Peixe Urbano – Brazil’s Answer For Groupon-like Daily Deals

“Peixe Urbano” – Brazil’s Answer To Online Daily Deals

Peixe Urbano, a Rio-based Groupon clone, is doing very nicely indeed by tailoring its service precisely to a brazilian audience and offering daily deals to brazil’s nearly 70 million Internet users.

Brazil has its own version of Groupon, but Peixe Urbano (which means “urban fish” in portuguese) came onto the scene afterwords, and has done much better in the brazilian market for deal-of-the-day websites (in portuguese, the concept is referred to as “compra coletiva.”) In many markets, Groupon is a solid number two player at best, as is the case in Brazil. So even though Peixe Urbano is just a groupon clone, it has been much more successful…

When it comes to the overall revenue obtained by each side, PeixeUrbano has mananged to grow 5.87% when compared to the previous month and raised R$67,031,631 (USD38,878,345.98) in the three largest Brazilian markets alone. Groupon, on the other hand, lost 0.62% in overall revenue in August and raised R$16,641,145 (USD9,651,864.1) in the same markets.

Why Has Peixe Urbano Had More Success in The Brazilian Market Than Groupon?

Why is Peixe Urbano doing better than Groupon in Brazil? One theory is that Peixe Urbano is targeting the types of deals that will hook in the Brazilian market. For example, Peixe Urbano does a lots of happy hour deals, things that target a more spontaneous crowd. Brazilians tend to favor spontaneous activities as opposed to discounts or gift cards that expire after 6 months or a year, so Peixe Urbano’s deals are typically more time-sensitive. Also, Brazilians tend to be less excited about sharing coupons and sales with their friends, so Peixe Urbano is positioning itself as a site to discover cool hidden gems in your city, with the added bonus of saving some money in the process. Peixe Urbano’s slogan is “peixe urbano – exploring your city.”

Peixe Urbano…

peixe urbano

…Vs. Groupon Brazil

Also, it probably didn’t help that when Groupon first launched in Brazil (originally called “Clube Urbano”), its tactics were deceitful. The site was loaded with fake deals, according to TechCrunch, who confirmed that Groupon was advertising deals for venues and locations that didn’t really exist. Shady marketing, Groupon.

groupon brazil - groupon.com.br

So if you are traveling to brazil in search of good deals, Peixe Urbano might worth checkingout.

The Rise Of Online Movie Streaming in Brazil – Netflix & Its Brazilian Competition

The Rise Of Netflix-Like Services For Online Movie Streaming In Brazil

It seems that Netflix, which was unleashed this month in Brazil, is facing some trouble adapting to the prehistoric nature of Brazil’s Broadband internet. The last time I checked, the internet in my family’s house Brazil was still dial-up, they can’t even use the computer and the landline phone at the same time…it’s one or the other. The last time I was there, I tried to show people videos on youtube a couple of times, and the way that worked was by going to the video on youtube, leaving it open on the screen for about half an hour, and then returning to it to watch only when it was fully loaded. I also got berated a few times for being on the internet during the day, because in Brazil, you get charged when you surf online during the daytime (its cheaper at night).

…And these are only some of the horrors plaguing online Brazilians in a country where the infrastructure isn’t advancing fast enough to accommodate services like Netflix that are looking to supply one of the worlds largest and most active contingents of internet users with online video streaming.

So Is The Internet in Brazil Fast Enough?…

…No. Netflix has only recently arrived in Brazil and is offering Brazilians the chance to watch movies over the internet. But it has already been reported (for example, here, in this article by Folha,) that Netflix streaming in HD is choking on Brazilian broadband (and that’s on broadband!). Not everyone in Brazil has broadband…Only 20 percent of Brazil’s 42 million Internet users have a connection speed above 500 kilobytes per second, where a speed of around 800 kilobytes per second is the minimum required to stream movies online.

Netflix Unveils Latin America Service In Brazil

From HuffPost….

Broadband internet reaches a far smaller percentage of homes in Latin America than in the United States, and speeds are slower. Piracy of movies is among the most widespread on the planet, meaning many consumers can pick up a DVD or CD of the latest films for less than a dollar. Also, Netflix has little brand recognition in the region, and in the case of Brazil it already faces a homegrown competitor.

“This just won’t work in Ecuador or Costa Rica or even Mexico as it has in the U.S.,” said analyst Michael Pachter of Webbush Securities. “It’s going to depend on how many households have broadband access and what the quality of the content will be like.”

Only 20 percent of Brazil’s 42 million Internet users have a connection speed above 500 kilobytes per second, according to a May report from Ibope Nielsen Online. A speed of around 800 kilobytes per second is the minimum required to stream movies online.

Netflix subscribers across the region will be able to watch TV shows and movies streamed on a wide range of gadgets. Foreign and domestic content will be offered in Brazil, with some titles dubbed in Portuguese, Spanish or English, and people will also be able to opt for subtitling.

