Nova Raider / Copyright: European Games Group AG

European Games Group launched the online space game Nova Raider now also in Brazil. The game that already is a big success in France is now internationalized to other countries with Games Group’s support. Nova Raider features fast paced PvP battles with a class system for innovative group play and both, single and cooperative PvE content with real time events.

The Brazilian version can be accessed at www.novaraider.com.br

The game was developed by Sublinet (France) and is distributed and commercialized internationally by European Games Group AG. Tim Fabian Besser, Managing Partner of Besser International, is also Co-Founder and CEO Latin America of European Games Group.

Hero Zero / Copyright: European Games Group AG

Hero Zero is a “Free2Play” MMO (massive multiplayer online) online browsergame with broadly appealing graphics. Launched in January 2012, the game has now more than 800.000 players in Germany, France, Poland, and the UK.

Players start as a regular “guy / girl next door” and begin to uncover a conspiracy, solve missions, equip their character and over time evolve to a real super hero.

Hero Zero now also published in Brazilian Portuguese (www.herozero.com.br) and in Mexican Spanish (www.herozero.com.mx).

The game was developed by Playata GmbH (Germany) and is distributed and commercialized internationally by European Games Group AG. Tim Fabian Besser, Managing Partner of Besser International, is also Co-Founder and CEO Latin America of European Games Group.

Logo InfraCrete / Copyright: InfraCrete GmbH

InfraCrete is used as an additive to the usual cement for the stabilisation of soil. Without having to change the soil, and in a fast and safe way, nearly all soils (except for peat) can be utilised to become base courses with extremely high strength, with or without a low wearing surface (e.g. asphalt). In the same operation, pollutants which are hazardous to the environment can be permanently immobilised in the soil. After a short period of time the areas which have been treated with InfraCrete will not absorb water, so that construction can be carried out independently of the weather.

InfraCrete consists of various alkaline and geo-alkaline elements, as well as other complex compounds. It neutralises the fulvic and carboxylic acids and thus boosts the cement hydration processes. Structural changes by the additional neoformation of minerals during the cement hydration result in a considerable increase of the pressure resistance, the modulus of elasticity, the bending and longitudinal strength and frost resistance (without crack formation).

In contrast to conventional road construction, InfraCrete uses the natural resources to build the base course on site. The road structure reinforcement, compared to the regular construction, is drastically reduced while increasing the base course at the same time. InfraCrete base courses show a load-bearing capacity which is 5 to 8 times higher than conventional base courses made from gravel. Due to the increased load-bearing capacity, the thickness of the wearing surface can be reduced. In contrast to the asphalt construction of conventional base courses, which is more than 20cm thick, the thickness of the InfraCrete base courses can be greatly reduced or left out completely. Along with the revolutionary InfraCrete construction, the reduction of the wearing surface has a time and cost saving effect on the building project.

For further information please access: www.infracrete.com

Logo Simpleshow / Copyright: Maria GmbH

The Simpleshow is a video format that explains everything in a very simple way. It illustrates a topic, a product or a problem in a maximum of five minutes. The viewer gets an overview of the facts and an understanding of the context. Visual language is reduced to the essential, and is therefore intuitive and memorable.

Lots of German and international companies already use the Simpleshow for training of employees, marketing and sales activities.

Besser International now brings the Simpleshow to Brazil.

Here you can see a self-explaining video of the Simpleshow (in Portuguese):

If you are interested in further information please contact:
simpleshow (a) besserinternational.com

This will be the fifth EU-Brazil Business Summit taking place alongside the annual political summit, which rotates between Brazil and the EU. Brazil is one of Europe’s key trading partners, accounting for nearly 40% of total trade between the EU and Latin America. It is also a key destination for EU foreign investment.

The EU-Brazil Business Summit will give an opportunity to Brazilian and European business leaders to attend high-level discussions at the CEO Round Table that will be followed by an EU-Brazil networking lunch.

The new President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso and European Council President Herman Van Rompuy have been invited to attend.

Topics to be discussed at the summit will likely include:

- ICT, Telecom

- Chemicals

- Pharmaceuticals

- Infrastructure

- EU-MERCOSUR FTA negotiations

- Energy Climate Change

- EU-Brazil Strategic Partnership

- SME Panel

More informations on the website of EUBRASIL.

The conference is aimed at developers and the national and Latin American gaming market.

