Telecommunications Infrastructure
Computing & Internet Diffusion
Analysis: Strengths & Weaknesses
Analysis: Impacts on non-IT business
IT Geographics
With the highest per capita GDP, a highly educated middle class and a trained labor force, Buenos Aires, was on a direct path to become the hub for connectivity, internet start-ups and the coming wave of e-commerce in all of Latin America, that is up until the economic recession worsened in the past year.
Geography of the Population
The indigenous population, estimated at 700,000 is concentrated in the provinces of the north, northwest, and south. The Argentine population has one of Latin America's lowest growth rates. Eighty percent of the population resides in the cities or towns of more than 2,000, and over one-third lives in the greater Buenos Aires area (1).
Buenos Aires: Silicon Valley of Latin America?
In 1998, Buenos Aires was considered Latin America's incubator for start-up Internet companies. The boom in Argentina started with El Sitio and Patagon, Argentine companies both listed on the Nasdaq, and had continued to grow up until the 2000. Sites like El Sitio and Patagon, that specializing in content, led the pack. While El Sitio and Patagon had been developing "communities" of Latin American's on the web, Yahoo!, AOL and Lycos scrambled to capture the Spanish speaking market (2).
Research discovered no high-tech technopolis or particular IT incubators or research & development parks. The greater Buenos Aires Area could be considered the high-tech technopolis due he high concentration of businesses.
