There have been promising times for entrepreneurs in emerging markets. Launching new mobile products and services was never faster or cheaper, and the pool of digitally savvy, connected consumers grew daily.
However, while launching a new mobile product or service was easier than ever, scaling one was not. Many emerging-market entrepreneurs lacked experience in effective marketing, optimizing service architecture for scale, or capturing and analyzing user data to steer growth and development. Recognizing these needs, many wondered if Silicon Valley, with abundant capital and a track record of disruptive innovation, was poised to help mobile startups scale in emerging markets. Companies in the Valley were looking toward the widespread adoption of mobile in emerging markets and planning their growth strategy around these future users.
To continue its historic influence in global technology markets, Silicon Valley had an opportunity to engage with the entrepreneurs who were building products and services for the next billion consumers. These entrepreneurs were increasingly positioned to influence a large portion of the estimated six billion smartphone connections that would be in use by 2020, nearly 80% of which would be in emerging markets.
Release date: December 2014
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