In this week’s LATAM Roundup: Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina are in the global list of highest mobile traffic; survey shows 82% of Brazilian audience for video on demand, more than traditional TV’s audience; and it's still about TV in Brazil, Globo launches streaming platform for mobile.

LATAM leading mobile ad growth and revenue

A recent survey by Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) and Opera shows Latin America as the leading region for mobile ads market in terms of growth. Although LATAM represents only 8% of the global market, the region leads in regards to growth — putting Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina in the list of countries with the highest amount of mobile traffic.

According to the survey’s data, the region has the biggest monetisation potential, ahead of all other emerging markets. Even though in-app monetisation is lower than the global average (30% versus 55%), the revenue coming from this method is 40% higher than countries in Asia-Pacific and Africa.

82% of Brazilian audience watch video on demand

Ad investments in Brazil are still focused on TV; however, new habits and preferences of the audience are starting to arise. The increased growth of smartphone penetration in the country opened the market for video on demand, specially Netflix and YouTube.

A new study produced by comScore and IMS showed that 82% of Brazilians watch video on demand frequently. The number is greater than those who say they watch regular TV (73%).

The time spent watching VOD is also higher: 13.6 hours a week, whereas regular TV has an average of 8.1 hours a week.

Smartphones are the preferred device on which to watch videos, and the most popular types of content are TV series and movies.

In general, Latin American habits follow Brazilian ones: the average time spent with VOD in a week is 13.2 hours. The ratio of regular TV versus video on demand is also higher on the streaming side: 81% declare watching VOD and 70% said they watch regular TV. Smartphones are the preferred devices for videos too.

(IMS Video in LATAM sourced 8,000 people in Brazil, Chile, Peru, Argentina, Mexico, and Colombia for this study.)

Globo Play, a streaming platform of the biggest broadcaster in Brazil

Still on the same trend, after experimenting with video on demand on Pay TV channels, Globo launched Globo Play last Tuesday (3 November). The product is a platform in which users can watch their TV shows, as well as stored soap operas and news programs.

Users can also access any of the soap operas that the company made in the past five years. News content is available for the past six months. Live TV via streaming, though, is restricted only to people located in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and surrounding areas — the platform differentiates the users by their location.

Globo Play also implies a potential for cross-device interactions as well, given that users who want to watch live shows need to register with their address and other kinds of personal data, creating an account and encouraged to log in.

The platform is available for mobile devices and desktops and excludes movies in their content due to intellectual property restrictions.