Android, Nubank, and Extreme Poverty

Welcome to the first issue of Latinometrics. It’s great to have you with us. This weekly newsletter brings you Latin American insights and trends through concise, thought-provoking data visualizations.

Today’s charts:

1. Android dominates Latin America

2. Nubank‘s valuation soars above the region’s biggest banks

3. Extreme poverty in LatAm is being eradicated

Big Tech 📱

Powering the most affordable phones, Android is the most prevalent OS across Latin America, taking a market share of over 88% as of October 2021. Android has been the dominant mobile operating system in the region for almost a decade.

With an estimated smartphone penetration of 70% today, there are currently around 430M Android devices activated in LatAm. The Android universe offers an unprecedented opportunity for mobile developers who want to create apps for Latin Americans.

The average Android phone costs $261, and in some markets as little as $50. Comparing it to Apple’s iPhone average price of $873, Android is a much better fit for developing nations.

Startups 🚀

Nubank is quickly becoming the biggest bank in Latin America. In its latest funding round, led by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, it received a private valuation of $30B. Last week, it filed to go public on US Markets, with estimators valuing the company at up to $55B. At that number, Nubank would become more valuable than all of LatAm’s biggest banks.

Colombian founder David Vélez, who grew frustrated with traditional banks after struggling to open an account, made it his mission to create a transparent, 0 fees, digital banking alternative. Allowing customers to open an account online in 3 minutes, Nubank has been able to get more than 40 million customers to sign up. It is now clear that Nubank’s vision is spot on and that indeed, in Latin America, “the future is purple.”

Demographics 📉

The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living under $1.90 per day. In the past 30 years, Latin American countries have seen the share of their citizens living in extreme poverty decline from 14% to 3.75% of the total population.

Even though world organizations continue to categorize all LatAm countries as developing, it is undeniable that the quality of life of the poorest has been positively transformed in the last few decades, in some cases even to a larger degree than developed nations.

For example, as of 2019, Chile had only 0.28% of its population living under extreme poverty, well below countries like Sweden, Australia, and the USA. Speaking of Chile, Santiago is nicknamed the ‘Chilecon Valley,’ and it’s the continent’s top country for entrepreneurship.

Thanks for reading. Until next week. 👋

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