Our host, Hands Mobile, is part of the biggest Brazilian media conglomerate, RBS Group. The event took place in the beautifully restored Burlesque venue in Sao Paulo. The program focusing on trends in digital media started with introductions by Hands Mobile’s Sergio Percope and Joao Carvalho.
My presentation over the following 45 minutes included several case studies of operating large e-commerce services, and a breakdown of the key tasks that managers can find most challenging such as billing operations, network infrastructure and product development on a large scale.
Furthermore, I presented my views on future trends like AI, Virtual Reality and my personal favorite: New ways of monetizing live streaming content!
I truly believe that while trends like VR are emerge just to disappear shortly after, all the time, live streaming is one of the most stable businesses in the tech industry. I also believe that with innovative, fresh ideas in monetization we can continue opening new doors to produce additional revenues without negatively affecting the user experience (see the above slides from my presentation).
After my presentation, we had a relaxed roundabout discussion with two Brazilian “Internet legends”: Aleksandar Mandic and Alex Espinoza. Our outstanding hosts concluded the evening with a great burlesque show, true to the name of the venue.
As I’m sure you all heard from the news, Brazil is going through hard times, due to some members of the government getting prosecuted for corruption. These events destabilized the political scene and took a toll on the economy as well. That said, all the local people I talked to were very optimistic about the future and believed that things will be back to normal within a year or so.
I was truly surprised by the diversity of the Brazilian industry! They export tons of cars and have their own brand of mobile phones. While this no doubt supports local companies, it appears it also distances Brazil from the main stream of the world’s economy. For example, due to this economic lag the new iPhones arrive in the country 6-8 months after they are released in North-America and Europe.
Another fact I found interesting and wanted to share with you is that Brazilian credit card usage develops every year at a rate of approximately 6% – at this moment, they estimate that about 30% of the population owns and actively uses credit cards for purchases. Brazil has 200 million people! That’s not bad, right? And what about the rest of the population, you ask? They utilize other popular local payment options, like Boleto with a 10% market share – a service like SEPA in Europe, with more advanced options for e-Commerce payments.
Traditions: Two heartfelt goodbyes and many counted blessings at the American chamber’s Thanksgiving banquet on Friday.
