Brazil @ Mobile World Congress and Cebit 2012

Just filling the gap of the news about the Mobile World Congress, here is an analysis that I have posted for Pulso Social while still in Barcelona.

The Mobile World Congress, the biggest annual event of the mobile industry, gathers people from all over the world and is well-known as the place for the big announcements, launches and the highest quality networking in this industry. This year, the presence of China was impressive; India also got several awards at the Global Mobile Awards 2012; Africa was always representing the emerging markets; in the exhibition pavilions, several countries have supported their entrepreneurs and have offered a representative country pavilion in the exhibition. But the Latin American and even the Brazilian presence in the bigger discussions, keynotes and exhibition was still way under the radar.

As we have talked before, the Brazilian market besides not being exactly a small market, reached a point where you have more cell phones than inhabitants. The growth in the apps industry was impressive in the last year. The carriers are financially doing very well. Even though, our official presence was much smaller than what was seen at Cebit in the following week, for example.

Particularly this year, when Brazil was the official Partner Country of Cebit, the intensive support of the government and the proximity of the events made the choice of investment and presence easier for the Brazilian entrepreneurs.

Cebit

CeBIT is historically a much more significant destination for Brazilian high tech companies than the MWC and is known as the world's largest trade fair showcasing digital IT and telecommunications solutions for home and work environments. With a broader targeted audience than MWC, the key target groups are users from industry, the wholesale/retail sector, skilled trades, banks, the services sector, government agencies, science and all users passionate about technology.

The trade fair was opened in 2012 by Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany, Dilma Roussef, President of Brazil, and Eric Schmidt, Google's Chairman, who was launching the Google Chrome for Android at the MWC a couple of days before, in Barcelona.

Unfortunately, I haven’t the chance to also attend the Cebit, but I had the chance to follow the news and personal posts in my social networks, featuring the huge presence of Brazilian exhibitors along several pavilions, focusing on petroleum and agriculture, financial and organizations such as Apex Brasil, telecommunications, banking and financial services, e-solutions for governments, gaming, digital TV and more.

The Partner Country role reflects the relevance of the Brazilian economy for Germany and Europe. Dilma Roussef highlighted the impact of the European crises for the BRICS economies, especially Brazil, along the event.

Mobile World Congress

With about 70,000 attendees, according to the Fira Barcelona, it was not hard to find Brazilians talking in the halls, lines and even in the small meetings taking place all over the huge area of the congress. The event is a unique chance to meet up with the big mobile players, partners, and potential customers from all over the world, which attracts several executives and entrepreneurs to the MWC every year.

ProFUSION embedded systems, a Brazilian software development company focused on the Operating System (OS) level development and based in Campinas, got the best out if the congress even without a stand or meeting room. According to its founder, Gustavo Sverzut Barbieri, “Profusion’s interest in the MWC ranges from knowing the trends of the market to talk with customers about opportunities. It was good to engage with new customers while evolving our projects with a major hardware manufacturer. We are looking forward to attend the MWC 2013, when we expect be able to present the results of this work to the congress’ audience”.

Movile, a leading mobile entertainment services company in Latin America is always a presence at the Mobile World Congress. According to its CEO, Fabricio Bloisi, this year they have scheduled over 30 strategic meetings with partners and potentials customer from everywhere in their own space at one of the exhibition’s pavilions. Another Brazilian company with an official presence in the congress was .mobi, with a stand in the App Planet Pavilion, one of the most popular exhibition’s area. Both companies are heavily expanding their businesses into other regions, such as US.

Next year, the Mobile World Congress will take place in another venue. Although not as iconic as the Fira Montjüic, next year we are probably going to have even more attendees and exhibitors.

I am looking forward to see a more intensive presence of Brazil and Latin America in the next edition.