DECEMBER 2022ENTERPRISE SECURITY| | 19The past few years have seen a wholesale acceleration in the adoption of a more digital financial ecosystem. This is particularly apparent in Latin America. As everyday life became heavily disrupted, services from education to healthcare to commerce moved online. Consequently, an estimated 50 million Latin Americans became online consumers for the first time, and mobile data traffic increased by 25%. The e-commerce sector has undergone monumental growth over the past two years, bringing increased competition, more financial inclusion and lower fees across the region with it. However, such profound change has naturally increased privacy and cybersecurity concerns. These are nothing new, however, the uptake of online services has created new opportunities for phishing scams, malware and fraud. To understand how to prioritise cybersecurity and build a safe future for all Latin American consumers, we must first understand how the sector fast-tracked to where it is today.LATIN AMERICA'S E-COMMERCE BOOMBefore the pandemic, uptake of e-commerce in the region remained relatively low, hampered by the area's large unbanked population, challenging logistical connections and a lack of trust in online methods. With COVID-19 acting as a catalyst for change, it's estimated that the sector grew by 37% to around USD 85 billion in less than one year. As a result, Latin America is classified as a `hyper-growth' region, with the volume of e-commerce sales rising by more than 30% per year. This is more than double the global average, and nearly four times as fast as the growth rate of developed regions such as Europe and North America. Now, e-commerce accounts for roughly 16% of the region's total retail sales, up from 3-7% just two years ago.One of the key reasons that e-commerce grew so quickly was the continent's mobile-savvy consumers. By 2025, there are expected to be 424 million regular mobile internet users across Latin America, accounting for almost 73% of the population. Further, Brazil and Mexico are among the five countries in the world where users spend the most daily hours on mobile apps, totalling roughly five hours each day. CXO INSIGHTSPRIORITISING CYBERSECURITY TO BUILD A SAFE FUTURE FOR LATIN AMERICAN CONSUMERSBy Jorge Mario Jaramillo, Head of Information Security, PayU LatamJorge Mario Jaramillo
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