Latin American countries consider cloud storage essential

While people in Canada, Australia and Germany remain divided about cloud storage, Latin America has the highest number of people who see the cloud as essential, according to a recent survey by the marketing information firm GfK.

“With a significant percentage of everyday people saying the cloud is essential to them, there is clear market potential for technology companies offering services that enhance the cloud experience – for example, increased security or customizable services, such as digital photograph albums which can easily be shared with other people,” Arno Hummerston, global director of Digital Market Intelligence at GfK, said. “The growing attraction of the cloud is not so much about storage - a decent external hard drive delivers that - but about convenience: being able to access files from any device or location, without having to carry around an external hard drive or USB stick."

GfK asked Internet users in 22 countries about how strongly they agree or disagree with the statement “it is essential for me to access or store my photos, documents, music, and other content in ‘the cloud.'"

Mexico's Internet users (49 percent) led those surveyed in saying the cloud, defined by GfK as “a secure Internet location that you can access from any location or device," was essential. Following them were Brazil with 44 percent, Turkey with 43 percent, China with 40 percent and Russia with 37 percent.

Argentina, which completes the Latin America countries included in the survey, also showed high cloud dependency, with 36 percent saying the cloud is essential.

Germany had the lowest number of respondents who saw the cloud as essential at 50 percent. It was followed by Canada (39 percent), Australia (37 percent) and Sweden (34 percent).

“For me, it is interesting that it is mainly countries that adopted the Internet early on, that do not see cloud storage as essential,” Hummerston said. “Late Internet adopter markets, which tend to be more mobile-oriented, having leap-frogged PCs, have more people who say cloud storage is essential. The implication is that those who started off on PCs or laptops (which have large internal storage) now have a significant mental adjustment to make, in accepting cloud storage. But those who have mostly only ever used mobile devices find cloud storage normal.”