World of Tanks – made in Belarus
WSJ journalist Olga Razumovskaya visited Minsk to understand the phenomenon of Hi-Tech Park, Belarus’s main IT hub. In 2015, its exports totaled $705.6 million.
According to the influential U.S.edition, the Belarusian nation of 9.5 million people which is sandwiched between Russia and Poland has a ‘well-educated population and relatively low labor costs’, which contributed to its becoming ‘one of the largest and most established information technology outsourcing providers in Europe’.
“Belarus is run by a former collective-farm manager and is known for manufacturing tractors. Now, the former Soviet republic wants to be known as the Silicon Valley of Eastern Europe,” Ms Razumovskaya believes.
The country’s Hi-Tech Park, a 123.5-acre ‘haven for IT companies’ in Minsk, offers its residents tax breaks and an ‘environment that fosters innovation’, despite the government’s reputation for tolerating little dissent.
Piotr Iwanicki, game director at Polish company Superhot Team, considers the hub to a ‘relatively cheap’ and ‘perfect place’ to develop games.
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“Belarus, often called Europe’s last dictatorship, still has a state-dominated economy, and President Alexander Lukashenko maintains a tight grip over political life. But the country has been opening up: Early this year, the European Union lifted most sanctions against the country, despite continued concerns about human-rights abuses,” the author admits.
One of the Hi-Tech Park’s biggest successes is Game Stream, a Minsk-based company that develops Wargaming Group Ltd.’s signature videogame, “World of Tanks.” Launched in 2010, the game allows players to face off against other players in tank warfare; in October, it had nearly 12 million monthly active users on PCs and consoles.
Among other successful tenants are Epam Systems Inc., a global provider of software engineering and IT expertise; Viber Media, the creator of a successful messaging app with a software development office in Belarus; and Masquerade Technologies Inc., a Minsk-born collective that recently sold its selfie app MSQRD to Facebook Inc.
‘We’ve liked working in Belarus more [than in other countries] because work culture and work ethic and education and quality of people were on a very high level, the WSJ quotes Igor Magazinik, founder of Viber and Juno, an up-and-coming ride-sharing app that wants to challenge Uber Technologies Inc.
According to the interviewees, Belarusian companies have an advantage over neighboring Russia as they look to global markets for their products from the outset. Moreover, unlike their Russian counterparts, many Belarisian software developers speak fluent English.
Belsat.eu, via WSJ
