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Internet Market in Brazil to Grow
By Elzio Barreto
S ource: Financial Post

Google Inc., the most-used Internet search engine, expects ``high growth'' in Brazil as more people in Latin America's largest economy gain access to computers, the company's co-founder Sergey Brin said.

Google, which in July 2005 bought Brazilian research company Akwan Information Technologies Inc. for an undisclosed sum, expects a ``jump'' in high-speed Internet users, Brin said.

``There's already a lot of Internet activity and it's such a large country that it's going to grow very rapidly,'' Brin said at a news conference yesterday in Sao Paulo. ``There's no particular hurdle to get more people. It's not like the wires aren't there, it's not like there are any laws, regulations to make it hard to access. Once you have more broadband, you're going to have much more activity.''

The number of residential Internet users in Brazil rose 12 percent in 2005 from the previous year to 12.4 million people, according to a Jan. 18 report by researcher Ibope//NetRatings. Brazilians spent 18 hours a month on the Internet in December, more than any other country among 11 nations ranked in the report that included the U.S., Japan, Australia and France.

Google's Brin said doing business in Brazil is easier than in India or China because of the Latin American country's regulations and telecommunications infrastructure.

``Those two are also very interesting to us, but I think Brazil lacks a lot of the difficulties some of those other markets have,'' Brin said. ``Brazil has fairly free economy, it's very frictionless doing business here. For us, we see it as a really easy to do business and one where business is going to grow a lot.''

Shares of Mountain View, California-based Google fell $6.67 to $426.82 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading. They have risen 2.9 percent this year.