The service in Brazil will cost 14.99 reals per month (about $9), and new subscribers will get the first month for free.

(R$ 15 !?…in my opinion, that’s a little expensive for Brazil)

Who Are Netflix’s Competitors in Brazil?

There are a few Brazilian competitors to Netflix: NetMovies, Terra TV Video Store, Saraiva Digital and Muu. Below is a good comparison of the online streaming competition in Brazil. It’s in Portuguese, so if you need help with the terminology, click Here (and scroll all the way down) for some good Portuguese tech vocab.

Technology News: Facebook Overtakes Google’s Orkut in Brazil

Facebook Overtakes Orkut in Brazil

Is this the beginning of the end for Orkut in Brazil?…

…Looks like it. I closed my Orkut account about a year and a half ago because I was finding that all of my Brazilian friends were flooding to set up facebook accounts, making it unnecessary for me to use both social networks to keep in touch with Brazilian friends and family. (Plus, Orkut just started getting weird after Facebook came out, it started nervously updating all the time to keep up with the fb look, which I think hurt it in the end because it just got creepily similar and lost its simplistic charm. The only unique thing that Orkut may have had going for it in the end was your ability to see who looks at your profile the way that linkedin does….)

In his blog post at Forbes, Ricardo Geromel confirms that last month, Facebook overtook Orkut for most number of users in Brazil for the first time. An Ibope Nielsen survey shows that Facebook’s 30.9 million users (almost 69% of internet users) trumped Orkut’s 29 million on the strength of adding 2.1 million users in August to Orkut’s flat to negative growth.

Geromel points out two considerations:

First, although Ibope Nielsen Online survey is the reference for ranking of Brazilian web audience, it measures the amount of Internet users accessing from work and home. Regrettably, Internet cafes and phone access are not counted. Orkut would probably have more advantage in the first case and Facebook on the second. Second,the survey doesn’t reveal how much time Brazilians spent in each social platform. I strongly believe Brazilians are already spending more time on Facebook than on Orkut.

Noted. But the actual total user numbers don’t really matter at this point. The important numbers are growth rates. And while Facebook is on a significant uptick, Orkut is declining. So even if it’s too close to call, it won’t be by Christmas. Brazilians are still joining Facebook, building their network and adding new friends.

orkut vs. facebook in numbers

 

Orkut…weird name for a social network right? The website is actually named after its creator, Google employee Orkut Büyükkökten.

Social Networks: Where Are Brazilians Meeting Up Online?

Social Networking: Where Are Brazilians Meeting Up Online?

An interesting graphic representation of the use of popular social networks in Brazil, thanks to Marco Vergotti…

Pérolas do Orkut – Brazilian Self-Deprecating Humor

The Brazilian Sense of Humor

I have often thought that I prefer the dry sarcasm and irreverence of American humor to Brazilian humor, which in popular Brazilian culture is often quite obvious, banal and lacking depth (I frequently use the movie “se eu fosse voce” as an example of everything I dislike about Brazilian humor for the masses.) However, if you search deeper, you will find Brazilian humor that is much more intelligent, with a delightful self-deprecating quality in many instances. Brazilians are great at making fun of themselves, they seem to have it down to an art. Brazilian culture and mannerisms have so many idiosyncracies and there is a certain playfulness or silliness with which people speak about the (sometimes harsh) realities of day-to-day life that I have seen nowhere else.

"se eu fosse voce" - an example of bad brazilian humor

I just have to give props to this Brazilian website that i’ve been following for years now, it’s called “Pérolas do Orkut,” (pérola means pearl) it’s basically just a website dedicated to posting the ridiculous conversations people have and photos people post to their Orkut accounts (similar to all of those “facebook fail” sites they have now, but it’s funnier because Brazilians are way more shameless with regards to what they will post on the internet).

This site is very typically Brazilian, take a look and you’ll see what I mean:  http://www.perolasdoorkut.com.br. If brazilian humor is at its best when Brazilians make fun of themselves, then this site exemplifies the aspects of Brazilian life that people find funny. There is almost a pride to it, which I love. Here are some examples of what you will find on Pérolas do Orkut:

making fun of Brazilian's bad spelling (this is an epidemic in Brazil - there is a whole section on "Perolas" dedicated to mispellings on signs etc.) this woman meant to write "Podem ficar com inveja ! Um dia voces vocês terão" "You can get jealous! One day you will!"

even in a country coming out of 3rd world status, you still see things like this

making the best of a bad situation? this is SO brazilian!

Please comment on this post if you have any thoughts on Brazilian humor or comedy, I would love to hear if you agree or not, or anything else you might have to say!

