Época Magazine publishes article about Brazilian software exports and features D'Accord. (05/05/2008)
The edition of May 05th, 2008 of the Época Magazine, informs that there was an increase on software exports and technology services in Brazil. Among the Brazilian companies presented in the article, they talk about D'Accord as an example of company that exports in the software area.
You can see below the article in English.
Who said that Brazil doesn't export software?
How a group of entrepreneurs is conquering the foreign market and growing with software and technology services exportation. [by João Loes]
It is common to think that Brazil doesn't have the inclination to export high tech products and with aggregated value. its destiny would be to sell only raw material and foods. Maybe also some industrial products such as airplanes and cars. But it is not exactly like that. In the last years, the country multiplied the exports of software and technology services.
According to the Association to Promote the Excellence of Brazilian Software (Softex), Brazil sold US$ 800 millions at this area last year, 13 times more than ten years ago.
It is still a small amount considering that the whole market had, according to Softex, US$ 1,3 trillions in revenues in 2007 in the world. It is a little percentage of the US$ 40 billions that India, one of the leaders of this market, exports each year. It's important to notice that since the initial base was small, any increase would have significant impact on the result. Even thou, Brazilian accomplishments shows that there is space to conquer a higher position at that market.
"In terms of technical expertise, Brazil is prepared to attend the global demands", says Antônio Carlos Gil, president of the Brazilian Association of Software and Services Exportation Companies (Brasscom).
Among the Brazilians companies exporting in this area, there are companies of all sizes - from small ones with revenues lower than R$ 500 thousand per year, such as the music software developer D'Accord, in Recife, to giants like Politec, with earnings over R$ 550 millions in 2007, specialized on the development of software for the financial system. "We transformed Brazil in a reference in the technology area", says Humberto Luiz Ribeiro, patner and vice-president of Politec.
Exporting is not always easy. The government, according to the businessmen, gives few or none support to foreign selling. One of the difficulties is to convince consumers that Brazil is capable of developing innovative programs and offering services with global quality.
But a group of Brazilian entrepreneurs seems to insist to move against the logic.
:: Virtual Chords for 65 countries
A company from Recife grows selling musical software through the internet.
The founders of D'Accord, a company located in Recife, specialized in music software, Américo Amorim and Giordano Cabral did their first external sales through the internet. In 2003, they say, a year later they have released the first software for guitar, a costumer from the foreign market "downloaded" the english version of the program on the site download.com. He payed US$ 29 with his credit card, and recieved the software immediately without having customs bureaucracy. "It was a big surprise", says Amorim, that is 26 years-old, same age of the other partner. Today, D'Accord offers more than ten music software through the web.
They have contracted nine programmers and one musician. D'Accord sold already, according to the partners, 160 thousand copies in 65 countries since the beginning of the business. In 2007, they said that the revenues achieved around R$ 400 thousand.
Now, the company is developing a music game for DJs. To increase the foreign business, they did a partnership with RegNow, american company that provides an e-commerce plataform for electronic software distribution (ESD). "If you have a site and can can get traffic to it, you can export all of a sudden", says Amorim.
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