Nearshore Americas

Brazil’s Digital Economy to Bring in $490 billion in 2013

Brazil’s digital economy is currently comprised of about 147,000 companies and is set to generate $490 billion in revenue by the end of this year, according to a study by Softex Observatory.

The sector had employed 1.4 million people in 2010, representing two percent of the country’s total workforce. The report says a vast majority of the workforce is young and equipped with considerable expertise.

That year  there were as many as 6.3 million Brazilian workers who had some sort of expertise in Information Technology and Communication (ICT). According to Virginia Duarte, manager of Softex Observatory, the majority of workers in the sector have tertiary education and are earning a modest income. Of 1.2 million workers, more than 80,000 are experts in their job and 704,500 have a medium-level technical profile.

The ICT sector appears to be largely dependent on the domestic economy, which has been shrinking in recent years due to high inflation and decreasing demand for mineral resources in China. However, the Softex report says several large national IT companies are seeing their business growing. So too are small and medium businesses.

Lack of financial resources and access to infrastructure and equipment are some of the hurdles the sector is facing. The report suggests that the government prepare a roadmap to support and strengthen the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the sector.

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To see further growth in the sector, the report says, there is a need to map the market, expand the sales channels, and improve products and services. In addition, the report recommends that the government promote computerization in the food, transport, health, education and housing sectors.

Narayan Ammachchi

News Editor for Nearshore Americas, Narayan Ammachchi is a career journalist with a decade of experience in politics and international business. He works out of his base in the Indian Silicon City of Bangalore.

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