BUENOS AIRES/MEXICO CITY: Almost half of mobile internet users in Latin America are aged 24 years or under, according to a new study that covered six countries in the region.

The Mobile Internet Consumer Latin America 2013 report was produced by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), the global non-profit trade association, working with Vserv.mobi, the mobile advertising exchange based in Mumbai, India.

Questioning 3,000 mobile web and app users in Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela, it also found that graduates or post-graduates accounted for over one-third of all users.

Mobile ads proved popular among Latin American consumers, with 73% reporting they liked mobile ads that provide downloadable content while 55% welcomed ads that helped them with location searches.

In terms of entertainment consumption, a full 81% of users downloaded apps or games followed by 48% who downloaded videos and 45% who used their devices to download music.

Fabiano Destri Lobo, MD of the LATAM region at the MMA, said mobile was becoming an indispensable part of the marketing mix for brands and urged advertisers "to understand their consumers' better and target them accordingly".

Coinciding with the report's release, official statistics in Mexico revealed that the number of internet users in the country grew 12.5% to 49 million in 2013.

Mexico's National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) said 30.7% of Mexican households are now connected to the internet, the Latin American Herald Tribune reported.

And in an echo of the findings from the Mobile Marketing Association, the INEGI found younger users to be the most prolific users of the internet – about 62.6% of Mexicans aged 12 to 34 are connected to the internet, it said.

Data sourced from PR Newswire, Latin American Herald Tribune; additional content by Warc staff