More information on the website of the Brasil Game Show.

Brazilians most frequently access journals through electronic devices such as tablets and smartphones, according to research from comScore, a company that measures internet data around the world. In a list of 13 countries, Brazil is followed by Chile and Britain as the most active in accessing news sites by devices other than desktops and notebooks.

The result indicates that, of all countries studied (Britain, Singapore, Japan, United States, Spain, Chile, Argentina, Germany, France, India, Canada, Australia), Brazilians were significantly more likely to access newspaper websites through non-computer devices, with a index of 316, followed by Chilean (226) and British (184) internet users.

When it comes to accessing journalistic content via computers, Argentina tops the list with 98.6% of its traffic to newspaper portals. Following this is Brazil, with 98.1%, but tied with Germany. However, in total only 1% of access to newspaper websites in Brazil is made by mobile devices, 0.8% of this via tablets and 0.1% for others.

Another highlight of the study shows the impact of the iPad and other tablets in the world. According to comScore, when it comes to internet access by devices other than computers, the iPad is the most widely used, with 89% of the traffic recorded in tablets. Canada has the highest use of Apple devices (33.5%), followed by Brazil (31.8%), where Android represents only 1.6% of the tablets. Among smartphones, the iPhone is the most used by Brazilians to access the Internet (21%), followed by Android devices (11.7%) and other operating systems (11.3%). The iPod Touch accounts for 4.1% of non-computer traffic in Brazil. Other devices such as those used for video games and music players account for only 1.1%.

More information about the research from comScore here.

23 June 2011

Bain finds that department stores and direct-owned luxury stores saw continued double digit sales increases in February and March versus 2010, selling out on much of their Spring/Summer 2011 inventory. Additionally, stores have placed robust orders for the Fall/Winter 2012 seasons and have restocked sold-out inventory levels, especially in accessories, leather goods and hard luxury categories such as jewelry and watches. Retailers interviewed for the Bain study expressed a high level of confidence that consumers will keep coming into stores and continue making purchases with the same vigor that preceded the global financial crisis.

“Luxury has made a brilliant return to the retail stage, but the script has been re-written,” said Claudia D’Arpizio, a Bain partner in Milan and lead author of the study. “More demanding customers, generational shifts, new loyalty rules, an increasingly integrated offline and digital customer experience and the continued growth of China and other fast-growing markets are transforming the luxury industry.”

Bain forecasts that sales in the Americas for 2011 will grow by eight percent, to nearly 52 billion euros. The U.S. will remain the world’s largest luxury goods market. China will see 25 percent year-over-year growth this year, putting Greater China (including Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) in a strong position to exceed sales in Japan for the first time. Growth in Europe will reach seven percent in 2011 and Japan will see declines of five percent, due, in part to structural decline and also the impact of the recent earthquake. However, the Bain study estimates that Japan’s luxury sales will stabilize starting in the third quarter of 2011, as consumption recovers and as reconstruction drives GDP growth. In fact, even as Tokyo stores reopened in the two weeks after the earthquake, brands reported a quick resumption of sales to expected levels, with little impact in southern cities such as Osaka.

The study also predicts that growth in emerging markets will remain the focus of luxury manufacturers for the next two to three years. Lifestyle changes have driven a return of luxury goods sales in Russia (five to 10 percent annual growth). New store openings will fuel growth in the Middle East (10 percent to 12 percent), while Brazil will see heavy investment by international brands (10 percent to 15 percent). China’s fast-growing wealth will fuel both same store sales growth and new store openings.

“The emerging market consumer continues to create the most exciting challenges for our industry,” said Santo Versace, Chairman of Fondazione Altagamma. “Even as we adjust to the maturing of the North American and European markets, consumers in countries like China are becoming more demanding and more sophisticated in their luxury tastes.”

The Bain study concludes with a look ahead to 2014 and beyond, estimating a 214 billion euros to 221 billion euros market within three years, and recommending three keys to “owning the luxury goods future”:

• Deep focus on emerging markets-penetration; route-to-market; a tailored value proposition
• Adaptation to the continuing generational shift-baby-boomers retiring; Generation Z (always connected)
• Continuous enhancement of the customer experience-increase loyalty and satisfaction; integrated online and offline experiences; unrelenting service

“Emerging markets are doing more than generating revenues,” concluded Bain’s D’Arpizio. “New consumers are also forcing luxury brands to become much more nimble in the merchandise selection and customer experience they offer to increasingly diverse consumers.”

