Article: Latin fans ready to dial up ringtones
29
August
From Reuters UK-Billboard via Hispanic Tips:
Latin fans ready to dial up ringtones
Mon Aug 29, 2005 7:04 AM
By Antony Bruno
SAN FRANCISCO (Billboard) - The next growth spurt in the ringtone market very likely will have a Latin flavor.
With few exceptions, ringtones have remained largely a medium for hip-hop/R&B music, because of the genre’s popularity and the wide acceptance of wireless services within hip-hop culture. Such hip-hop acts as 50 Cent, Snoop Dogg and Lil Jon regularly dominate the Billboard Hot Ringtones chart.
But wireless operators are seeking new areas for growth and see the urban Hispanic market — dubbed “hurban” — as a prime target.
“What we’re trying to do is expand the market for who buys ringers,” says Colleen LeCount, ringtone product manager for Sprint. “It’s not just about hip-hop anymore.”
While the market for ringtones has exploded in Latin America, in the United States only a few Latin music ringtones have become best sellers. They include “Toma” by Cuban-American rapper Pitbull and “La Tortura” by Shakira. But several signs indicate that a spike in sales of Latin ringtones is imminent.
First of all, the Hispanic user base is growing right into the wireless entertainment sweet spot. The market for ringtones and other wireless entertainment services has been driven by 15- to 25-year-olds. The U.S. Census Bureau predicts that Hispanics will be the largest teen minority group by year’s end, and will account for 20 percent of teens by 2015.
Technorati tags: latino marketing, hispanic marketing, cell phone
1. jazzyjoe | August 31st, 2005 at 6:40 am
The ringtone industry is “HUGE”…and continues to grow everyday. The hispanic market is large and very loyal. It is very smart to target the hispanic market.
jazzyjoe
entertainment-download.com
“your ringtone network”
2. Javi Guardiola | September 5th, 2005 at 1:43 am
In Spain the ringtones and other aplicatios have a great success.
Companies like Televisions have big revenues. Young people are heavy consumers
3. Jennifer Woodard Maderazo | September 5th, 2005 at 11:51 am
Javi, I noticed that a lot in Spain, and also that the mobile phone market in general was way ahead of the game in terms of offerings and the fact that people actually paid for these services. One thing that I think is interesting about the case of Spain is that mobile phone service is very expensive and this has, I think, led to a rise in the use of SMS, which probably sparked the interest in other offerings, such as multimedia.