70% of mobile traffic in Latin America is generated by three platforms, reveals a report by the GSMA

By GSMA

This is an automated translation of the press release issued in Spanish

7 October 2024, Mexico City : In the context of the fair share debate, the GSMA today launches 'Mobile Network Usage in Latin America', the first in a series of reports to contribute to the regional discussion with data and evidence. This initial report provides a snapshot of mobile traffic in the region by 2024 by company and content type, at an aggregate level and by subregion and/or country. The most compelling conclusion of the study is that three companies - Meta, Alphabet (Google) and TikTok - generate more than 70% of mobile download traffic in Latin America. Meta accounts for almost 50%; Alphabet accounts for 14% and TikTok, 8%.

The report also examines mobile traffic by type of use, with social networks (41%), web browsing (29%) and streaming (19%) in the lead. This podium is repeated throughout the region with some variations. In Central America and Mexico, for example, the order remains the same, but social networks represent almost 60% of the total. In Argentina, Chile and Paraguay, streaming is above web browsing. In the Andean Region, streaming is the most popular type with 38% of the total.

The common denominator for all three cases is the intensive use of video, in short or long format. The data demand for this content will continue to increase with the increase in resolutions (from HD to 4K, and eventually 8K) and the expansion of live broadcast events. Audiovisual content is one of the main drivers of the sustained growth of mobile traffic, which increased 14-fold between 2016 and 2023. The annual growth in 2023 alone was greater than the total volume of traffic in the region five years earlier, in 2018. By 2030, annual traffic is expected to grow by 22 exabytes (22 billion gigabytes) compared to the previous year, almost double the annual growth recorded in 2023, which was 12 exabytes. This increase will put even more pressure on the capacity of mobile networks.

“ When you see that 70% of mobile traffic is concentrated in three companies, you might think that this is simply a reflection of user choice . But the truth is that a considerable part of this traffic is unsolicited, such as the ads we see when we open our applications, or videos in resolutions much higher than those we can see on the device,” says Lucas Gallitto, Director for Latin America, GSMA. “ Today, platforms do not pay costs for the traffic they monetize, which has a negative impact on user experience, network capacity and the environment . This is where the need for fair share arises: a market mechanism by which the major traffic generators contribute to the financing of the networks to encourage a more efficient use of this resource for everyone.”

The report 'Mobile Network Usage in Latin America' is available for download in Spanish, Portuguese and English here .