Here’s my PearlTree on Brazil and technology, at the end of this post, and here some of the content: (A Pearltree is a way to curate your choice of web sites using a visual metaphor.)
June 9, 2010: Wall Street Journal – IBM To Open Research Lab In Brazil.
In a move that underscores the growing importance of emerging markets and the globalization of innovation, International Business Machines Corp. said it will open a research laboratory in Brazil with the cooperation of the country’s government.
The lab, which will help IBM to develop technology systems around natural resource development and large-scale events such as the Olympics, is IBM’s ninth research lab and the first in South America. It’s also the first new IBM research lab in 12 years.
Both the IMF and the World Bank estimate that Brazil could become the fourth largest economy in the world by 2012. Bank of America Merrill Lynch noted that the Brazilian stock market will grow to over $160 billion in market value by 2013.
Brazil is today the tenth-largest economy in the world, ahead of Russia and India, and the largest in Latin America. The country was classified by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) as having a high Human Development Index (HDI), ahead of the other BRIC countries (Russia, India and China).
*Brazil has the 8th largest domestic IT-BPO market in the world. In 2008 the sector turned over US$ 59.1 billion, including exports and IT-BPO areas that are part of the structure of Brazilian companies in every economic sector.
Also, some context to the tech story:
Despite the immense expanses of the interior, roughly two-thirds of Brazil’s population live on or near the coast and well over half live in cities – even in the Amazon. In Rio and São Paulo, Brazil has two of the world’s great metropolises, and nine other cities have over a million inhabitants. Yet Brazil still thinks of itself as a frontier country…
More this week…
I’ll be updating this Pearltree throughout this week with additional information on tech companies, the economy, and a lot more on the culture and history of Brazil. Culture provides an important context to what is happening in Brazil.
If you add my “Brazil” Pearltree to your your account, you will get all my updates automatically.
Tom Foremski is the Editor and Founder of the popular and top-ranked news site Silicon Valley Watcher, reporting on business and culture of innovation. He is a former journalist at the Financial Times and in 2004, became the first journalist from a leading newspaper to resign and become a full-time journalist blogger.
Tom has been reporting on Silicon Valley and the US tech industry since 1984 and has been named as one of the top 50 (#28) most influential bloggers in Silicon Valley. His current focus is on the convergence of media and technology — the making of a new era for Silicon Valley. He also writes a column at ZDNET.
