Colombia. On May 17, a new Internet Day was commemorated, so the company Linio reviewed what is the reality about its use, which encourages the growth of e-commerce at a rate in the Latin American region of approximately 20% per year.
The Internet has become indispensable in our lives, an example is the dependence that has been created around social networks and instant messaging applications. According to a study conducted by App Annie, each user uses an average of 9 Apps daily. And although it is believed to be a basic service such as electricity and water, World Bank figures show the opposite: about 60% of the world's population still does not have access.
Latin America
The report "State of Broadband in Latin America and the Caribbean 2016 by ECLAC" revealed that in Latin America the number of households connected to the Internet grew 14.1% on an annual average in the last five years and according to Internet World Stats, 10.3% of Internet users in the world are in this region.
In addition, cross-platform connections have gained more strength because, according to eMarketer, currently 40% of users connect through one or two devices.
Of the countries in which Linio has a presence*, e-commerce has gained relevance, for example in Colombia, Argentina and Mexico thanks to the fact that, together with other factors, they have high penetration of Internet connectivity that increases significantly year after year.
This is the case of Mexico: the National Institute of Geography and Statistics (INEGI) ensures that there are more than 65 million users, with a penetration that exceeds 60%.
Colombian reality
The Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies estimated that in the last quarter of 2016 the country reached 15.8 million subscribers to fixed (37%) and mobile Internet (63%), a figure that will surely increase in the results of this first quarter of 2017. The penetration rate was 32.5%.
According to the study "Electronic Commerce in Colombia, Comprehensive Analysis and Regulatory Perspective", conducted by the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC), 76% of the more than 33 million Colombians over the age of 18 are connected to the Internet. Like Mexico, Chile and Peru, 85% of Colombians say that their favorite device to access the web is the cell phone.
As for e-commerce, out of every 3 people who have access to the network 2 have not made any purchase online. This is comparable to the development of the region because in Mexico, for example, 8 out of 10 users bought products or services online during 2016, as revealed by "Challenges of eCommerce Mexico 2017" by The Cocktail.
Despite this, around 70% of those who have bought online are willing to do it again.
