Mobile Content and Advertising on mobile phones is potentially an even bigger business than online advertising to Hispanics and Latin Americans. The issue is that often mobile technology is not yet ready for broadband. 3G mobile technology is the technology of choice for broadband transmissions. However, approximately only 5 million mobile phones in the U.S. have 3G technology and only 60,000 of those are owned by Hispanics.
In Spain there are 9 million mobile phones with 3G technology, and in some Latin American countries, this figure is much larger. Having said that, it is important to note that “Hispanic” content music is very hot in the U.S. mobile broadband market. Last year, a video by music group Mana was the most-downloaded item on the Sprint Network.
For those mobile phones that do not yet have 3G technology, SMS can be lucrative for both content creators (e.g. Telemundo network or Fox Sports) as well as phone operators. Hispanics of Mexican descent will be able to, for instance, send SMS text messages for a small charge inquiring about results of the Mexican soccer league.
