Chile Forum

Here is an idea, why not pitch an upgrade to SII website, it is awful, I am a patient person but.... I gave up trying to pay IVA on-line and I have returned to standing in line, before 2 pm, greeting all my neighbors, talking about the weather and paying IVA.

I don't see why an international firm would bother plowing any capital into convenience stores in Chile. For one thing, the Chilean dream seems to be to operate a kiosco out of your living room, so there's no end of people willing to risk their own money on it; for another thing, trying to bring convenience to the third world is like trying to fill a colander with water.

I'm baffled by all these Big John shops opening up around Providencia (and probably other rich areas) in the last couple of years. Just like a kiosco only well-lit and twice as expensive.

First, that was a joke; but, also a serious biz idea.

Yea, the problem is the kiosco are closed at night. Also, if you run the back of the napkin numbers, on wealth to population density of areas around Los condes and such, you will get the picture. How many people live in one of those buildings? What is their average annual income? Hell, what percentage of the GDP is concentrated in any given block of Los Condes or similar neighborhoods?

Now, determine the number of stores per square km, and compare those numbers to say the areas where everyone has a kiosk in their living room (sorry, the middle class to rich in Chile, don't work like that). there are neighborhoods in Santiago, with a large (read measurable) percentage of the GDP of Chile concentrated in a few square km, with no real stores within 3-4 km drive (longer when you consider traffic flows in Santiago) at say 1 am in the morning. Big John's is spreading for a reason. The same reason that in U.S. cities you see more than two 7-11s on the same intersection. They are in virtual monopoly markets, other than perhaps the pronto gas stations or something (they are also located generally only near highways, not residential areas).

That is just Santiago.

New housing devisions, in cities and towns, all across Chile are being built every day, but years after they sell the last house, there is still no grocery store in easy reach, or mall, or many other basic services that you would expect to find in any upscale urban area with a population of say over a 1,000 people per km density. Sometimes even the cable and other utility companies will not notice that there is another 200 big new houses built in an area for years that need service. The small stores do not follow the money in Chile, because the money does not put those stores in their living rooms. They will use them, they may even own one, but they don't work in them. They got other things to do (mostly they view it as below them); yet, they will still drive in the middle of the night to buy something as far as they have to drive to get what they want. Guarantee you if they could walk to the corner (or drive their SUV to the corner), they would. Because they got more money than time, and are sufficiently rich to afford to pay extra for it.

The idea is intended to illustrate the basics of urban life that are still being implemented in Chile, and more importantly Chile still has a whole lot of higher priorities than making itself look cool to young foreign hackers and web designers. There are still a whole lot of bricks and mortar missing from Chile's economy, and ultimately all online businesses have some sort of bricks and mortar behind them (at least most of the good ones).

the middle class to rich in Chile, don't work like that

This is true, and it's one of the reasons I'm glad I don't live in a middle-class/rich neighborhood. Whenever I have to go to Las Condes it's like being in the desert, blocks and blocks of houses, with nowhere to buy candy or charge my BIP card!

Startup Chile is now accepting applications from Chileans so that's a change from their previous program. On the whole I think Startup Chile is an excellent program and I have met many Brazilians, Argentines, Canadians, Indians who are in the program and have good Internet/mobile applications.

As for the banking issue, well, it's deeply tied into the whole RUT system, isn't it? Without a RUT number, you don't exist -- for any purpose, banking, investment, online shopping. The banking issue cannot be resolved on its own.

Example: do you know that you can't get a discount at WAIN without a RUT number? Even if you live in Vitacura and have been to WAIN many times, they won't give you a discount.

So now that we have our RUT numbers, we finally can get discounts on wine. I feel so officially EXISTENT now.

isolde100 wrote:As for the banking issue, well, it's deeply tied into the whole RUT system, isn't it?

Not really, except in the most superficial way. You can get both a RUT and a cuenta prima relatively quickly and easily. The issue is to get access to full-fledged banking before you have permanent residency and in the absence of personal connections. What's really going with banking in Chile affects everyone but the ABC1 top economical layer. We think it's about us being foreigners, but to some extent this is our own self-serving perspective.