Technology News: Facebook Launches Ad Sales in Brazil

Facebook has opened an ad sales office in São Paulo, Brazil that apparently will serve as the social site’s headquarters for Latin America.

Facebook head of marketing Carolyn Everson mentioned her company’s expansion in an interview with ClickZ at Cannes Lions on Wednesday. “There is a wonderful creative community happening in Brazil. We just opened our São Paulo office,” she said. “That’s a growing market for us.”

In a follow-up email interview, spokesperson Kumiko Hidaka said, “We don’t have much else to share around the office at the moment, but it’s an ad sales office.”

The Palo Alto, CA-based company’s job board lists six sales and marketing positions based in São Paulo that appear to tell more of the story. For instance, it is hiring a sales associate to “sell, evangelize and successfully demonstrate Facebook’s advertising solutions to mid-market advertising agencies and companies.” In addition, under the title of director, online sales and operations, South and Latin America, Facebook is seeking someone to develop “a go to market plan and hiring teams of great people to support Facebook’s advertisers.”

Who else would Facebook find waiting for it in South America but Google? For Brazil in particular, the search giant owns the country’s most popular social networking site in Orkut, where marketers buy ads via the Google Display Network.

According to the Facebook stats site SocialBakers, Facebook has 20 million users in Brazil. It’s been estimated that Orkut has 100 million users worldwide, with more than half of them in Brazil and India. Facebook last year overtook Orkut to be the No. 1 social site in India, and it appears now to be bearing down on the Google property in Brazil.

Brazil has emerged as a hotbed for digital advertising, partially fueled by the country’s role as host of the 2014 Soccer World Cup and 2016 Summer Olympics. 

On Tuesday, online video creator network Poptent opened its first office in São Paulo. Poptent CEO Andy Jedynak told ClickZ that he selected Brazil in part because it is “an extremely vibrant and creative marketplace,” and the company wants to harness some of that energy.

*Sources: http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2081090/facebook-launches-sales-brazil

Instant Messaging / IM / MSN In Brazil – List of Portuguese Chat Abbreviations

Dictionary of Portuguese Internet Abbreviations

Most Brazilians use MSN to chat online with IM. Like in English, Brazilian chat lingo tends to shorten many words, so it takes a little getting used to. Here is a quick reference for some very common online abbreviations used in Portuguese:

portuguese internet slang

rsrsrs – “risos”, dar risada (represents laughter)

ñ, naum – não (no)

vc – você

cd – cadê? (where is…?)

Oq, oke, o q, oque, or oqe – o que (what)

pq – porque? (why?)

q – que (that)

p/, pra or p – para (for)

tbm, tb – também (also, too)

td – “tudo” (all, everything)

blz? – “beleza?” (what’s up, everything good? *full explanation Here)

aki – aqui (here)

vlw – valeu (thanks)

mara – maravilhoso (marvelous)

qlq or qq – qualquer (whatever, whichever)

rpz – rapaz (guy, dude)

msm – mesmo (really, same)

mto, mtu – muito (many, much, a lot)

qro – quero (i want)

qdo, qd, or qnd – quando (when)

qto – quanto (how many)

qm – quem (who)

jah – Já (already)

c/ – com (with)

cmg – comego (with me)

+ ou – – mais ou menos (“i’m ok” {in response to “how are you?”})

flw – falow (slang for “bye”)

xau – tchau (bye)

to – estou (i am)

ta – está (he/she is)

Also, Z’s and X’s are often used to replace other letters in MSN abbreviations, and words with double letters are shortened. Observe:

chocolate – xocolate; achar – axar; passar – pasar; assassino – asasino; asas – azas

 

Lastly, here are some of my other posts which may be helpful when chatting or posting online in Portuguese:

Slang Greetings in Portuguese

List of Words For Dude / Informal Words For Your Friends

Popular Slang Phrases in Portuguese    and finally…

Emoticons in Portuguese

Enjoy! 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

Social Networking in Brazil

Brazilians LOVE social networking.

Brazil adores social networking. A study from 2010 revealed that 86% of internet users in Brazil regularly used an online social network…10% more than Italy, the nearest contender.

But rather than Facebook ruling the roost in Brazil, Google’s Orkut has always outgunned its social networking peers by quite some distance. In August, it was reported that Orkut had around 28 million users in Brazil, almost 500% more than Facebook, which has less than 6 million users.

Traditionally, Orkut has always had a strong following in both Brazil and India, but the latter of these was overtaken by Facebook as the number one social networking platform in August. So can we expect Brazil to follow suit any time soon?

Figures released by Inside Facebook last week revealed that Brazil just crept into Facebook’s top 20 country list at the bottom of the pile. But on closer inspection, Brazil enjoyed the fastest growth in Facebook uptake in the second-tier – ‘11th-20th ranked’ – countries, with the number of users jumping over 250% in the twelve months to October 2010.

