Mexico. At the end of 2016, 90.7 million Smartphones were counted in Mexico, that is, a penetration over the total of mobile lines of 80.6%, which allows users to have new communication options through the Internet.
In this context, mobile operators have promoted the free offer of the main Social Networks and Instant Messaging applications in all Postpaid packages, as well as in balance recharges of $ 30 or more.
In this same period the penetration of Instant Messaging was 99% of the total of Smartphones, that is, 89.8 million devices have at least one application of this type of service.
This penetration has been growing along with the increase in the possession of Smartphones since this variable is the main structural ceiling it faces.
On the other hand, Social Networks reached 67.9 million users at the end of 2016, that is, a penetration over the total of smartphones of 74.9%
Although currently the range of applications that exist in the market is very wide, Facebook and WhatsApp are the applications that have the largest number of accesses.
WhatsApp is the application with the highest market share among the number of total registrations. At the end of 2016, it accounted for 33.2% of total subscriptions. Secondly, we find Facebook, the most used Social Network in the world, which has 26.3% of the access market share in Mexico.
It is striking that the third place is occupied by Messenger, an Instant Messaging application that emerged from Facebook, which has shown a strong growth in subscribers, being linked to the large user base of this social network. Messenger accounts for a total of 21.1% of total accesses.
Instagram, a social network that has had a strong growth due to the new generations, closed the year with 6.2% of accesses, to position itself as the fourth application with the highest market share.
Although social media and instant messaging platforms were created with distinctive features, today we find convergent elements between the two.
In the origin, Instant Messaging applications were created to engage in a private conversation, unlike a Social Network where the publications that are made are public.
After a while of development, Social Networks began to invade the field of Instant Messaging applications by incorporating their own private chat, a situation that has not caused WhatsApp to decrease the number of accesses.
Subsequently, from the emergence of Snapchat and the rapid adoption it is having among millennials due to its novel features, it was the spearhead for the new updates that Instagram and Facebook incorporated earlier this year, the so-called "stories", however, what caught more attention was the incorporation of this same tool in WhatsApp, In this way, for the first time, WhatsApp users could share videos and photographs publicly within said Instant Messaging application.
In this way, we will continue to see a convergence between both platforms, unifying tools that new generations are looking for in order to increase the number of users and improve the user experience within them.
