We have become addicted to the availability of the internet and its services at the literal swipe of a finger. As we have advanced, the masses have been seeking cheaper ways to acquire this necessity. Google and Facebook are primed to compete to take the internet to the ends of the earth and I trust it will all be very exciting.
Google’s Project Loon and Facebook’s Connectivity Lab (including an initiative called internet.org) aim to bring cost effective internet to the world. Following the purchase of Drone research and design companies Titan Aerospace and Ascenta, respectively, they will attempt to beam down the internet by suspending solar powered drones above the area that will receive their services. Entrepreneurs looking to grow should be proclaiming a collective “HALLELUJAH”. If you believe The Economist, 12 of the top growing economies come from Africa and Asia, regions that must be at the forethought of these 2 online titans.
The way Google and Facebook have been managed as a businesses is a fine case study of how e-commerce expansion can be strategically achieved. They have saturated available markets with their ‘merchandise’, now they are taking their goods to the last remaining lands beyond the first world horizon, “If you can’t come to us, we’ll come to you”.
The mobile communications industry is salivating as emerging markets remain top of mind. The accessibility of the internet will drive the availability of better devices AND what people do with those devices, will allow mobile initiatives to, dare I say it, exploit the market. Industries that encompass all facets of E-Commerce will then have a gateway to these regions. Marketing strategies become easier to implement as mobile becomes more prevalent (coming off the back of the report that Facebook was accessed by over 1 billion mobile users).
The uptake of broadband fuelled mobile technology also allows its subjects a voice and these voices cry out for needs, combine that with the possibility that Africa has money to spend and you have a melting pot of possibilities.
You don’t have to always re-invent the wheel, you sometimes just have to jump on the wagon they are attached to and let them transport you to new opportunities. Are you ready for the new e-commerce wave?