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.

News: Google Street View Takes Its Camera to the Amazon

Google Street View Heads to the Amazon, Enables Virtual River Excursions

Get ready to explore of one of the world’s most-remote regions with just a click of your mouse. No bug spray necessary.

Google is sending its street view camera around the Amazon River basin by boat and bike. It announced on its blog:

We’ll pedal the Street View trike along the narrow dirt paths of the Amazon villages and maneuver it up close to where civilization meets the rainforest. We’ll also mount it onto a boat to take photographs as the boat floats down the river. The tripod — which is the same system we use to capture imagery of business interiors — will also be used to give you a sense of what it’s like to live and work in places such as an Amazonian community center and school.

Let’s just start by saying that this is amazing. The Amazon is a place few will visit in their lifetimes. Of course Street View (or should it be renamed River View?) isn’t the same as being there. But what it may lack in quality it makes up for in quantity — the many millions of people who, right from their own homes, will be able to explore one of the most remote places on earth. That alone is cool, albeit in a way different than the experience of actually being there. (And the Amazon is just one example: Google Street View is opening up many of the coolest places on earth for people to see from home. You can easily spend hours “walking” around European capitals or huge swaths of Japan.)

The Amazon isn’t the only part of Brazil getting Google’s street-view treatment. Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Belo Horizonte are all available for exploring, lest the rest of the world think that the Amazon is the entirety of the country.

Read More, Via The Atlantic…

(Backwards) Technology News: Brazil Comes Out With 1st Disposable Cell Phone!

Wow, we know that Brazil is really moving up in the world when in 2011 it comes out with the country’s first “disposable” (prepaid) phone. Get ready for it, perfect for drug dealers people on the go! The cellphone, pictured below made by “Alcatel,” will be sold in Brazilian supermarkets for a costly $80 Reais. Here’s the article from Globo…

Celular ‘descartável’ chega ao Brasil por R$ 80

Aparelho será vendido em supermercado em embalagem blister.
One touch 208 é desbloqueado e tem rádio FM.

A Alcatel lançou no mercado brasileiro um celular com o conceito de “descartável”. O aparelho one touch 208 será vendido desbloqueado e em embalagem blister pelo preço de R$ 80. A recarga para poder falar por mais tempo custará R$ 12.

Aparelhos como esse nos Estados Unidos são vendidos como descartáveis. Com este conceito, o cliente pode comprar o aparelho no supermercado e já pode utilizá-lo. “A embalagem blister no conceito self service é uma prática já muito difundida nos Estados Unidos. O usuário tem a oportunidade de visualizar o aparelho com facilidade e adquiri-lo rapidamente”, explica o CEO da Alcatel one touch no Brasil, Marcus Daniel Machado…

Read More / Leia Mais… Via Globo

Technology News: Google Says “Cloud Networks” Are The Future of the Internet / Article In Portuguese With Technology Vocab

Cloud Computing – The Future of the Internet

Computação nas Nuvens – O Futuro da Internet

I have been reading a lot on the subject of cloud computing lately (in Portuguese, called “computação nas nuvens“), and have come to the realization that the cloud model will soon make network hardware obsolete. Basically, cloud computing means that the information from your office computer will not be stranded on an individual machine, but rather, that information will be stored in a digital “cloud,” and will be accessible at the touch of a finger from any portable device. This is huge.

A friend of mine in the Boston area has been working on a new company that offers cloud-based services. One of the things that is so great about the cloud computing model is that data can be stored anywhere and accessed from anywhere – no longer bound by the desktop computer or by local server capacity.  Thus my friend’s company has already gained clients in several different countries, including Brazil, even though they are based in the US.

If you are a new start-up I highly recommend looking into cloud computing. If you want more information, Here is the link for my friend’s company site “All IT Host,” and their cloud concept is called “Nephelo.”

Brazilian Tech Entrepreneurs in Boston Aim High With Cloud-Based Services

Also, here is a Portuguese article I found that offers a basic description of cloud computing. This article comes from  Tec Mundo, a great Brazilian site for reading up on technology…

O que é Computação em Nuvens?

A computação nas nuvens, em inglês chamada de “cloud computing”, é uma tendência na internet do futuro. Mas você sabe o que significa essa expressão?

Acredita-se que no futuro ninguém mais precisará instalar nenhum software em seu computador para desempenhar qualquer tipo de tarefa, desde edição de imagens e vídeos até a utilização de programas de escritório (Office), pois tudo isso será acessível através da internet.

Estes são os chamados serviços online. Ou seja, você simplesmente cria uma conta no site, utiliza o aplicativo online e pode salvar todo o trabalho que for feito para acessar depois de qualquer lugar. É justamente por isso que o seu computador estará nas nuvens, pois você poderá acessar os aplicativos a partir de qualquer computador que tenha acesso à internet.

O Google é uma empresa que acredita muito de que isso já está se tornando realidade, pois já traz uma porção de aplicativos que rodam diretamente em seu navegador.

Leia Mais / Read The Rest…

Portuguese Vocab From The Article:

tendência – trend

instalar – to install

desempenhar – to exercise or fulfill a function or task

tarefa – task / assignment

programas de escritório – office programs

“acessível através da internet” – “accessible through the internet”

serviços – services

“cria uma conta no site” – “create an account on the site”

“o trabalho que for feito “ – “the work that is done” (“for” is the verb “ser” conjugated in the subjunctive)

“…a partir de qualquer computador que tenha acesso à internet” – “…from any computer that has internet access” (“tenha” is the subjunctive form of the verb “ter”)

uma empresa – a company / business

“…já está se tornando” – “…already is becoming”

“aplicativos que rodam…” – “…applications that run…”

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