IBM: Opportunities and obstacles in Brazil Video

IBM: Opportunities and obstacles in Brazil Video Transcript

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>> I'm Ina Fried with CNET News.com. I'm here with IBM's Claudia Fan Munce, who just got back from Brazil. Can you tell us a little bit about what you saw in terms of the local technology industry?

>> Absolutely. I think there is a tremendous growth in what we can consider innovation ecosystem in Brazil. I think we're seeing universities as I visit the [inaudible] in Brazilian [inaudible]. I visited the [inaudible], Sao Paulo. I think there is new entrepreneurial type of activity happening that bring out some of the local technology rather is focusing on, you know the financial service arena, the energy, the analytic with the industry expertise that Brazil has. I think the technology is going to be very uniquely focused on the industry expertise that Brazil possesses, but the software development expertise based on open source and open standard at being a predominant platform for the developers is going to make all the industry couple expertise into very attractive, you know independent software vendor that, you know IBM like to partner with and hoping that the major investors would like to invest in.

>> We hear a lot about Brazil and open source, where is open source the strongest and where are some of the areas where proprietary software is still dominant there?

>> The open source is the strongest when you are looking at a larger, you know beyond SMB, beyond small and medium market application more into the enterprise level, because there the software developer are looking to address a global market. They're looking to address the large, you know financial institution, the large energy utility provider. So with that global market and with the government incentive squarely into creating the export revenue, you'll find the large enterprise software space, the data management, the enterprise management to be a lot more focused and oriented to open standard and open source.

>> On the PCs still pretty much a Windows world despite the government's talk otherwise.

>> Yes. I think obviously getting the consumer to have that big a picture is a different story.

>> What are some of the real strength the Brazilian market, obviously, you know, it's the fifth largest market for computers, huge population, what are some of the other ingredients that Brazil has that make it a strong technology market or give it the potential for being one?

>> From a greater perspective is untapped market. I mean, all of us has been hearing about the China and India, the valuation is getting out of hand, the deal flow is getting very tight, hard to get into the best skills and Brazil really is from a technology investment perspective is for the untapped, which you might have that first mover advantage and coupled with some of the unique areas, obviously the mobile market is taking off very strong in Brazil along with all the content in the gaming, entertainment, you know, banking, mobile, payment, things that we saw in other emerging geo, but uniquely again on the energy utility, the whole green. But not only production side, but on the demand side, the analytics to better manage the natural resources from what countries that has been on ethanol for 40-plus years is an industry expertise that the world can potentially capitalize with the focus on clean -- green energy investment that is being placed. So, I think, one area where not so much of the local market, although there is a local market like some of the other emerging geo there really isn't a law. In Brazil, there, you actually have a strong SMB particularly local market to serve, but also with the notion of bringing that to the global market, you know is really what is expanding all the technology involvement and the growth of the independent software developers that we see in Brazil is at the tremendous pace right now.

>> Despite its huge size, we haven't seen Brazil have that sort of developed investment that we've seen certainly in India and China, what are some of the unique challenges that make Brazil not quite grow in the same way that India and China have done?

>> I think Brazil is obviously lagging and they are trying to become more relevant to that same ecosystem, the investors and the global market players. A lot has to come together. In essence, the whole ecosystem needs to evolve. You know, the ecosystem of the government with their policies, with their assistance, with their tax, you know, structure, with their, you know, labor structure, talk about being able to hire people, fire people, you know, being able to very dynamically manage a company and still keep that, you know rapid development structure that a young company needs to have to be competitive. Local entrepreneuralship needs to be, you know learning from the serial and the global expertise that we have seen in the Valley in China. The university needs to continue to develop skill sets that can allow their student to be more market oriented when they graduate and continue with their every incubation. So the challenge is that is that all that is at the early stage and the entire ecosystem needs to come. Any piece of that missing from the capital market to do the financing of this innovation to, you know, obviously, management and a government, university, education, infrastructure, I think that ecosystem that we see particularly here in Silicon Valley is something that is starting, but still got a little way to go for all the pieces to come together.

>> Thanks Claudia.

>> You're welcome. ^M00:06:44 [ Music ]