Tech Roundup: How Brazilian e-commerce survives postal workers strike

You’re reading The Brazilian Report’s weekly tech roundup, a digest of the most important news on technology and innovation in Brazil. This week’s topics: the impacts of a postal workers’ strike on Brazilian e-commerce; TikTok cozying up to Brazilian payments platform PagSeguro; a new bill to curb legal battles between telecom operators and watchdog Anatel.

Is Brazilian e-commerce threatened by postal workers strike?

At a time Brazilian companies are heavily relying on e-commerce to make up lost revenue amid the pandemic, a strike among workers of Correios — the state-owned postal service — is no minor inconvenience. However, vendors are now much less dependent on the nationalized company than they were just a few years ago.

What is happening. Employees at Correios started a nationwide strike on August 17, saying the company unilaterally revoked labor benefits such as maternity leave, or pensions to families in the case of death. They also ask for better work conditions during the pandemic. 

• Workers unions claim 70 percent of the workforce has joined the strike, while Correios says the actual number is around “just” 20 percent. The company also said it is adopting contingency plans to keep operations flowing.

The impact on companies. A report by finance website 6minutos shows that, in 2016, 95 percent of small- and medium-sized businesses relied on Correios for logistics. Four years later, research from e-commerce solutions provider Preço Certo puts this rate around 60 percent. Still big, but much smaller.

Winners. Logistics startups have been popping all around Brazil and have stolen market share from Correios. According to Preço Certo, private operations are growing in importance, with new players such as startup JadLog already gobbling up 11 percent of the market. 

• In urban centers, Correios face an additional competing segment: ride-hailing apps which saw delivery as a new niche. Giants such as Uber...