The first part of the session came from Arun Narayanan of InstaCarma, who covered the opportunity for hosting companies in India.
India has a pretty established reputation as an outsourcing destination, but Narayanan put forward that the country is a great destination for expansion, not just for outsourcing.
Generally, the country is a developing market for IT services, so there are huge under-addressed markets, ]and huge opportunities to acquire customers and establish brand before the market takes off – which Narayanan very reasonably suggests is an inevitability.
He had a quote on one of his slides that I can’t remember verbatim, unfortunately, which basically said that if globalization is inevitable, then a presence in India is going to be a requirement.
There are certain unique advantages to India. There is a huge English-speaking population. There is a lot of skilled IT talent and network capacity in the major cities.
He suggests that hiring Indian management and engaging with a local IT services firm as wise steps in building an Indian operation.
The general thrust of the presentation, and a very believable idea, was that India is a very compelling market for a US infrastructure provider to build a presence in. And it’s an idea that I think definitely warrants some more in-depth examination here at the WHIR.
The second part of the presentation came from Eduardo E. Vila from HostingPanama, who , out of the gate, was careful to dissociate offshore hosting from bulletproof hosting. He described an opposite approach to Narayanan’s suggestion of selling into the Indian market, pointing out that Panama has a population of 3 million. Panama, rather, is a great platform to sell from and into the US and Europe.
He described a lot of aspects of the country, which is a geographic and communications hub between north and South America. There are no natural disasters, and the legal tender is the US dollar.
The benefits to a hosting company in Panama include tax benefits, labor regulations, immigration benefits and privacy laws.
He describes two approaches to doing business in Panama, the first of which is creating an offshore corporation, and the second of which is the use of one of the country’s special economic zones, Panama Pacifico, City of Knowledge and Export Processing Zone.
Panama Pacifico, says Vila, is a 3,460 acre area, located at a former US military base, that was created as an incentive some areas of business, including IT. Companies like Dell, 3M and Caterpillar have set up call centers there.
He lists a lot of taxation, labor and immigration regulations that I couldn’t record verbatim, but there’s a lot of information at the Panama Pacifico website. Some of the more obvious benefits are “100 percent privacy” and not paying taxes.
Also, apparently a beer is 50 cents in Panama.
I think this story is probably going to require me to do some research on the ground in Panama.
About Liam Eagle
Liam Eagle has worked as a contributor to the Web Host Industry Review since its inception in 2000, and as editor since 2003. He has been editor of the WHIR's print magazine since its launch. His daily involvement in the gathering and reporting of Web hosting news and his regular interaction with Web hosting leaders gives him an uncommonly broad appreciation of the issues and tends facing the business. Through his WHIR blog, Liam spots Web hosting trends and offers opinions on the industry-wide impacts of major developments and the motivation behind big announcements. Follow him on Twitter @liameagle
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