UVuMobile targets Hispanic market with Comunidad M deal

By Giselle Abramovich

April 23, 2008

A market that likes mobile

UVuMobile Inc. has entered into a revenue-sharing agreement with Comunidad M Inc. to target the fastest-growing ethnic minority group nationwide.

Under the terms of the agreement, uVuMobile will develop a private-branded service offering for Comunidad M that will include both on-deck and off-deck content, creating a Spanish social community within it.

“One of uVuMobile's major target areas for growth is niche content such as Indian, Asian and now Hispanic,” said Ron Warren, vice president of investor relations and corporate communications at uVuMobile, Duluth, GA. “We already have in place relationships with companies providing Indian and Asian content and the addition of Hispanic is a natural extension of our business strategy.”

The new partnership will receive support through advertising, site promotions, publicity and promotional activities sponsored by Comunidad M.

Comunidad M reaches audiences throughout Latin America, the Caribbean and the U.S. Hispanic market, with a base of more than 2 million subscribers.

The Hispanic population is one of the fastest growing demographics in the U.S. 

According to the Pew Hispanic Center, the U.S. Latino population, already the nation's largest minority group, will triple in size and will account for most of the nation's population growth from 2005 through 2050.

Hispanics will make up 29 percent of the U.S. population in 2050, compared with 14 percent in 2005. By contrast, the non-Hispanic white population is expected to increase more slowly than other racial and ethnic groups. Whites are expected to become a minority (47 percent) by 2050.

Hispanics are heavy users of mobile technology and text messaging.

According to a recent Mobile Marketing Association study, 75 percent of U.S. Hispanic households have multiple mobile phones and use them more than any other form of personal or handheld technologies on the market today. More than half regularly use text messaging. 

A recent M:Metrics study revealed that the number of Hispanics responding to text message advertisements has increased by 20 percent in the past year.  Overall, the rate of text message usage is growing dramatically among Hispanics, increasing  39 percent in the last 12 months.

“With the announcement last week of our collaboration with Media Layers, we are able to deliver over targeted, personalized, cross-channel and cross-media mobile advertising opportunities to our customers,” Mr. Warren said.

“This includes ad supported programming, banner ads and interstitial ads, allowing our customers to create, manage and monetize premium mobile ad space while providing advertisers with unique new channels to target their audiences,” he said.