Mobile Internet in Mexico

Since I'm now in Mexico City for the next couple of months I thought it would be interesting to look at how people use their mobiles and access the internet with them.

Quick facts:



Mobile internet usage:

16% of mobile users in Mexico have accessed the internet with their mobile. This compares to an overall (worldwide) figure of 28% ('06) up from 25% in late 2004 and interestingly the access in Germany or France is not much higher at 18%. Main growth came from the sector of 35-54 year old males. Only 10% accessed the mobile web for information services, the rest splits up between music, adult, pictures and games.


The percentage of internet users who possess a mobile is at 96%. Nokia, Sony Ericcson and Motorola are the most commonly used handsets, covering 70% of all handsets.

Sources:

Ipsos
Mobile Herald
Internet World Stats
Asociación Mexicana de Internet
Research and Markets
Intl. Telecommunications Union

Picture by stevec.

Business Idea: SMS Taxi Mexico

Picture by bdebaca, amendments by me.

Having lived in London, UK for a year in 2005 I came to enjoy a great cab (taxi) service. Calling up a number you are asked for the addresses (your current location and where you are travelling to), how many passengers are travelling and (in case your number is hidden or you're calling from a landline) for a mobile number.

A minute later you get all the details for the journey: number plate of your cab, driver's name, when the cab will arrive and how much it is approximately going to cost (the prediction was always right at +/- 1GBP ).

Here in México, you can call a cab as well but you don't get any of these extra services (that would supposedly cost the company around 0,05 USD for the SMS) although here it would add even more value than in (relatively) safe London. Speaking to people here you could tell that especially girls don't feel comfortable at all taking a taxi on their own because of legitimate apprehension of abductions.

This is the service I imagine and for which people would be definitely willing to pay a premium:

When calling a cab, offer to send all the information described above (maybe not the price, as this involves a more sophisticated GPS enabled tracking system) and additionally the option to have the info send to two mobile numbers (yours and of a confidant) or an e-mail address. This way all the information is logged.

When the taxi arrives, the driver greets you, shows you his ID (and you check the number plate) and if everything's alright, you get in and have a safe trip.

Links:

Wirelessdevnet
Cranedragon
Texxi
Greencarcongress

My mobile Blogroll / RSS Subscriptions

Here's a list of interesting blogs and organisations writing on all things related to technologies and services on the mobile web:

• Android Developers Blog (news from the team at Google)
• Carnival of the mobilists (weekly collection of the Web's best blogging on mobile and wireless)
• Ed Parsons (Geospatial Technologist of Google, evangelising Earth, Maps and Maps for Mobile products)
• LBS Zone (on location based services and technologies. "It's cool to know where you've been")
• MobHappy (collaborative blog of a mobile marketing specialist and telecoms industry analyst)
• MoCoNews (covering the business of mobile content)
• mTrends (mobile media lifestyle)
• Nokia Beta Labs
  
• Google Mobile Blog (news and views)
• Open Gardens (wireless mobility, innovation, digital convergence, mobile web 2.0)
• OpenGeoData (open maps, geo data, open streetmaps)
• EveryBlock Blog (company, helping to find local info and public news)
• Mobile Weblog (convergence of gadgets, trends, communities and mobile services)
• W3C Mobile Web Best Practices Blog (making mobile web access as easy as on a desktop)