Brazilians resort to apps to generate extra income
Brazilians are increasingly resorting to mobile apps as a means to supplement their income as unemployment rises as well as smartphone penetration, according to research.
A study carried out by Mobile Time and Opinion Box found that 32% of those polled use apps as a means to earn extra cash. According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, some 12,4 million people are unemployed in Brazil, so 11,6 percent of the economically active population.
The main activity through which Brazilians have been using apps to boost their income is the sale of products, cited by 58% of respondents, through tools such as WhatsApp and Facebook.
The second most popular activity through which Brazilians use apps to generate income is the offer of services such as home improvement, cited by 21% of those polled. Some 93% of respondents use social networking apps, while 37% also use marketplaces to offer their services.
Some 9% of the Brazilians polled who use apps to earn more money operate through mobility tools like Uber, while 8% work for food delivery apps such as local platform iFood.
According to the research, most of the Brazilians using apps to boost their earnings are women (60%), with 82% belonging to middle and lower-income brackets of society. Some 30% of the Brazilians polled use apps as their sole source of income, while the remainder uses it as an additional income stream.
The Mobile Time/Opinion Box study polled 2.270 smartphone users in Brazil aged over 16 in November 2019.