International Tech Hubs 3rd ed. - Digital Magazine plugd:in

International Tech Hubs 3rd ed. - Digital Magazine plugd:in

INTERNATIONAL TECH HUBS

THIRD EDITION | JUNE 2021

POWERED BY BDO

INTERNATIONAL TECH HUBS THIRD EDITION | BDO LLP

INTRODUCTION Welcome to the third edition of our International Tech Hubs ebook, brought to you by BDO’s plugd:in platform. Our latest insights provide new and exciting insights into some of the world’s fastest growing tech hubs. Featuring knowledge from BDO’s expert partners from around the globe, we analyse each location to assess the benefits and advantages available to start-ups, scale-ups, inward investors, established businesses and investors, to help broaden their horizons and showcase unrealised opportunities for international growth and expansion. • Brazil: a growing global influence with direct links to the USA • Japan: a truly international country with a first-class talent pool • Portugal: one of Europe’s most progressive start-up ecosystems • Saudi Arabia: the largest ICT market in the Middle East • Thailand: a thriving digital ecosystem with a can-do business culture • Indonesia: a rising investment destination for forward-thinking stakeholders. Over the past year, as the COVID 19 pandemic continued to put limits on day-to-day business in many sectors, technology businesses have scaled and innovated strongly to help businesses to accelerate transformation to meet the growing demands of our digital lifestyle. All over the world, governments have redoubled their efforts to invest in and provide for tech start-ups, creative digital solutions and new intellectual properties, in mind of facilitating their own infrastructures to ride out the pandemic and realise a new and prosperous future on the other side. TONY SPILLETT Partner & National Head of Technology & Media Editor in Chief, BDO UK

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BDO LLP | INTERNATIONAL TECH HUBS THIRD EDITION

CONTENTS

PORTUGAL 13

INDONESIA 05 JAPAN 09 THAILAND 21

SAUDI ARABIA 17

01

INTERNATIONAL TECH HUBS THIRD EDITION | BDO LLP

BRAZIL

With expert input from Dario Lima, a Partner based in our São Paulo office who heads up the Department of Professional Practice and Risk Management and the Capital Markets Group for BDO Brazil. Dario has worked extensively in the technology, media and telecommunications industries with a focus on capital markets and industry growth in Latin America.

INDEED, BRAZIL HAS THE FIFTH BIGGEST CONSUMER LANDSCAPE FOR MOBILE PHONE USAGE WORLDWIDE, WITH EVEN THOSE IN LOWER- INCOME GROUPS OFTEN OWNING TWO CELL PHONES .

The size of the country, spread along the south of the Americas, provides a wealth of opportunities for businesses to expand their tech offerings. This is especially so in the fintech space, which is already beginning to revolutionise payment and banking technology in response to a move by the Brazilian Central Bank (BCB) to open the payment processing market to include non-traditional players (“Pix”, a new instant payment technology by BCB, now enables people and businesses to transfer money and make or receive payments in less than 10 seconds, using only mobile apps). The uptake of technology services has of course been further accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic, with an increasing number of individuals and businesses now requiring access to remote technologies and >Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28

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