One more success story from the Croatian IT industry.
In just one year, the Nanobit company has increased its income from 24 to 50 million kuna, while the number of employees has increased from 40 to 70. That is just one of a large number of successful domestic companies from the IT sector whose products are intended primarily for export. This year, it has won an award for the best entrepreneur in the country, reports Vecernji List on September 16, 2015.
“The award has helped us because we have made contact with people who are associated with the mobile games industry”, says Zoran Vučinić, who has founded the company together with Alan Sumina.
He says that the award has made a greater impact abroad than in Croatia, and it has attracted an interest of European and American media due to the fact that they come from a small country. He believes that there should be more reports in Croatian media about the positive entrepreneurial stories in order to promote entrepreneurship in the country, and perhaps to motivate some of the new generations to follow in their footsteps.
Nanobit was founded in 2008 when they started developing their first application “Tap & Track”, which was launched in the Apple App Store in 2009. The best product so far has been the game Superstar Life, which immediately became a hit in America, Britain and Australia. There also created Fashion Design World, a game for fashion lovers, Chef Town, a game for fans of cooking, and Pet City, a game for children who love animals. Currently, their most successful game is Hollywood Story, which is available at Apple’s online store and should soon become available in the Android online store as well.
In the near future, they plan to open branches outside the country, in San Francisco and Berlin. Just like other IT companies, they have a problem of finding staff, particularly since many young people from their industry go abroad. “The advantages of working abroad, when it comes to IT, are not as large as in some other industries. Salaries are slightly higher than here, but so is the cost of living, so benefits are not as great”, says Vučinić.
Still, he says, they have trouble finding staff, given the fact that it is a very specialized industry which is not well represented in Croatia. “I am pleased that more and more young people want to work with us and we see great growth of interest among young people just out of college who have recognized our company as an innovative and promising environment”, says Vučinić.
