Tiago Bianchi
Research expert covering internet & gaming in Latin America and Spain
Get in touch with us nowAlthough the affordability of Brazil’s internet is relatively well-rated and internet speed has increased in recent years, the country barely makes it among the top ten in Latin America and the Caribbean region regarding internet penetration, with only about 77 percent of its population having access to the web in 2022.
Extensive usage, unequal access
Despite problems of access and inclusivity, around 94 percent of the country’s online population uses the internet daily, especially to look for information and learn new activities. Still, the picture of access to the internet in the South American giant is radically changing with the regional increase in mobile connectivity.Improvements in digital access are especially noticeable considering that the share of mobile traffic in the country has surpassed desktop traffic for the first time in 2022, representing more than 60 percent of Brazil’s online push. This is not surprising, since virtually every internet user in Brazil has accessed the web via their mobile phones, spending an average of 5.25 hours a day solely on these devices.
Social media: instant messaging and political turmoil
Social media is, nonetheless, the hot topic about the internet in Brazil: with more than 165.3 million users in 2022, the popularity of social networks is a fertile ground for the country’s rising influencer market but also a political battleground, rife with fake news and disinformation. While sending instant messages is one of the main activities for its online population, the sheer popularity of messaging apps acts like a match to spark the Brazilian highly polarized debate, severely impacting the country’s political sphere.WhatsApp is astoundingly popular in Brazil, being installed on virtually every smartphone in the country. Meanwhile, Meta-owned platforms like Instagram and Facebook utterly dominate the Brazilian social media landscape. However, competition has greatly increased in the last two years, with the likes of TikTok and Telegram challenging the company’s lead in every sphere.
Regional e-commerce leader
But the extensive use of the internet is not only a matter of division: Brazil also has the biggest regional e-commerce market, representing almost 30 percent of the industry share of Latin America. The boom of the sector after the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 led to an explosion in the revenue of websites like MercadoLibre (known as MercadoLivre in the country), already the biggest online commerce platform in Latin America, whereas Brazil has contributed to more than half of the company’s revenue in 2021.While around 78 percent of its population has shopped online as of 2021, most of the sector’s sales in Brazil originate from mobile devices, correlating to the country’s increasing mobile connectivity. But despite looking for more equipment and means to increase their online connectivity, the main usage of e-services by Brazilian smartphone owners was for ride-hailing and food delivery platforms.
