Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)-owned WhatsApp, the Instant Messaging service and SAMSUNG ELECT LTD (F)(OTCMKTS:SSNLF) made smartphones dominate Latin American consumption patterns. As Columbia becomes a significant player in 2015 in smartphone market, positioned at number three with 16.7 million users, marketers and manufacturers are taking stock of the country statistics.
By the year 2019, the number of users in Colombia is expected to rise to 24.3 million. This roughly translates to 68.7% penetration of all mobile devices for the year, according to eMarketer studies.
Much of Colombia’s smartphone market is currently dominated by the likes of device makers from across the globe with marginal US-based manufacturers in the Colombia’s market place. Non-US smartphone makers dominate the segment as they offer phone options that are affordable, priced at $100 per device.
Other research studies in the region, by the likes of The Competitive Intelligence Unit (CIU) rate SAMSUNG ELECT LTD (F)(OTCMKTS:SSNLF) as the leader of market in 2014. The share of this phone maker is 35%, while China-based phone maker Huawei is also a significant player at 13.0%. Significantly, Apple Inc and Blackberry the US-based phone makers had 10.0% and 9.0% market share respectively in 2014.
As smartphone users on Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) owned WhatsApp set to increase significantly it is the most popular in its category. In 2015 April, the number of users of the platform had reached 800 million active users according to CEO of WhatsApp Jan Koum. CIU concludes on the basis of cross-referencing that in Columbia alone, the number of users exceeded 24.5 million users.
Columbian users appear to find Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) an easy platform to use, as another of its properties, Facebook Messenger, was found to have 7% of the respondents to CIU survey supporting it. Another service that is widely used by online community is Microsoft’s Skype, a close third at 4%.
