Business View Caribbean - June 2016 15
than 42 percent of internet users in Jamaica, driving
use of the internet and the uptake of mobile apps
across the six activity areas covered in the study:
communication, information search, travel, enter-
tainment, education, and healthcare.
The usage gap between netizens and networkers
for an activity decides the pace of change; the wider
the gap, the longer it takes for changed behavior to
become mainstream.
The appification of calls (an activity is “ap-
pified” if over 50 percent of users have re-
ported an increase in mobile app use over
a year) is happening more quickly than the
overall shift of calls to the internet. Some
76 percent of smart phone users in Jamai-
ca have reported an increase in the use of
mobile apps for making calls over a year
and, considering that there is no gap be-
tween the two user groups, internet call-
ing can be considered appified and main-
stream for smart phone owners.
Only 27 percent of Jamaican internet us-
ers book healthcare appointments online,
while 24 percent search for healthcare
information on the internet at least every
other time they carry out such activities,
indicating a much slower pace of change
when it comes to internet and app usage
in the healthcare domain.
Diana Moya, head of Ericsson Consumer-
Lab Latin America, said: “The slow trans-
formation in healthcare may be due to
concerns over privacy. Many consumers
worry about information about them being
recorded and used without their knowl-
edge.”
For entertainment activities, 41 percent of internet
users in Jamaica watch at least half of all video via
online channels. In just over a year, 81 percent of
netizens and 80 percent of networkers in Jamaica
reported an increase in their use of mobile apps to
watch videos.
“This indicates that entertainment via mobile apps
is likely to become mainstream very quickly,” Moya
said.
