Articles

In April 2010, the Rio de Janeiro beach town of Buzios will set the stage for a special gathering of some of the world’s leading brands in Brazil. Think Latin America will involve the participation of giant brands and corporations, which will reveal their strategies for conquering this market. [Read more...]

In 2009, the global economy has gone through such radical changes that everything seemed to be collapsing at once. Yet another revolution has been going on for years now: emerging economies, especially the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China), have entered the global arena to play a much more important role than the one to which they were delegated a few decades back. What is more astonishing is that the superpowers in the Northern Hemisphere today are in a much more complicated situation than Brazil, for instance. The ever-promising giant that for decades had been praised by Brazilian politicians, economists and the people in general as “the country of the future” only recently started to accomplish its own messianic predictions. [Read more...]

Portuguese is the fifth world language, spoken by some 200 million people on the continents of Europe, South America, Africa and Asia. Of this total, 176 million live in Brazil, the country referred to as the “South American giant.” [Read more...]

The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) recently applied a new methodology to calculate the country’s GDP revealing that the Brazilian economy is US$102 billion bigger than formerly thought. According to the consulting firm Austin Rating, the 11% increase found through the new calculation positions Brazil back among the 10th largest economies in the world, ahead of India, Australia, The Netherlands and South Korea. In 2005 alone, the Brazilian GDP reached US$882 billion. Does this mean that Brazil will manage to reach a detached position among the world leading exporters of IT services and products? How can language industry companies and professionals benefit from this trend? What can we do to help fulfill Brazilian’s long-awaited dream to become the “country of the future?” [Read more...]

With its renowned laid-back population and stunning landscape of mountains that meet the sea, the so-called Wonderful City may not seem like an appropriate location for an important localization hub. However, some 10 years ago, major localization companies, including LMI, BGS and SimulTrans, decided to venture into the country by opening offices in Rio de Janeiro. During that time, they trained hundreds of resources to become expert professionals in the field. These companies chose Brazil – and Rio de Janeiro in particular – for a reason. [Read more...]

Willy Brandt once said, “If I’m selling to you, I speak your language. If I’m buying from you, dann müssen Sie Deutsch sprechen.” This quote has served as the epigraph for a number of papers on localization, yet it seems to me that the former German chancellor’s words only address half of the issue concerning our vendors, prospects and clients in the Far East. [Read more...]