Brazil, India and Israel are without question three of the world’s most important tech hubs outside of Silicon Valley. All these countries, thanks to their specialties and their large populations of digital consumers are pushing the envelope on some of the coolest innovations in technology and engineering. By driving a lot of activity, they gain an international profile in terms of new business and investment. Spotlight.
Brazil, the promised land.
For tech starters, Brazil has huge opportunities. Although just 40 percent of Brazilians currently use the Internet, Brazilians reportedly spend some $13 billion a year on e-commerce. Add to that the fact that Brazil is now the second-biggest market for Facebook and Twitter, and is home to more mobile phones than people. The money is flowing in, too. For the last few years, Brazilian startups have begun to successfully draw blue-chip Silicon Valley venture firms. Brazilian entrepreneurs and active startup accelerators are also a key part of that successful ecosystem. To be perfect, Brazil should decrease taxes. For example, an iPhone costs around $1000.
India, on the footsteps of China.
In India, the benefits and opportunities for getting in early are enormous. As in China, life is cheaper, and for a small amount of capital and resources, anybody can get started, and potentially see impact and returns within just a few years.
But with lousy infrastructure, useless regulation and a famously corrupt telecoms sector, the web is available to only 10% of Indians, many of them squinting at screens in cafés. Compared to China, e-commerce sales in India represents only 6% of the Chinese market.
Anyway, Indians have realized the tech opportunity. They are focusing on the mobile Web instead of PCs. A new generation of Indian entrepreneurs educated in the West are eager to apply startup business models they’ve seen in the U.S. to the Subcontinent. Then, they can create innovative services and sell to customers outside of India, but also localize existing concepts for local audiences. Thematically and geographically in the middle of everything, India and its startups seem to be able to take over the world in the next years, as China did.
Israel, the startup nation.
Put on spotlight by the book “Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel’s Economic Miracle”, Israel is widely known as the Start-up Nation. With countless incredible characteristics and statistics, this small and young country, surrounded by war, has produced more productive high-tech startups than everyone else. For example, Israel hosts more NASDAQ-listed companies per citizen than any country. According to PWC’s MoneyTree survey, in 2012, 660 Israeli high tech companies received $1.9 billion in venture capital. To put this in perspective, in 2012 that amount was 17% of the $10.9 billion funnelled to Silicon Valley start-ups and 59% of the $3.2 billion that New England startups received.
Thanks to a lot of individual talents, a risk-taker and creative population and a friendly government policy, Israel is without doubt the startup nation. But it could be overtaken by the new emergents startup nations like Brazil or India. Intel Israel president, Mooly Eden, called into question the ‘Startup Nation” status of Israel. “Although the company’s remarkable success in Israel gave him great pride”, he said, there were plenty of other tech-savvy nations that will outpace Israel if it doesn’t make the right investments, as India and Brazil do.
This emerging wave in the tech industry should lead to a new inspiration for young entrepreneurs all over the world. Brazil, India and Israel teach us the best way to come up with the coolest innovations. About mobile, e-commerce or tech in general, these countries have succeeded to set up profitable businesses.
Whether it is for creating or dealing with clients, it appears that high flyers tech startups are building their expansion process on the same key points:
– Be part of a prosperous environment for new businesses (favorable government policy, forward-thinking entourage, palmy tech-market)
– Move forward, use what you have and never give up. That means analysing the market and the demand of your innovative product, being open-minded, throwing up constantly with ideas and making the best use of your direct available resources.
– Be passionate and confident about your project. If you want to complete it successfully, you will have to be enthusiastic, creative and aware of everything in order to make the right moves and investments.
Many examples all across the world should permit to inspire a new wave of young entrepreneurs. Good luck!
Written with love by the editorial team at Fueled, a premier Android app design agency in New York City.
Image Credit: Shutterstock.com
