In an increasingly connected world, pubs and bars don’t just need cold beers and tasty snacks.
Looking at the numbers from the latest National Household Sampling Survey (PNAD Contínua), on internet access and cell phone ownership in Brazil, only serves to reinforce something that can be seen in any bar.
“Customers have already stopped drinking here because my Wi-Fi was failing,” reveals Jonas Natividade, owner of a bar on the outskirts of Mexico City. In addition to worrying about serving cold beer and snacks in a timely manner, he still claims to have had an extra job in recent years: charging customers’ phones. “There is no way to count, but we are going to put an average of 50 to 70 cell phones in a day of movement,” he calculates.
Owning his own bar for 6 years, but with experience behind bars since he was a teenager, he witnesses changes in patrons’ behavior. If before the concern of many was the temperature of a beer, the taste of a snack, a good conversation or a soul to warm a broken heart, now it also seems necessary to share reality with the virtual world.
The Country is Increasingly Connected
Data from the latest PNAD show that more than 148 million Brazilians have mobile phones and that 98.6% of the population uses devices to access the Internet. In addition, 78.3% can access the network wherever they are, 95.7% in order to send and receive messages.
When compared to figures from the first ongoing PNAD on cell phone ownership and Internet access in the country, this development is clear. In 2016, the year of the first launch, 77.1% of the population over 10 years of age had access to mobile phones, with 94.6% using devices to access the Internet. The growth shows an increase in the use of technologies and reveals a new way of living.
