When observing the developing countries in Latin America, most analysts look for Argentina, Brazil, or Mexico, but Chile may be providing new ground for the mobile market.

As the World Bank noted, Chile's GDP per capita reached $15,542 in 2012 while the poverty population decrease from 15.1 percent to 14.4 percent in 2009 and 2011 respectively. According to eMarketer, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico have entered "upper-middle-income levels" while Chile has been labeled "high income" with Uruguay by the World Bank.

With Chile's financial figures acknowledged, the country has apparently utilized mobile technology faster than fellow countries in the Latin American region. Mobile phone adoption has even surpassed the country's population of 17.4 million, based on the CIA World Factbook's data. According to Chile's telecommunications agency, Subsecretaría de Telecomunicaciones (SUBTEL), 23.9 million mobile phones were connected in 2012, which represented 137 percent of the population. The 23.9 million mobile phones was an increase of 2011's 22.3 million units. In 2013, however, mobile phone connections slipped to 23.7 million units, or 134.2 percent of the population.

Despite mobile phone adoption growth stalling, mobile Internet update increased. Mobile Internet subscriptions, ranging from 2G and 3G technologies, peaked in 2013, so far, with 9.8 million or 55.5 percent of the population. SUBTEL noted the mobile Internet uptake, however, fell to single digits in 2013 to 9.1 percent.

"Such an abrupt slowdown is likely the result of saturation among the higher rungs of the income ladder in the country," noted eMarketer. "In fact, a closer look at mobile broadband adoption (that is, 3G connections), shows that most of the improvement in mobile Internet uptake is coming from consumers switching from older mobile connections to faster 3G devices."

3G technology has become popular among Chiliean mobile phone owners. SUBTEL stated mobile Internet connections with 3G connections reached 6.4 million units in 2013, which is an increase from approximately five million units in 2012.

As Latin Post reported, the growth of the Internet has grown substantially in recent years across Latin America. According to ESET Latin America, Latin Americans have utilized the Internet during 2013 particularly for online shopping. As Latin Post reported, 32 percent of Latin American consumers shopped from a smartphone while 24 percent utilized a tablet. A majority of 76 percent admitted to shopping from home while 12 percent of online purchases took place from the workplace. Shopping in friends' homes or cybercafés was also noted with 7.5 percent and 4.3 percent respectively.

Fellow South American country Brazil has also utilized the Internet for online banking. According to the Federação Brasileira de Bancos (FEBRABAN), 51 percent of all banking transactions within Brazil happened via Internet-connected devices during H1 2013. In 2012, mobile transactions were accountable of 3 percent of digital transactions in Brazil, but the figure increased to 6.2 percent for H1 2013.

According to comScore, Brazil was the third Latin American country to lead in online banking metrics. Brazil represented 43.7 percent of all Internet users who banked online during the surveyed period of March 2013. Brazil narrowly lost to Chile's second place, at 43.8 percent. Venezuela ranked No.1 with 47 percent.

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