The study can be downloaded here (pdf).

Source: Bain & Company

15 June 2011

An increasing number of Brazilians are buying over the Internet. Of the 73 million people who accessed the Internet in 2009, 19% purchased products online, that is 11.97 million people. These are some of the numbers presented in the survey “Online Sales in Brazil: an Analysis of User Profiles and Supply by Commercial Sector”, published by IPEA in Brasilia on June 2.

According to the study, men shop more and use more web services (22%) than women (17%). The predominant group of e-consumers is between 35 and 44 years old (29%), followed closely by those between 45 and 59 (26%) and the group between 25 and 34 (also 26%). Web surfers older than 60 also represent a significant percentage of electronic commerce. 22% compared to 18% by the group of users aged from 16 to 24 years.

The higher the level of education and economic class, the greater the proportion of users of e-commerce. The study found that 59% of consumers from class A, 33% from class B and 13% from class C have purchased products and services online. The percentage from classes D and E are altogether 5%. “The likelihood of a person in class D or E having a credit card is lower than that of a person belonging to class B or A. This influences the results of the survey as most payments for online shopping are made by credit card”, the survey points out.

Broken down regionally, the majority of electronic commerce is in the southeast, and the northeast appears last. Most people who buy through the Internet live in urban areas, i.e. 20% compared to 9% of e-consumers in rural areas. The study says that consumers, especially those living in smaller cities, have more to gain from electronic commerce.

“They can compare prices from different suppliers, without the need for phone calls or physical displacement. There is also a possibility of free shipping”, according to the survey. Examples of this are the major internet portals that do not charge shipping costs for the purchase of computers.

Evolution of e-commerce

On the supply side, the survey mentions that the growth of e-commerce in the retail sector “has been intense in recent years”. The number of retailers who used the Internet as a channel for sales rose from 1,305 in 2003 to 4,818 in 2008, an increase of 269%. Revenue rose from R$ 2.4 billion in 2003 to R$ 5.9 billion in 2008, an increase of 145%.

Data from the Brazilian Chamber of Electronic Commerce (camara-e.net) confirm this trend. Recently, the organization reported that the sector’s revenues in 2010 were around R$ 14.8 billion for product purchases alone.

For Gaston Mattos, consultant of the Online Retail Committee of camara-e.net, which encompasses 23 companies from all sectors or possible segments, the IPEA study confirms the momentum of online business in the country. “Few sectors of our economy sustained the continuous double-digit annual growth over the past 10 years such as that demonstrated by online retail sales”, he said. “The industry grew, even during the recent global crisis, which affected various forms of business. The positive prospects for the online sales channel on the horizon should increase the motivation of entrepreneurs in this segment”, he added.

The president of camara-e.net, Manuel Matos, believes that electronic commerce will tend to grow, especially in the provision of services such as the sales of airline tickets. “The principal factors which indicate robust growth in e-commerce are the expansion of broadband and the experience of online users, as they gain in confidence using electronic commerce”, he said in a recent interview with the business magazine Isto É Dinheiro.

See the full IPEA surveyhere (in portuguese).

Source: camara-e.net

3 June 2011

Copyright: Besser International

Brazil has become the most attractive investment destination for international trading companies for the first time, thereby displacing China from the top position. Uruguay and Chile are in second and third places respectively. India is in fourth place. They are followed by Kuwait, China, Saudi Arabia, Peru, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey, which has climbed eight places. This is shown by the Global Retail Development Index 2011 carried out by the consulting firm A.T. Kearney which has analyzed the attractiveness of 30 emerging markets for retailers annually over the past ten years.

South America is now the big winner of this year’s ranking: four countries being among the top ten; South American countries have weathered the global economic crisis well and demonstrated considerable growth rates in 2010.

Michael Moriarty, A.T. Kearney partner and study co-leader said, “Brazil is an attractive target expansion market with expected GDP growth of 5 percent per year over the next five years, a large and highly urban population, and surging retail sales.” He also observed, “In addition to the substantial investment in infrastructure which the Brazilian government is planning, inflows of foreign capital are rising dramatically as well.”

Further information on the survey as well as the entire index can be found here.

6 June 2011