Mobile Web Opportunities: Brazil

Continuing the analysis of mobile web penetration and outlook in different countries (click here for the report on Mexico).

Edmar, founder of Democracia 2.0 - a Brazilian portal that facilitates access to political information and helps decision-making in local elections, left a comment on Tuesday's post on ICT4D where I wrote how mobile technologies can foster social development, confirming his hopes for the impact of the mobile web in rural communities.

Today I came accross a couple of interesting statistics in an article by emarketer.com where the mobile internet opportunity in Brazil is illuminated. Let me share the insights with you:



Mobile Internet usage will grow by more than 600% in the next four years, reaching 25% of mobile subscribers in 2012. Taking into account that Brazil is ranking fifth according to population (only China, India, the US and Indonesia rank higher) and that the advertising market is going to reach US$ 14 billion by 2011, there's a huge opportunity. PwC however believes that only US 326 million are going to be spend on online ads.



The activities that mobile users perform seem in line of what we see in most countries. The mobile web is dwarfed by other activities - but not for long, I'm sure.

Location Based Applications on iPhone Review

With the iPhone2.0 just a couple of days away here's a quick overview about some location based applications. I added the direct link to the iPhone app page in brackets if there is one.


1. unlike.net (iunlike.net): location based city guide, focused on events but also featuring other urban lifestyle categories like bars, clubs, restaurants, art and thrills (loved Carlo's Vespa Rent)

+ small horizontal map showing the item's location
+ locate me! functionality showing nearby items
+ usability and design is excellent
+ thrills category
- map is static
- missing "add to my tour" on mobile
- vCards downloadable only in web app

2. Toughturtle's Pinpoint: a location based search (standard categories like businesses, restaurants or gas stations but also Wifi) pulling data from Yahoo (U.S.) and Google (rest of the world), updating location via Wifi or the mobile network

- I don't really see the purpose of this application: it seems to just use data of one search engine without really adding anything. I'd probably rather use GMaps.

3. Open Landmark (iPhone): a "photo landmark bookmarking site" as they call it. Take a photo of something and share it with the community

+ radar functionality is nice
- no interaction from iPhone app: you can only search landmarks
- dated info ("recent" page shows items from two months ago)
- no geolocation, just addresses

4. Trip.mobi (iPhone): very basic .mobi site with information on major cities from 8 countries. Information on museums, attractions, youth hostels and tourist info

- could not find the reviews and maps they were advertising on the description page.
- not making use of advanced functionalities at all, basically very condensed yellow pages and nothing that I would trade for a search engine or GMaps

5. GoLark (iPhone): list-based view of events ("fun things to do") in your vicinity. Possibility to change search radius, time period and starting times. U.S. only.

+ clutter-free site
+ tags instead of categories
- visualization could be better, e.g. on a map

6. Outalot: a 4 category guide to (at the moment) NYC and the SF Bay Area: cuisine, bar style, movie theater and shops. The app lets you set your location on a listing, check-in via Twitter, rate it and bookmark it

+ great interface, the map integration and navigation is awesome
+ approach from neighborhood to check-in location is good. Having checked in it shows the other listings in relative distance to it

Summary: this list is far from being complete (see e.g. more reviews over at GPSObsessed or There Goes Dave) and there's a wide range in terms of quality of the application (my favourites were iunlike and Outalot who are showing both a slick UI and well thought out navigation paths). I don't see much of a future for neither Pinpoint nor trip.mobi - search engines and their maps already deliver better results.

What's your favourite?

Report: Mobile Technologies Fostering Social Development

The W3C's (World Wide Web Consortium) Mobile Web Initiative and Mobile Web for Social Development (MW4D) just published a report on the findings of a workshop that took place beginning of June in São Paulo, Brazil.



Their efforts are focused on "investigating the role mobile phones and Web technologies could together play in helping bridge the Digital Divide".

The group aims to "identify the key issues and promising solutions to deploy Web content, applications and services on Mobile phones to foster the social and economic development of rural communities and under-privileged populations of Developing Countries".

The key points are:

• Mobile phones are the primary delivery channel for ICT in these markets
• Three technological solutions are being used: SMS, Voice, Web. All three should be seen as delivery channels for web content.
  
• NGO requirements: easy-to-use toolkit, ease of replicability, sustainable with low investment, low requirements on infrastructure and administration
• Need for business experts (there were none at the event) to find business models and set up commercial service to guarantee the projects' sustainability
• Shared phone model (one phone used by many people): privacy and security a major factor to be considered by mobile services and applications providers
• Key barrier for having useful and relevant content is lack of local expertise to develop these. Empower local actors to become mobile service providers (technical knowledge, entrepreneurship and business models)
  
• Players in the field need to define a shared vision of the future and measure impacts on targeted populations
  

One of the most interesting points was the vision of SMS, Voice and Web as delivery channels for web content:

Mobile phones should be considered as an access mechanism, where mobile browsing is one way to access the content, but using Voice applications (through e.g. voiceXML) is another way, and SMS could be a third option. All of these options should be considered as different delivery channels of Web content. Using the Web as a repository of information could leverage replication and cross-fertilization between different projects by offering visibility.

Another great vision is the economic impact that capacity building of local players could have:

For that, it is necessary to develop a dedicated curriculum around the mobile platform, in order to empower local actors which will then encourage the development of a new economic sector (mobile service provider) and create employment. This would also provide an opportunity for people to use their own creativity and innovation in the development of new mobile services that rarely come from a corporate process.

Image by http://futureatlas.com/blog/.