Continuing on this trajectory, Brazil is likely to hit 10 million users sometime in 2011. This growth may in part be due to Facebook’s activity in the area, as it has tried to lure the local online population away from a network that has over half its users in Brazil.

In September last year, Facebook’s existing users in Brazil were invited to import their contacts directly into Facebook thanks to a new tool. They were then told which of their Orkut contacts also had a Facebook account – then were invited to send a friend request. So this may well have a large part to play in the growth of Facebook over the past year.

As online populations start to grow at a faster rate in developing countries, there’s bound to be a Facebook boom in Brazil very soon, with an exponential growth spurt on the horizon.

Furthermore, Orkut had a big head start in Brazil and has been growing in popularity for over five years there. Facebook has only been available in Portuguese for a couple of years, after Google had already upped its Orkut sticks and shifted permanently to be managed and operated on the ground in Brazil.

As Facebook goes from strength to strength in Brazil, there’s a fair chance the country will be Facebook’s first South American hub. It may be the only Portuguese-speaking country on the continent, but with around 200 million people living there, it is the world’s fifth most populated country and constitutes roughly half the population of the whole of South America. That’s a lot of amigos for Facebook to make.

*Sources:

http://thenextweb.com/

Here is some good vocab and terms used in Brazilian social networking:

Orkut – this social networking site was for a long time like the Brazilian Facebook, everyone had an Orkut page. but these days Facebook is becoming about equal in popularity. (Check it out: Orkut.com)

comunidade – means community, is used in social networking to refer to a group, such as a Facebook group.

senha – password

bate-papo – means “chat,” used also to mean: chat room. (The most popular site for online chat rooms in Brazil is UOL.com. Check it out.)

cadastrar-se – sign up/create an account

fazer login/entrar – to login

sair – to log out

adicionar – to add (a friend)

Basic Portuguese Computer Terms

Brazil has become famous for its computer hackers and tech obsession. Although tech gadgets are much more expensive in Brazil than they are in the states (next time you go, try bringing a few iphones to sell and see the crazy profits you can make), that does not mean that people obsess over the newest technology any less. Here’s a Portuguese vocab list for all of you wondering about basic computer and tech terminology.

tecnologia – technology

eletrônico – electronic

armazenamento – storage

o computador – the computer

a memória – the memory

o botão – the button

“ligar/ desligar o computador” – to turn on / off the computer

clicar – to click

o arquivo, or a pasta – file

selecionar – to select

salvar – to save

apagar (or deletar) – to delete

copiar – to copy

colar – to paste

editar – to edit

imprimir – to print

baixar – to download (or you can say: “dar download”)

a tela – the screen

a impressora – the printer

o teclado – the keyboard

as caixas de som – speakers

gravador de DVD – DVD burner

processador – processor

o documento – the document

sem-fio – wireless

janela – window

vírus – virus

vídeo – video

atualizar – to update

planilha – spreadsheet

uma programa – a program, software

configurações– settings

o servidor – server

enviar – to send (to)

a segurança – security

receber – to receive

o projetor – projector

o programador – programmer

a senha – password

notebook – laptop

o jogo de computador – computer game

o engenheiro – engineer

cartão de memória – memory card

ajuda – help

gráficos – graphics

formatar – to format

fonte – font

um erro – an error

os dados – data

a copiadora – copier

o código – code

a calculadora – calculator

o cabo – cable

inteligência artificial – artificial intelligence

um fio – a (computer) wire, cable

aplicação – application

algoritmo – algorithm

acessórios – accessories

o disco rígido – hard drive

o pen driver – a USB flash drive

botar – to put (up), as in to upload a file

digitar – to type

rascunho – draft

anexar um arquivo – to attach a file

denunciar spam – to report spam

lixeira – trash  

assunto – subject 

navegador – browser

assinatura – signature 

aba – tab

banda larga – broadband

cadastrar-se – sign up/create an account

fazer login/entrar – to login

sair – to log out

 

“eu botei as fotos no meu Orkut.” – “i put the pictures up on my Orkut.” (*Orkut was for a long time like the Brazilian Facebook, everyone had an Orkut page. but these days Facebook is becoming about equal in popularity.)

“João, salva o documento nessa janela e desliga o computador para mim, por favor.” – “John, save the document in this window and turn the computer off for me, please.”

*”mouse,” “ipod,” “website” (or “site”), “software,” “hardware,” “modem,” “joystick,” “fax,” “demo,” and “monitor” are all the same words in Portuguese, just pronounced with their accent

Vocab: The Internet: Emoticons in Portuguese

Internet Emoticons in Portuguese

Here are some pictures of emoticons used commonly on MSN, etc. and their description in Portuguese: Click HERE for a list of Brazilian Portuguese abbreviations commonly used in In MSN, Orkut or chat.