<blockquote>Part of the reason why the gaming industry has taken off in Latin America is due to the high smartphone and tablet penetration rate. This year there’s around 152 million smartphone users in the region and a penetration rate of 37.5%. 

It’s important to note that despite there’s a lot of smartphone users, most of them use their phones without a data plan, relying solely on pre-paid cards. Also there’s some mistrust in online and mobile transactions, and people don’t want to use their credit on downloads or online-only games for example, they save it for less heavy activities like sending messages or Facebook. That, combined with a difficult access to credit cards and weak purchasing power makes freemium and subscription models risky, even with support for alternate forms of payment, such as direct carrier billing.</blockquote>