WhatsApp Is Value-Added Perk Mexico Has Embraced The Financial Times
go to original August 4, 2016

WhatsApp is looking for ways to generate revenue (Bloomberg)

WhatsApp has taken off like a rocket in Mexico, where two-thirds of the population has internet access and more than three-quarters surf on smartphones.

While Facebook – often abbreviated to the phonetic Feis – remains the social media king, its appeal has waned. By contrast Whats, as its sibling is known, is used by eight out of 10 Mexicans with smartphones. No one gives you the side eye if you ask for the wifi password in a bar or restaurant, and parks often have coverage, giving WhatsApp the edge in a country where texts are not always free.

Jaime Rodríguez, the social media-mad governor of Mexico’s northern state of Nuevo León, gave out his personal cell phone number and urged people to report crimes via WhatsApp. Indeed, he credited use of the app for a tipoff that helped catch a drug lord. In May, a kidnapped woman in the state of Chihuahua, who had hidden her phone in her clothes, was rescued after sending her location to the police on WhatsApp.

Government communiqués are sent to reporters via WhatsApp, and it is common for people to say: “I’ll give you my Whats. It’s easier for me.”

Like being able to surf the net for free in Starbucks, WhatsApp is a value-added perk Mexicans have embraced. Latin America’s number-two economy is the world’s second-biggest user, just behind South Africa.

Patients even use the app to chat with their doctors about their care. “You get treatment like in the States,” says an oncologist of Mexican healthcare. “But with WhatsApp too.”

Read the rest at The Irish Times

Related: These Apps Will Guide You to Latin America’s Best Sex Motels (Fusion)

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