If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.
You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!
"Forrester forecasts that the eCommerce industry in Brazil will grow at 18 percent year-over-year, with total sales expected to reach $22 billion by 2016." Read more from TechCrunch
Start-up troubles in Brazil:
"...growing a business in Brazil even with celebrity endorsement isn’t easy. For years, the country dealt with crippling hyperinflation, which in turn destroyed a generation of entrepreneurs in Brazil, Smith says, and leaving not only entrepreneurs but workers and consumers extremely risk averse. As a result, it makes it challenging to compete for talent, and hire away from the big, established multinational companies in Brazil. Not to mention the fact that equity is, generally speaking a novel concept in Brazil, nor does being backed by names like “SV Angel” or Tiger Global — which would likely be recognized in the U.S.
"The cost of skilled labor is high, and so are salaries. In the U.S., the payroll tax is about 15 percent, whereas in Brazil it’s closer to 70. Companies generally have to pay at least one meal a day for their employees, they have to pay for transportation, etc. So, while the worker protections built into national policy can make it a dream for the skilled laborer, it’s not exactly easy on the pockets of a startup, when they’re having to pay 100 to 120 percent on top of salary. “Plus, it’s nearly impossible to fire someone, and you can get sued for just about anything here,” Smith says.
"Also, Brazil is not a ‘fail fast & iterate’ culture. Failing is both frowned upon, and painful bureaucratically – for instance, closing a company in Brazil can be a Kafka-esque experience for those who try." Read more from TechCrunch
Taxation & Bureaucracy:
"Whether you are an investor, and especially if you are an entrepreneur, this is no doubt a major downside and one of the more challenging aspects of doing business in Brazil. The Brazilian tax system is heavy, hugely cumbersome, and at times very unclear, resulting in unknown liabilities. Labor costs are very high both on hiring and firing, and the legislation is inflexible and hardly supportive of entrepreneurship. Take for example a recent decision by a major multinational company to block email distribution to its workforce in non-working hours and on vacations, after having lost a an ‘overtime’ labor suit for this reason. Imagine the potential liabilities, and restrictions to productivity, of such a legal decision(!) Brazil is laden with these ‘mines’ and unfortunately considerable time has to be spent dealing with bureaucracy rather than building great businesses." Read more from TechCrunch
---
Using Brazil as hub to serve latin American Market:
According to the Brazilian news magazine Exame, Google has made Brazil the center of its Latin American operations, placing former country director Alexandre Hohagen at the helm.
Google is understood to have chosen Brazil for its superior regional performance. While the Mountain View, California-based search giant doesn’t comment on regional numbers, the article claims that Brazil is Google’s fastest growing market (hard to verify, but it’s certainly one of the fastest growing), generating an estimated $500 million per year in revenues. This is all the more impressive considering the Brazilian office was opened just three years ago and has only 200 employees.
The decision to run Latin American operations from Brazil comes soon after another decision to move all development and management of Orkut to that country, with most of the engineering in the city of Belo Horizonte. Orkut is Google’s social network, which enjoys most of its popularity in Brazil and India.
Brazil is also said to have the second largest number of Gmail accounts, perhaps because of the popularity of Orkut. Google’s biggest white labeled Gmail customer may also be in Brazil: iG, a portal with over 9 million accounts.
Spontaneous gifts are generally well-received. But it's hard to find the time to shop & ship, let alone to remember to send an attentive something "just because." A Brazilian startup offers a simple solution.
In Brazil, there is a law to encourage the software industry, where a company can avoid paying ICMS taxes if they invest in software development in Brazil. This could be marketed to multinationals operating in Brazil as a way to lower their tax burdon if they shift software development to Brazil. Clever. This is a form of trade barrier that encourages local infant industry development (strategic industry). Similar as what Brazil did with airplane industtry and film (see law Rouanet)
* Brazilians' strong preference for local content, giving local
providers an opportunity to take share from Google and MSN
* As broadband penetration grows, so does the opportunity for
richer online experiences such as video streaming and music downloads
* Brazilian consumers are becoming more comfortable with
purchasing online
Other Highlights:
Brazil is the global leader in Java programmers – BRASSCOM
Year over year Online population growth in Brazil = 27% as of June 2008 which outpaces the worldwide average – comScore
33% of unique visitors to Brazilian web sites come from outside of Brazil – comScore
Brazilians are far more likely to use Social Networks and Blogs than the average global Internet user – comScore
Brazilians love of shopping reflected in above average visiting retail sites particularly consumer electronics – comScore
Brazilians use lots of comparison shopping versus rest of world (twice more than average for the rest of world) – comScore
Orkut (owned by Google) is the primary social network in Brazil – both reach and usage metrics outstrip all others . 8 out of 10 online users in Brazil visit Orkut – comScore
Brazil has the largest and fastest growing online population in an important emerging region – comScore
In this wiki, you will find a collection of the students notes on a variety of global issues, with a focus on international finance, international relations, politics and business. Clearly not all of the content is our own, nor do we endorse students opinions posted on our pages. There have been many contributors to this site, and our role is just to moderate the content and make sure it fits the "GloboTrends" theme. We try to link properly and send readers to other interesting news sites. If you see any inappropriate material, please let us know.
What are "GloboTrends?"
“GloboTrends” are fundamental underlying trends, which means that they are important, but might not be obvious. Many trends are interconnected, and have global implications. Not paying attention to the development of global trends in can come back to haunt any business person, and so… we have dedicated ourselves to summarizing these events in simple language, and we are trying to show how these events might be important to different regions, and to different industries.
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.