Successful Tech Hubs:
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires[1] is the capital
of the Southernmost country in the world, Argentina, home to over 5 million
inhabitants and defines itself as a multicultural city. Migration though has
been from different places of Europe (mainly Southern Europe, but also Northern
and Eastern Europe), from Latin-America (mainly Bolivia, Peru and Paraguay),
and some from Asia (South Korea a good example). It is referred to as the “Paris
of South America”, it’s design and architecture was done by the French in it’s
conception. In those days, Argentina was amongst the top 10 richest countries
in the world (measured in GDP x capita), and French was the 2nd
language (popular amongst the rich, who would travel to Europe for leisure and
to buy the best clothes and perfume). Spanish is the main language, but
influenced also by Italian (so much so that the language in Buenos Aires is a Spanish
with Italian accent). This is not so for the rest of the country, mainly influenced
only by Spain. With a world class health system and strong educational system
(especially at public university level), Argentina is the best place to live…
in Latin-America. A city known for it’s artistic creativity, it has been house
to great writers, musicians, artists and designers. It’s movie industry has
blossomed over the last 15 years, the movie “The Secret in Their Eyes”[2] being
awarded the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2009.
Buenos Aires is the leader in the
tech field in the Latin-American region, having produced 4 out of 5 top players
in the industry. Examples are Mercado Libre, Despegar, Three Melons and Globant.
Globant[3] is the
country’s flagship and leader in Software, a company founded by 4 argentines
that has expanded to 8 countries and has today a workforce of 4300 workers. It’s
main focus is Innovation, and it offers a free day to the employees to work on
their own innovative project, in the same fashion as Google. Taking advantage
of their highly educated and English speaking work force, the number of jobs in
the tech field has increased from 20.000 to 80.000 in the last 13 years, with
an average growth of 10% a year. Exports are growing at 20% per year, US being the main customer, other markets including Latin-America, UK and Spain. Services include Software Development, IT
Services, Financial Services and Commerce. For a country of 43 million people,
results are impressive considering competition from a giant like Brazil. As in
the case of Spain, lower cost (but not nearly as low as Asia, more like Spain),
a highly skilled labor force and more value added make it an attractive destination
for international IT business. The talent does not only have good technical
competences, but also a resourcefulness that comes from facing cycles of
economic booms and busts.
Buenos Aires offers the most
solid ecosystem in the region, and most mature Start-Up culture. Following the
example of Hong Kong and Singapore, Palermo Valley[4] is a
Tech Hub which has effectively helped startup entrepreneurs develop, incubate
and launch their product. It seeks to gather and impulse the entrepreneurship
and web-developer Network in Argentina, through events, travel, diffusion and
other activities. The Technological District Parque Patricios[5] offers
tax breaks and office space, very close to the city’s Financial District. And
Start Up Buenos Aires[6] offers a
place to Network with likeminded people.
Not being a big market, it is a
great place to test your product and go for bigger markets in the region
(Brasil being the most attractive, house to 200 million inhabitants and
destination to 50% of the country’s exports). Some of the challenges involve an
unstable economy, corruption, unclear and ever changing “rules of the game”,
difficulties in attracting Venture Capitalists and not so well known outside it’s
main market countries. If you dare to ride this wave, and survive, you will be ready
to CONQUER. That, I promise you!!!
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