Using SMS growing 69% in Brazil

Although Brazilians are using more text message (SMS) - in the third quarter of last year, for example, the average sending SMS 81/mês reached, when a year earlier,that number was 48 SMS / month - the percentage of use is still well below other Latin American countries like Argentina, Chile and Venezuela.

The increase, the study evaluates Acision, is attached to the packets directed to theprepaid segment, with Tim and Hi stand out. But Vivo following the leader in revenueservice. Between July and September 2011, the telcos have grossed U.S. $ 964 million with SMS and MMS.

On Wednesday, 14/02, Acision announced the results of the 10th edition of MAVAM -Monitor Acison Mobile VAS. In the survey, sending SMS and MMS accounted for37.1% of revenue from VAS (value-added service) of the telcos in the third quarter of 2011.

But the main finding of this study is that the high cost, even with the phenomenon of the telecom package - which greatly reduced price - even away from the subscribersand opens market opportunities. The low rate of cell renewal is also a barrier as 52% have smartphones.

To reinforce the need for a change in the basis, in times of mobile Internet, useinstant messaging on your phone - MSN, Twitter, and others - is still far to 54% of respondents in the study of MAVAM. This is because the majority has no enabled phone to access the Internet. Subscribers also noted the slow connection as a factorfor non-use of applications - 20%.


The survey, however, notes that among those who have resources to have a smartphone, the use of instant messaging influence the consumption of value added services. In this market, the use of instant messaging has risen to 44% of respondents, reaching up to 56%. Facebook is the most used application - 29%.Twitter appears in second position with 20%.For telcos, notes Vancrei Oliveira, vice president of Acision to Latin America, the large base of terminals has not enabled new applications favors the higher consumption of SMS. "No wonder the telcos are, yes, making packages and thinking of new services to attract the user," says the executive.But there are points to be worked, including the interconnection costs, estimated at $ 0.05, high enough to increase the transmission of messages between carriers.Today, most telcos prefer to stimulate consumption in its own network.The use of e-mail was confirmed by 36% of respondents, representing an increase of 38% over the second quarter of 2011, and most importantly, the study notes, such subscribers confirmed that they use the application by sending and receiving messages daily .And to further boost the use of SMS, the customization is emerging as a great opportunity for new business by offering on-demand services, such as the possibility of creating lists of contacts, message storage in the cloud, return receipt requested and reminders.Also according to the MAVAM, the mobile phone service in Brazil, including the sale of appliances, turnover of U.S. $ 21.332 billion in the third quarter of 2011, an increase of 11% over the same period in 2010. Net sales of value-added services (VAS) totaled R $ 2.6 billion, representing an increase of 36% in the period.VAS revenue accounted for 19.8% of sales' service in Brazil. In turn, the survey shows that mobile broadband has generated sales of $ 1.4 billion, an increase of 64% in the period. The MAVAM heard in 1493 subscribers in all regions of Brazil, in December last year.