For us young and naive software developers that want to is pretty easy to be biased by industry numbers and high tech companies acquisitions. However, the world seems to still work pretty much business as usual.
Worldbank together with MIT’s have developed a nice visualization app (opendata available) that shows what do countries export, meaning what a country sells. It’s pretty clear that the software business is really small compared to the most revenue generating industries for a country. I’m giving you few examples.
India, well known giant software factory. 11% of their revenue is Petroleum, 10% is Diamonds. Software or any tech related income is lost in the dots. Even if it we zoom the graphic the industry accounts or less than 1%, even the Packaged medicament industry is bigger, 3%.
Second, Costa Rica, the Latam offshore miracle. 25% accessories and office machines, 19% electronic circuits (this is the closest).
United States, the Silicon Valley’s country. 3.4% Turbojets, 3% Electronic integrated circuits (this is the closest), 3.4% Aircraft. The rest represent each one less than 2% of their economy’s GDP. In this case yes, is a very well diversified economy, as you can tell by the percentages for each industry.
Brazil, our big South American brother member of the BRIC group. 9% Iron, 7.6% Soya, 5.5% Sugar, 6.4% Petroleum.
Finally, our loved country, Peru. 25% Gold, 15% Gold content, 7% Cooper. Compared to the US in terms of diversification you can see a strong concentration in a couple of industries. The same compared to Brazil. Now you can do the math and understand why Brazil is a BRIC country, paving it’s way to the leading economies.
Next time you talk about politics or economics make sure you check those graphs first.