Nintendo Puts Business In Brazil On Hiatus

jones_supa writes: Nintendo has announced that it will end distribution of its consoles and games in Brazil. In a statement, Nintendo attributed the move to high import duties, which makes doing feasible business difficult. The company could avoid those duties with a local manufacturing operation, but has chosen not to establish one, presumably for the costs involved. In a statement e-mailed to Polygon, Nintendo of America said that the company's distributor for Latin America would no longer send products to Brazil, but it would continue to distribute Nintendo goods to other parts of South America. Nintendo will also keep monitoring the evolution of the business environment in Brazil and evaluate how to best serve Brazilian customers in the future.

Comments

Brazil has long had a very protectionist

[Crashmarik]

Environment for electronics and just about anything else. http://www.insidesources.com/c... . The problem is this doesn't serve them well. Trying to recreate the rest of the worlds industries internally just insures they have many second rate products, or have to pay hefty premiums for the tools they need to get things done. Really surprising after all these years they haven't tried to emulate more successful models, ala Japan, Singapore or Taiwan and encourage their industries to pursue ventures where they can have a competitive advantage.

I can understand

[mseeger]

I am working for a small (65 employees) company in Europe that serves customers with locations around the world. Of those locations that we have to deal with, Brazil is the worst nightmare.

Money (taxes, customs duties) is a solvable problem: it just costs the customer more. But getting definitive answers about the process, reliable delivery schedules or any kind of planning dependability is extremely hard. Due to the bureaucratic overhead, nobody there wants to deal with it.

I would rather skip the business than ruining our reputation through uncontrollable external influence.

Re: I can understand

[Anonymous Coward]

I live in Brazil for work on a longterm assignment.

It is a disorganized shit hole. The beauracracy is just as you described, a giant shit show. Nobody knows what the rules are, at the same time they seem to be constantly changed, and nothing can be completed quickly/effectively/efficienty.

My process for obtaining a badge in the USA for plant access involved an email, an appointment, and me showing up for that appointment. Two days and I have a functional badge.

For Brazil? A month, a myriad of paperwork, a physical examination by a doctor.

It's one of the most dysfunctional places in the world, and the cost of all goods besides labor is absolutely outrageous. Brwzilians are literally paying two to three times the American USD Msrp for almost all goods.

700 BRL for your drivers license, 3000 BRL to insure your car, 40,000 BRL for a base Ford Fiesta, 4,000 BRL for a play station 4. All on a salary of 60,000 BRL if you're fortunate enough to be a "middle class" engineer. Minimum wage is about 700 BRL.

And what do brazilians get for all of the taxes they pay? ridiculously high crime rates, shit infrastructure, shit schooling, shit hospitals, and a corrupt and worthless shitty government (at all levels, local, state and federal).