Mobile apps have penetrated people’s daily life to improve, enhance or facilitate new services, most of which are already indispensable. Mobile technology is gaining momentum as part of personal habits and the way of interacting with it has been revolutionized. Latin America has not been left out of this phenomenon and it has taken center stage, both as consumer and creator, developer and entrepreneur.

For example, 88 percent out of the 71.5 million internet users in Mexico has a Smartphone or Tablet, and a growing number of purchases issued through the internet has been reported over the past months. PayPal is the most popular payment channel, by means of debit and credit cards. Mexico is the country with the highest number of mobile device and app users in the region. Users download an average of 20 apps for their smartphone. Online transactions range from services (banks, transportation, water, light, etc.), products (cloth, food, electronics, etc.) to entertainment (tickets, music, movies, etc.). Social network-related apps are the most popular, in which users share opinions about their purchases, brands, products, services, etc.

As for such fields as technological creation, development and enterprising, Mexico has also taken the lead in the region with the highest number of companies registered in Latin America, followed by Brazil and Colombia. Fintech is the fastest growing sector, with the most innovative and disruptive companies. Many of these apps make bank transactions easier and help users when it comes to paying by using credit or debit cards and direct payments at stores. Over the next 10 years, Fintech (technology applied to finances) will deal with up to 30 percent of the bank market, because of the traditional bank industry’s lack of reaction in terms of innovation, mobility and apps.

The healthcare industry is another interesting market niche for mobile connectivity and apps. At world level, services and products are estimated to go up to 144.8 billion dollars by 2020. Several Latin American startups have developed interesting apps in an effort to facilitate cognitive developments, help people recover from physical illness or certain handicaps, and improve the doctor-patient relation. The prevention, detection and treatment of diseases can be achieved by managing safe, fast and reliable information obtained as a result of well-organized data use.

PanamericanWorld has chosen ten apps conceived and developed by Latin America-based startups, which are good examples of the great talent and high technological development level offered by the ecosystem in the region.

CONEKTA (MEXICO)

The use of smartphones has gained momentum around the globe and online purchases have become an usual method, as well as other services related to transactions and bank payments. The problem comes out when payment systems change in different countries. Conekta is a technology startup focused on the development of a payment system that helps consumers undertake online transactions in a satisfactory way. Conekta allows developers and companies create a payment solution with their own flow and it is designed for every application and website.

CAPPTU (MEXICO)

Launched in 2015, Capptu is an app that allows amateur and professional photographers upload their pictures online and obtain some incomes for their work. CEO Manual Villegas realized that it would be a good idea to connect locals to companies and users looking for stock pictures, so they could find that perfect photography. Moreover, Capptu features a smart function that details the type of picture customers need so photographers can highlight them depending on that demand. It is a sort of photography UBER.

ZAVEAPP (MÉXICO)

This app was conceived for users to gain saving discipline, based on exclusively financial criteria. Since its rollout back in 2014, Zaveapp has become one of the most used and recommended Mexican apps within the country’s competitive ecosystem. It helps users manage their money in an effective way so they can face unexpected expenses or last-minute whims. The app encourages users to ‘complete’ any transaction with the card connected to the app. The change users would be given back when paying in cash is automatically put in a savings account that progressively grows away from users’ eyes. That’s the key to saving.

TEVI (MEXICO)

This app was conceived for users to gain saving discipline, based on exclusively financial criteria. Since its rollout back in 2014, Zaveapp has become one of the most used and recommended Mexican apps within the country’s competitive ecosystem. It helps users manage their money in an effective way so they can face unexpected expenses or last-minute whims. The app encourages users to ‘complete’ any transaction with the card connected to the app. The change users would be given back when paying in cash is automatically put in a savings account that progressively grows away from users’ eyes. That’s the key to saving.

CLINGOT (ARGENTINA)

This Argentinean app centralizes the medical record in the smartphone, so it is updated with medical analysis, X-rays and recommendations given by doctors and specialists. As all the information is centralized, it can be easily shared with the family physician and it is especially useful when the users travel to any other city or country and have a medical emergency. This app is presently used by a growing number of physicians and healthcare centers. This trend is being acclaimed by users and it has gained efficacy and profitability because of the use of new technologies, such as the cloud or big data.

HABLALO (ARGENTINA)

This app was created for people that suffer from auditory dysfunction and difficulties to establish verbal communication. It curiously created by an 18-year-old developer, whose mother teaches deaf people. The goal of this technology is obvious and its designer describes as: “breaking communication barriers.” The app works with preset messages that facilitate communication and a system that translates from “text to voice” and “voice to text.” It presently available in Google Play and has been backed up by the Argentinean Deaf People Confederation.

ROCKETPIN (CHILE)

Rocketpin is an app that reproduces such collaborative economic models as UBER or Airbnb, but it works with the users’ professional or personal skills and needs. It follows a crowdsourcing model, so thousands of people carry out small works, as freelance, depending on their location. They can be auditors at sales outlets, survey takers or undercover customers; always reporting through the RocketPin App and receiving a reward in return. “Our model is similar to the one used by companies like AirBnb, Waze or Uber. These models allow people to generate extra incomes or simplify their daily life. By using RocketPin, the users accept works depending on their location, so they can check the presence of a product/advertising in a mall, assess the quality of service in a gas station or conduct a survey in a warehouse,” Diego Reeves, Cofounder of Rocketpin, explains.

NOTIPLAC (COLOMBIA)

Notiplac is an app and hardware that provides solutions for carmakers, focused on improving the after-sales market. By means of this app, the users easily request the services provided by companies that use it, thus saving up to 40 percent of expenses related to the call center. In the Seedstars Latam Summit 2017 held in December, Notiplac won the first prize in the Mobility category. The app was praised for giving solutions to carmakers by creating a channel between them and customers.

PUNTA GO (URUGUAY)

Punta Go is a new and free Uruguayan app, available for Android and iOS, which invites people rediscover Punta del Este in an unprecedented way. The people that download the Punta Go app will have access to historic pictures, accounts with sound effects that recreate the facts that took place right where the users is standing, without requiring Internet connection or mobile data, since it is an offline app.

Within the framework of “The AppTourism Awards 2018”, organized by SEGITTUR (State Mercantile Association for the Management of Innovation and Travel Technologies) in collaboration with FITUR (International Travel Fair), this app was chosen as one of the top three travel applications of the world.

DESLIXATE (MEXICO)

This is a new mobile app created in Mexico to alert people to the presence of dyslexia in children (7-12 years old), as reported by the National Council of Science and Technology (Conacyt). The app, designed by Mexican students at the Facultad de Estudios Superiores Aragón (FES Aragón), proposes a ludic system in which children go through a series of lexis-related tests and a pre-diagnosis is later issued, co-developer Cesar Lopez explained.

Children play and are given animal pictures, so they don’t suffer the stress of knowing that they are being assessed, which could alter the results. The pre-diagnosis, issued in 25 minutes, shows the presence of any risk related to phonological dyslexia, profound dyslexia or superficial and visual dyslexia, and it recommends seeing a specialist to have a formal diagnosis and apply treatment, if necessary.