How technology is helping the emerging countries
Autor: Edvaldo Acir | Publicado: 2010-08-12T14:04:00-07:00

I bet I got your attention with that one. Right? Good because I meant it.  Not in the annual "this is the year of mobile"-type of chant marketers  often sing. Nope, I mean that this is the pivotal moment in history when  advancements in mobile technology combined with dramatic, global  demographic trends have reached a level of escalating change with the  potential to very literally lift the conditions of millions of people.   If it sounds kinda of far fetched -- I don't blame you.  But when you  dig into this a bit, you will see how this is happening right now and  far faster than you might imagine. This trend made itself startlingly  apparent to me recently given my recent introduction to HUM News, a news  service providing verifiable news from the developing world.  When  viewed through the dual filters of technology and demographics, we see  that this potent convergence is shaping a new reality very quickly and  very dramatically.  To understand this perspective better, let's examine three macro trends  that are approaching a pivotal tipping point in terms of scope, scale  and market adoption.       World demographics are getting younger all the time.   Nearly half of the world's population (3-plus billion people) is  under the age of 25 and over 85% of this group lives in developing  countries (World Population Foundation, 2008)This huge population is quickly using a diversity of mobile  emerging technology as a way to connect. Estimates are that globally, a  majority of people in the 15- to 25-year segment have a mobile device of  some sort.    Mobile technology is more affordable, powerful and accessible than ever before.   By 2013, there will be 4.5 billion mobile users worldwide compared to a world population of about 7 billion. (Parks Associates)Within developing countries, 70% of the population is under the age  of 25 and mobile devices and internet usage outpaces traditional  content consumption by Western counterparts. (Population Media  Foundation)In Africa, for example, mobile subscribers have increased from 10 million to over 200 million in just a few years.The total of mobile subscribers in emerging markets is more than twice the number of mobile phone users in developed economies.    Traditional technology infrastructure gaps that previously  hampered growth can be overcome with new mobile and mobile computing  technologies.   The lack of banking infrastructure is driving accelerated adoption  of digital wallets, micro-payments and alternate payments technologies  worldwide delivered -- you guessed it -- via mobile technology.The lack of wired telecom infrastructure is overcome by  internet-based communications networks made "user friendly" via social  networks like Facebook and Twitter.The lack of available finances for consumer purchase of computers  is mitigated by the emergence of cell phones as the primary computing  platform largely focused "in the world's developing countries over the  next ten years." (International Telecommunications Union, 2008 Report)    The "so what" of all these stats are obvious, dramatic and revealing.  The world is skewing younger (less than 40) and they are very quickly  adopting mobile technology to communicate, compute and to access more  commerce opportunities than ever before.      And no better region represents this new reality than Latin America,  where we can see this dramatic change taking shape before our very eyes  catapulting it to economic vitality.      Generally speaking, this region has some pretty strong forces driving  this transformation -- an increasingly technologically skilled labor  force, deep penetration of mobile technology and accelerated internet  market adoption (often delivered via wireless network BTW). For example,  internet penetration went from a virtual 0% a few years ago to adoption  rates that are scaling very fast. According to ComScore, the number of  internet users in Mexico increased 20% in just one year (March 2008 vs  March 2009), reaching 15.5 million. The same trend can be seen across  the region including Brazil where there are 62 million internet users,  represents about 1/3 of the population (source: IAB).       Digging even deeper into Brazil, this country represents how these  powerful changes are playing themselves out on a global scale. We see  that in Brazil, for example, the relatively high level of internet  access created a high concentration of interconnected consumers which  then created a receptive consumer market driving a significant increase  in ad revenue coming into Brazil (topping $500MM). The net result of  this growth engine is that seemingly overnight, Brazil became the  world's 10th largest economy. The formula is simple; more access  generates more revenue for more citizens (and happily their governments  too).      We see these same macro forces working positively in a completely  different way in Costa Rico, for example.  There a company called  Avventa Worldwide has opened a 500-person office as a near-shore digital  production services company.  According to Meg Walsh, managing  director, they create and produce advanced digital marketing programs  for global brands using the latest technologies in web development,  flash, social and mobile. This type of company simply could not have  existed a mere two years ago. The economic vitality resulting from this  one company in one country is truly profound.     Connecting the dots gives us a rich, optimistic view of a possible  stable world economic system where more connectivity (via mobile  technology) leads to more access to information which results in higher  adoption of technology which allows for a fast evolution to mobile  computing which can permit the creation of commerce and economic  prosperity possible at an exponential dynamic never possible before. Joy  DiBennedtto, founder of HUM News, explains it this way. "A global  economy starts with global visibility and connectivity. The ability to  provide 'opportunity' means the world needs 'globility' of information  from all countries to connect data points, access untapped resources,  ideas and talent."     Nothing gets the job done better than mobile and mobile computing revolution. Do you believe?(This article was published at Advertising Age in August/2010 with Judy Shapiro.)