Meta, Alphabet (Google) and TikTok generate over 70% of mobile download traffic in Latin America, according to GSMA’s Mobile Network Usage in Latin America report.
Meta accounts for nearly 50%, Alphabet 14%, and TikTok 8%.
“When we see 70% of mobile traffic concentrated in three companies, one might think it’s simply a reflection of user choice. But the reality is that a considerable portion of that traffic is unsolicited, like the ads we see when we open our apps or videos in resolutions much higher than what our devices can display,” said Lucas Gallitto, Director for Latin America, GSMA.
According to usage type, mobile traffic is dominated by social media with 41%, web browsing with 29%, and streaming with 19%.
This ranking is consistent across the region, with some variations. In Central America and Mexico, for example, the order remains the same, but social media accounts for nearly 60% of the total.
In Argentina, Chile, and Paraguay, streaming surpasses web browsing, while in the Andean Region, streaming climbs to the most popular category, representing 38% of the total.
The common denominator in all three cases is the intensive use of video, whether in short or long format, detailed the report.
Audiovisual content is one of the main drivers of the sustained growth in mobile traffic, which multiplied 14 times between 2016 and 2023.
The annual growth in 2023 alone exceeded the total volume of traffic in the region five years earlier, in 2018. By 2030, annual traffic is projected to grow by 22 exabytes (22 billion gigabytes) compared to the previous year, nearly double the annual growth recorded in 2023, which was 12 exabytes. This increase will place even more pressure on mobile network capacity.
“Today, platforms don’t bear costs for the traffic they monetize, which negatively impacts user experience, network capacity, and the environment. This highlights the need for ‘fair share’ model, a market mechanism in which major traffic generators contribute to network funding, incentivizing more efficient use of this public resource," highlighted Lucas Gallitto.
