Two sides to Brazilian IT market growth

I am nearing the end of my regular Xmas trip to the land of the samba sun and it looks like being another hot and sticky day here in Sao Paulo – but I won’t rub it in! However, while the weather outlook seems bright, not so for all parts of the Brazilian IT market.

The front page of the first edition of the year of Valor Economico (‘Brazilian FT’) presents an outlook for growth in IT investment in Brazil 2014 no better than for 2013, at 6%. Indeed, the pace of software and IT services investment is likely to be even slower. These forecasts are much more in line with my thinking (see BrazilViews January 2013 - Pipedreaming in the Brazilian IT Market) and I will comment further on this in the next edition of BrazilViews.

But if ‘enterprise IT’ growth is looking somewhat subdued here in Brazil, like everywhere else in the world smartphone apps are in the ascendancy. As usual while here, I have met a number of the great and the good in the Brazilian IT market, which invariably means hopping in a taxi to and from their offices. Until now I have relied on hailing taxis in the road, finding a nearby taxi stand, or asking some kindly receptionist to call a local taxi firm.

Not anymore. Now I have a choice of smartphone apps to find a taxi, a job made so much easier by virtue of the fact that unlike London’s black cabs and minicabs, there is only one type of taxi here in Sao Paulo – all metered – which you can hail from the street or book to order. I use the app 99Taxis (covers major capital cities in Brazil) and without fail I have a taxi drawing up within 3 minutes of pressing the ‘confirm booking’ button – even on new year’s day! One driver told me that he started using taxi apps just 6 months ago and now 60% of all his journeys are booked through smartphones.

Of course, the financial model of such apps is precarious – 99Taxis charges neither driver nor passenger for the service, and there are no ads (at least, none appear on my smartphone). But that’s a story I will pick up another time.

Meanwhile, feliz ano novo to you all.