Tiago Bianchi
Research expert covering internet & gaming in Latin America and Spain
Get in touch with us now’Zap-zap’ as a lifestyle
Popular enough to be nicknamed ‘zap-zap’ by users in Brazil, WhatsApp Messenger is installed on virtually every smartphone in the country, being the most frequent app on the home screens of these devices. It is used by more than 90 percent of Brazilians who own mobiles to exchange text messages, four times more than any other market for this purpose, and by another 83 percent to exchange images, and smaller shares of users to share other types of media, from voice messages to videos and Stories. With the second longest daily usage time among smartphone apps, it is also the second-most used app by children in Brazil.Its omnipresence within almost all Brazilian online demographics makes it the portrait of messaging app usage in the country and throughout Latin America. With little gender differences among its audiences, WhatsApp has more adherence especially among Millennials in Brazil, and enjoys similar levels of popularity among users from Generations X and Z. Overall, more than 85 percent of its local users accessed the platform daily, spending an average of more than 28 hours in the app per month in what is one of its highest user engagement rates worldwide.
Local issues: politics and competition
WhatsApp’s sheer popularity in Brazil also brought it into the hurricane’s eye of the country’s online political discussion, during its heavily polarized general elections in 2018 and 2022. Previously in the crosshairs of the country’s Supreme Court due to the spread of fake news, WhatsApp remains the most-used social media platform for news consumption in Brazil, being especially popular for such use among users older than 45 years old.The app’s utter dominance has also not stopped competitors from claiming a place among Brazilians, as users started looking for alternatives after WhatsApp released a controversial privacy policy in 2021. Russian competitor Telegram experienced an increasing adoption by Brazilians over the recent years, being present in 65 percent of their smartphones in 2023. On the other hand, apps like Signal still struggle to increase their user base, when also unable to overcome the dominance of WhatsApp and along with Meta’s other messaging, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram’s Direct service.
In everyone’s pockets
The love of Brazilians for WhatsApp is, however, able to overcome its problem and take its turn for the money. Its extensive adoption soon crossed the boundaries of sole contact among peers and turned it into a natural channel for users to establish communication with brands and companies. With the local release of its business spin-off in 2019, it became an alternative for small and medium-sized businesses and services to answer customers. In April 2023, the country’s Supreme Court allowed WhatsApp Pay to operate payments along with financial institutions like banks, credit cards, and cooperatives, being another asset for the Brazilian e-commerce sector.With recent talks of including ads on the messenger app, WhatsApp is more than ever a must for digital advertising in Brazil. After all, communication with brands and companies via the app is already a local habit, with more than half of surveyed Brazilian users claiming they would not mind receiving advertisements on platform. As even more users confirm having already bought products or contracted services through the app, WhatsApp’s versatility proves its match with Brazilian users, this time as a developing extension of their pockets.
