Brazil's Media, Didi vs. Uber, and Female Labor
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Brazil's Media, Didi vs. Uber, and Female Labor
Today is a Thursday issue because life got in the way. But we’re here to bring you Latin American insights and trends through concise, thought-provoking data visualizations.
Thank you to the 145 new subscribers who joined us last week. Want to hear something wild that we just realized? When adding up from all our social channels, our audience has surpassed 100K followers! All growth has been 100% organic in under a year. Thank you all for spreading the word.
Today's charts:
Do Brazilians trust the media?
DiDi vs. Uber
Female participation in the workforce
Make sure you check out the comment of the week at the bottom!
Media 📺
As Brazil approaches its next presidential elections on October 2, many institutions are preparing for a contested, potential defeat of current President Bolsonaro. With rampant misinformation spreading online in a country that has become "addicted to the internet," traditional media's role and its ability to fact-check are increasingly important.
According to a recent report by the Reuters Institute, SBT News is the Brazilian outlet with the highest levels of trust among those that were included in the questionnaire. The network was founded in 1981 by businessman and TV personality Silvio Santos, who remains its owner. It has the third-largest television complex in LatAm, smaller only than the studios of TV Azteca, in Mexico, and its main national competitor, Globo.
Something else we learned in the report is that local newspapers have a higher trust rate than many television, radio, and internet news outlets. You can check out all the data from the Reuters Institute report here and their methodology for calculating their scores here.
Our Partner this Week 🤝
The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism is dedicated to exploring the future of journalism worldwide through debate, engagement, and research.
We worked in collaboration with them for the above chart, using data from their 2022 Digital News Report. You can access country-specific reports here.
This year's report reveals new insights about digital news consumption based on a survey of 93K+ online news consumers in 46 markets covering half of the world's population.
Ride-sharing 🚕
According to data by Measurable AI, with 600K+ drivers serving 100+ cities in the country and a country share of 65%, Brazil is Uber's biggest market outside the US. Its main ride-sharing competitor, 99 (owned by Didi), has an estimated 750K active drivers in Brazil and owns 35% of the market share. Both companies have a combined 28M Brazilian active users. Since 2020, Uber has taken 7% Brazilian market share from Didi.
In Mexico, Didi is the dominant app, with a 56% market share. During the same period, Didi's market share increased by 7%. In other words, the market gains that Uber has made in Brazil, it has lost in Mexico. Such movements in the market in both countries signal intense competition and a close fight for international dominance.
Fierce competition benefits consumers because it forces these platforms to lower their prices. Price is undoubtedly a significant factor in market dominance. In Mexico, where Didi is winning, the average Didi trip costs $65 pesos, compared to Uber's $93 pesos. In Brazil, the average 99 user pays $14 reales for a trip and $17 reales for an Uber trip.
Most of the ride-hailing action is happening in the big cities. São Paulo is Uber's busiest city in the world. Combined with NY, LA, Chicago, and London, they account for 22% of Uber's entire bookings worldwide.
Labor Market 👷
Intuitively, we might expect that as countries become more developed, they also become more socially mature and welcoming of women's participation in the labor market. That trend is accurate, to some extent. Based on that correlation, we would predict wealthy nations to have the highest participation of females in the workforce, but that is not the case.
South Sudan, which has 80% of its population living in extreme poverty (highest in the world), has a higher share of female participation in the workforce than the world's most prosperous nations like Switzerland and Norway.
You don't have to go as far as Africa and Europe to find a dichotomy — there are also stark contrasts within Latin America. Consider Venezuela and Bolivia: both have a Human Development Index of 0.69, and yet, in Venezuela, 34% of females participate in the workforce, while 68% (double) of them do so in Bolivia.
What do these extremes tell us about the female labor force? Although the metric displays a trend partly explained by countries' development, it's ultimately strongly influenced by their culture and values. Author William MacAskill talks about how the entrenchment of cultural values in societies are highly influential drivers of the world's outcomes.
William's new book, 'What We Owe the Future,' inspired this chart. It also inspired an extraordinary Kurzgesagt video that explores the philosophical question: "Is our civilization on the brink of collapse?"
Realize Latin America’s Potential 🚀
This week’s opportunity:
Uber has over 40 open roles throughout LatAm.
Hiring Managers: Reply to this email if you’d like to feature an open role in our newsletter.
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That’s all for this week 👋
Want more?
Comment of the week, in response to our timeline of LatAm commodity booms:
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Feedback or chart ideas? Reply to this email, and let us know! 💚