in Rio de Janeiro.
- Argentina’s government is planning to strengthen regulations for mobile operators. The Communications Secretary (Secom) is preparing new rules to update the current regulations which date from 1997.
- TIM invested R$50 million (U.S.$22 million) to implement Oracle’s CRM Siebel as part of a new phase in the company’s plan to improve its customer relationship systems.
- PromonLogicalis Latin America has launched operations in Mexico. The move aims at continuing regional expansion and integration of the company.
- There are 25 commercial LTE networks in 12 countries in the Latin America region, and growth is ramping up as more networks become live, said Erasmo Rojas, 4G Americas’ director of Latin America and the Caribbean.
- The Brazilian industry professional group, Teleco, announced the leading telecom groups in Brazil by a variety of indicators in the second quarter of 2013.
- M2M is already a U.S.$10 billion sector with SMEs and emerging markets presenting major growth opportunities, according to Analysys Mason. Operators in emerging markets are expected to become more willing to sell M2M solutions in the future.
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