Doing Business In Argentina

Information Technology
Overview Return to top
2005 2006 2007 (estimated)
Total Market Size 928 1.141 1.426
Total Local Production 230 276 331
Total Exports 15 17 19
Total Imports 711 881 1.076
Imports from the U.S. 135 123 123
Argentine Market for Hardware & Consumables
Millions of USD. Exchange Rate: 1 USD=3.10 Argentine Pesos
Sources: Embassy projections based on Argentine Customs data (Nosis) and Prince & Cooke.
* Local production means local assembly of PC from imported components.
Argentina has the third largest population of Internet users in Latin America, with over 17
million users, and Internet use is growing at a 40% annual rate. Broadband access
doubled in 2006, and grew 87% in 2007 in terms of subscribers.
Since 2004, investment in technology has been soaring after years of low investment.
Trends Consulting estimated an average increase of 21% for 2007 for the IT market. In
2007, China led the imports of IT products (35%), followed by the U.S. (14%) and Brazil
(12%). Imports from Mexico, Manaus (Brazil Free trade zone) and Japan each account
for 5% of the import market.
Argentina’s IT market – including hardware, software and services - reached US$ 3.2
billion in revenues, a 25% increase from 2006. In 2008, the market is expected to
increase 21%. The software and services sectors accounted for the majority of the
growth with a 49.3% increase. Hardware sales increased 34% in 2006 and 42.5% in
2007. Prince & Cooke projects that hardware will grow around 40% in 2008, led by PCs
and Notebooks. The sale of desktop computers in increased 28% in 2007, bringing the
market to 8.5 million units installed. The number of PC units sold in 2007 reached 1.6
million and is expected to increase by 30% in 2008. Printer sales also increased 20% in
2007 while other peripherals increased 35% and consumables 8.3%. Likewise, the sale
of notebooks grew 50% in 2007 and is expected to increase 50% in 2008, outdoing
sales of desktop PCs. State-of-the-art small computers and communication devices,
such as smart phones and PDAs, followed the same two-digit growth trend. Moreover, a
direct relationship exists between the purchases of such items and the exponential
increases in demand for broadband/Internet access.
In 2007, the total revenue for the software market increased by 20%, reaching
approximately US $480 million. Prince & Cooke projects an increase of 21% in 2008. In
addition, IT service revenues reached US$1.1 billion in 2007. The packaged software
market grew approximately 40% in 2007 with the U.S. being the largest exporter of
packaged software into Argentina.
3/4/2008