In tech there is more beyond China and India
In the technology, telecommunications and internet sectors no doubt China and India see the emergence of numerous middle classes that no sane international business can overlook. While their huge populations understandably attract most headlines, there is a group of countries (Brazil, Indonesia, Russia & Turkey) that follow closely but more quietly as they do not appear in the news so often. They are much smaller than China and India but have large enough populations to justify large investment projects and high expectations. Saturated markets in Europe, North America and Japan already start to bring significant investment and news elsewhere.
Vodafone has reasons to be optimistic as the latest results a few days ago point to both India and Turkey as great markets with 40% growth rates that balance the low 2% of Europe. And this with a Vodafone entrance to the Turkish market that is very recent. Japan’s DoCoMo plans an international expansion to Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and New Zealand. Russian telecoms and IT sectors are set to grow next year by 20% a number unthinkable a decade earlier, and Brazil is jumping on the 3G bandwagon.
While the hardware and telecoms sectors are not lacking action, a lot of internet companies are missing significant opportunities. The language factor is naturally an additional difficulty but in the era of offshoring it can hardly be a barrier. The battles that internet companies are fighting especially in their US home market can be a huge distraction. It is certainly prestige and a matter of establishing a strong base of users, but at the same time an additional effort elsewhere could be quite beneficial like in the example of Vodafone stated earlier. Despite Yahoo! taking a passive stance recently, it is to its credit that it looks for more mobile internet deals in Southeast Asia. Software has always had the advantage of being easily portable and now the online economy has this golden opportunity. The countries mentioned here are in no way a limited preferential group. As long as action is adapted correctly to its respective target market there is always a potential goldmine. Go global, act locally!
Link 1: Telegeography-Vodafone
Link 2: Telegeography-DoCoMo
Link 3: Telegeography-Russia
Link 4: Telegeography-Brazil
Link 5: Telegeography-Yahoo!
