Brazil mobile VAS revenues up 17{e1f18614b95d3cd6e4b3128e1cd15d99b042a60a5a19c19b7a8e07e7495efa10} to BRL 10 bln in 2010

Brazil mobile operator revenues from value-added services grew by BRL 3.09 billion in the fourth quarter of 2010, reaching over BRL 10 billion for the entire year, a 16.9 percent increase and a significant slice of overall operator revenues, according to Acision. Around 89 percent of research respondents had received messages containing some sort of advertisement, of which 53 percent stated they paid close attention to these messages. The research also found that mobile operators were responsible for the majority of mobile advertising messages sent (78{e1f18614b95d3cd6e4b3128e1cd15d99b042a60a5a19c19b7a8e07e7495efa10}) followed by consumer goods companies (13{e1f18614b95d3cd6e4b3128e1cd15d99b042a60a5a19c19b7a8e07e7495efa10}). A major issue that was identified in the research was that of privacy. 79.1 percent 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. Te report also indicates that SMS remains the most widely used value added service in Brazil by volume. Around 88 percent 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. IM is growing quickly in Brazil, with 14.5 percent of users using the service frequently. Over 10.2 percent of interviewees use push e-mail daily or weekly and 16.5 percent use a web browser to access their e-mail. 32 percent of survey participants use the mobile internet. Accessing social networks on a mobile device was performed by 6.6 percent of the sample, with users accessing these networks around 16 times a month. Some 10 percent of interviewees have accessed an app store and 46 percent have downloaded more than one application during the survey period.