Brazil is digital now, but maybe it’s not obvious?
Posted by By Mark Hillary at 5 October, at 06 : 49 AM Print
It’s great to see US entrepreneurs coming down to Brazil and writing about the hi-tech economy in well-read media such as The Huffington Post – a title I write for myself – but it’s not always so great when some of the facts are misrepresented or mistaken.
So when I read Steve Rosenbaum’s report from the Digital Age 2.0 conference in São Paulo last week I sighed a few times. The hosts, Now! Digital, put this event together and though there are some excellent digital media commentators right here in São Paulo from Brazil, Europe, and the US, I can’t see that any of them got invited.
Anyone reading our website knows that we don’t think the tech sector in Brazil is perfect, there is still a long way to go, but the reality is that the US is not perfect, neither is the UK. If we judge all our failings against a perfect situation then the present state is bound to be wanting.
What upset me the most about the feature in question? Perhaps just that it is impossible to capture the development of hi-tech Brazil by flying down from the US for a 2-day visit. I’ve been living in Brazil since the start of the year and I am endlessly meeting other foreigners in business here who have been in hi-tech Brazil for decades. I still feel like the new kid on the block even though São Paulo is now my home.
If I were going to list a few comments on the feature then I might start by saying:
- Greater São Paulo has about 19.6m residents, not 16m. On this scale that might seem trivial, but it’s like ignoring the City of Dublin six times over.
- Wi-fi is no better or worse than I experience in most major European or US cities. All of my local bars and cafes offer free wi-fi to customers, which is more than I can say for my own experience in London.
- 3G is still rolling out. Then how come my HTC Desire works any place that I have gone to in the city, helping me check the web, upload photos, and view bus routes wherever I am?
- Smartphone penetration is lower than older handsets, but sales are more than doubling this year.
- Talk of the “C-class” is more easily understood by illustrating that in a country of almost 200m people, over 100m are considered to be in class C… the basic consumer class. So Brazil’s societal classes appear more diamond-shaped than stacked up like a pyramid.
- This also means that the 80m Internet users probably has to be taken with a pinch of salt. I don’t mean to dispute wherever the figure is from, but given that most members of social classes A, B, and C might be expected to be using the Internet it appears low. Stats are usually a year old and this market is moving so fast…
- A real red herring is repeating the line that Brazilians all use Orkut. Yes, they used to up to 2010, but I live here and I have never been asked by anyone for my Orkut ID. It’s Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn all the way now – with the latter experiencing over 400% growth in Brazil in the past year alone.
I don’t want this to sound like a rant or an endless list of corrections to Steve’s article – I like much of what Steve has written in the past - and not all his comments were wrong. But clearly the conference organisers at DA2.0 were feeding some duff info to the visitors and when Brazil has a really great story to tell in innovation, entreprenuerial start-ups, and corporate IT, that’s more than just a shame.
Photo by Luiz Henrique Assunção licensed under Creative Commons
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Steven Rosenbaum, 1 year ago
Hey Mark,
I certainly didn’t think Sao Paulo was ‘bad’ – far from it. Found the people, tech scene, and innovation inspirational. In terms of the facts, I found getting hard facts on size of the city hard to come buy. Wikipedia, for example, lists Sao Paulo at 11,316,149 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_proper_by_population) – if you have better sources for data, please send me and and i’ll update the post.
In terms of WiFi, I asked a number of locals, visitors, and my experience all confirm that WiFi is spotty, and 3G is inconsistent. And Orkut, if things have changed that dramatically in the past 12 months, then should be reported for sure. What about Google+, is that taking off.
Look forward to coming back and visiting further. Thanks for the thoughts.
Mark Hillary, 1 year ago
Hi Steve, thanks for adding a note, and if you do return then get in touch and we can go out for a ‘chopp’..!
I have a Google+ account, but I’m not very active there and nobody in Brazil that I know has linked to me there so it seems to be struggling to gain ground here – much like other places though. I guess if the improvements to Facebook are accepted then it could hole Google+ below the waterline…
The population sizes can vary, but the larger figure is taking in the suburbs in the conurbation itself. Even the city centre is big, but at almost 20m the metropolitan area is huge!
Felipe Albertao, 1 year ago
Regarding the size of the city: Mark was referring to the Greater São Paulo, which is more or less like when people refer to the Bay Area as opposed to San Francisco:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_S%C3%A3o_Paulo
Regarding Orkut vs. Facebook: My personal observation (I have no data to back-up this claim) is that most users already migrated to Facebook. For one, I don’t remember the last time I used Orkut.
As Mark, I have very few Google+ friends, and only one of them is Brazilian.
Mark Hillary, 1 year ago
Thanks Felipe… I agree with your comments. On the subject of the city size it is just a question of the city or the metropolitan area… even just the city alone is big here!
Michael Heath, 1 year ago
I would consider the number of internet users grossly underestimated. I have friends from all classes here in the NorthEast including one living in a favela.
Every one of them uses the internet. The richer ones have all the same goodies that my friends in Canada have including iPads, smart phones, etc, while the poorer ones go to internet cafes which are still very popular here for the reason that people who can’t afford their own internet and computers still want to be online. Especially the younger generation.
Also, I have to agree with Mark that Orkut WAS the big thing in Brazil but that has changed drastically in the past year. All of my friends/family here, with the exception of one of my nieces, has opened a Facebook account and for the most part have abandoned Orkut. I noticed recently there is a Orkut feature which allows you to transfer all of your photos to Google + in a matter of seconds.
I’ve been on Google + for a while now and I find that neither my Canadian or Brazilian contacts use it very much.
Mark Hillary, 1 year ago
Michael, I agree that it’s very hard to get an accurate figure on “users” when many in the classes who find it too expensive to buy a computer will still be familiar with the LAN house… Just because you don’t have a laptop does not mean that you are not a regular Internet user, so I agree with you, I think the 80m figure is way too low.
Silvia Bassi, 1 year ago
Dear Mark,
where you present at DAge 2.0? You should.
Mark Hillary, 1 year ago
Oi Silvia… ninguém me convidou!
Silvia Bassi, 1 year ago
que pena…
Mark Hillary, 1 year ago
Next time..!
Jason Stone, 1 year ago
Reading the conversation thread above, it struck me that perhaps Google have missed a trick in not migrating all its Orkut users to Google+ before Facebook started to become popular.
Re: the size of Sao Paulo, it never ceases to amaze me every time I return from there, London feels like a village!
Andy Gomes, 1 year ago
Hi Mark,
It´s not only Steve´s fault. There is aspects of tax and companies costs associated to any company in Brazil, that created a brazilian companies behaviour: don´t disclose all information, the government can come and tax you more. Because of this, a lot of information must be mined from many sources, then, as you may know, it is a real chance to have more than one truth. You and many brazilian entrepreneurs may not know how many millions from government is available for startups, and worst, most of them don´t know to apply and to access that budget. This comment may sound not quite focused. I’m just trying to say that there are so many information not consolidated that makes misleading and misunderstanding so common about Brazil market.