@ Contenido Movil: Problems With Business In LatAm

There’s some problems with running a mobile content business in Latin America above and beyond the network issues…For example, a manager for a large mobile content provider that operates in many countries throughout Latin America spoke of the tough time his company was having getting into Brazil. “More or less they have one major carrier in brazil, Vivo. And Vivo is very fickle about who they’re letting onto their deck, ” he said. “You have to be in good with one guy, and if you’re in good with that one guy he’ll let you in, but if you’re not really in good or you’re not giving him the deal he wants he just doesn’t let you on his deck.”
Another major problem is getting money out of countries. A lot of people at the conference said it was easy to make money in a lot of Latin American countries but difficult to get it back to the parent company. The most referenced country in this regard was Venezuela, where the government has set a limit on how much funds you can transfer into other countries. Once you’ve reached that limit you have to either exchange the money on the black market (at a far worse exchange rate) or leave it in Venezuela. At least one company has responded by moving a lot of its development to Venezuela, which is probably want the government wants.

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