The core issue is that banks get to arbitrarily pick and choose who they want as customers, which is weird when you think of money as a public utility: a) fiat money is issued by the sovereign state, and b) good luck doing anything without it. How does that translate in Chile? Major retailers issue more credit cards than many banks combined, in a poorly regulated way that is now in the process of imploding and is hopefully going to be cleaned up of its worst excesses. See: La Polar/Presto, and beyond retail: interest rates on student loans or forced bundling of banking services.

I'm all for a minimal state and private companies providing most if not all goods and services, but Chile shows well that a fully functioning market requires informed and empowered consumers that can really walk away from bad deals, as opposed to suck it up because of little meaningful market alternatives. Markets need depth, liquidity, transparency... otherwise in place of state monopolies you only get only marginally better private oligopolies. These private players superficially compete but can collude either explicitly (pharmacies), or just watch each other's terrible services and decide not to rock the boat (banks). This beats having government-only "service", but doesn't mean "consumer paradise".

I'll put it another way: if retail banking in Chile was a fully functioning market, would bank branches get away with closing at 2pm? I don't think so. Look at the explosion of 1) mall openings and 2) car sales in Chile. How come we're not seeing someone come up and roll out things such as drive-by ATMs? Banks just don't have to try hard to make money.

The other thing is the recent cabinet change. I'm curious to see whether Pablo Longueira Montes will maintain Start-up Chile, which strikes me as a Fontaine/Piñera sort of program. I think Longueira will focus his agenda on internal, micro-economy and "social" issues, as opposed to external, macro-eco and "technical". I'm not in his head, but I don't see him traveling to Stanford to pitch foreigners in English while the government is embattled at home, and quite frankly, has bigger fish to fry than experiments such as Start-up Chile. At the very least if they maintain it this is probably be kicked to a lower profile, handed by some subsecretaria. Or a switch to mostly supporting Chilean small businesses. Longueira is a civil engineer who went to university in Chile and (to the best of my knowledge) doesn't have post-grad from Harvard or University of Chicago.

But we'll see, this is just idle speculation on my part.

Rut number has nothing to do with the banking issue.

You need to keep an eye on what the invisible hand is doing under the table. Plato was more right than adam smith.

For those considering IT work in viña there seems to be a large amount of startup chile people in viña, usually people looking for it work need to go to Santiago to find jobs, with this community in viña might open more opportunities on the coast...

you can find more info on meetup.com startup chile

p.d i do not participate in the groups, just receive the emails.....

New round of applications started they are open from Oct 12 - 27/28th depending on if they change it again. I submitted my business plan to them as well as my timeline. I wish myself luck and anyone else who has submitted an application for them for the last round of 2011. Now if I get picked i'll be shocked, as i'm not sure how much they'd go for my idea, but hey my ex entered my other idea so maybe one of us will get lucky

OK, such a great incentives to target on. Lets analyze a bit.
Why would Feds do this? To boost domestic IT education sector overall, or to encourage local citizens and alike to get on-line?
Well, I assuming Chilean Universities doing their jobs and keep graduating "statistically viable numbers" every year, right?
Any ideas on how many those students come out with major in IT/Computer Science?
What % of domestic demand for business development covered every year?

Secondly, what is the idea of "marketing demand" for local businesses in IT sector?

To DO what?

To write more apps for HTC and alikes? What are in these quadrillions of existing apps that are not covered yet?
To easily decipher proud phone owners/service subscribers medical codes of the last year urine sample on-line(!!!), with ability to sign it and fax it to the local county office for approval to apply for their rightful choice (already suggested by County Board Members meeting earlier this year) of paint on their house walls (front external)?
Or there something more important?
To successfully change passwords and/or exam tenants IQ in apartment/condo complexes remotely?
Are there ever-growing number of tenants switching their units and so their corresponding ID's?
Another "webdesign&development" team of "highly professional at MS/BS Type-For-Nothing BMX300" so and "very skilled in VSOA/DMGF" so, who will promote this and that? What?
What is NOT covered or being promoted YET?

Btw, there are endless source of uncounted stars and trees in forest. Fishes and birds counting in North-West Patagonia? Hm--m-... (just wait a second, .... no ...)
No, too late, Washington State University already have such app free of charge for seniors, effective since last year.

Article about Start-Up Chile: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15887000