BRICS, CIVETS And Emerging Market Opportunities

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The Nielsen’s Consumer 360 conference revealed some interesting trends and oppportunities.  One presentation of particular interest was that given by Consumer Insights' Hany Mwafy and James Russo (video below).

The digital centre of gravity (as they expressed it) is moving more towards emerging economies and away from the traditional hubs of Europe and the USA.

Growth and profit will happen in  countries such as Brazil, Russia, India and China, often referred to as the BRIC grouping.  It is estimated that by 2014 growth in BRIC will be 61.3% from 2008 baseline.  This needs to be compared with the G7 (U.S., U.K, France, Italy, Germany, Canada and Japan) projected growth of just 12.8%.

Some trends to watch:

• By 2030, the developing world’s middle class will be larger than the total populations of Europe, Japan and the United States combined.
• The female economy.Women now control almost $12 trillion of the $18 trillion in global consumer spending.
• Mobile phones are bringing the Internet to previously unconnected consumers.
• Average daily TV viewing worldwide in 2009 was a record 192 minutes
• The Middle East, in particular, is experiencing phenomenal growth and Egypt’s middle class is growing and is increasingly connected
• Fifty-eight-million Egyptians are mobile subscribers

And while we are at it, let's not forget the CIVETS as other pundits are already predicting that Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa will take over as the new BRICs.

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Boku Garni And Other Micro Payment Recipes For Success

Micro Payment Systems can revolutionise business in developing countries and is doing so according to an early report from InfoDev that provided an assessment of mobile-enabled financial services in the Philippines.

Their crystal ball gazing in 2006 has turned out to be a very accurate prediction.

Cash is king in the rural hinterlands of most developing countries but this is a far from secure arrangement.  According to the report 3.5 million people in the Philippines were then using a service that allowed them to transfer money over the two major mobile networks.

The ability to make remote payments in this fashion is a  win-win for the consumer, the operator and the retailer.

In 2010 major credit card companies such as Mastercard have opened their API to App. developers and companies such as Paypal are keen to remind everyone that they remain very much in the game.  PayPalX has already been integrated into many applications and they have recently turned their attemtion to the possibilities of Google's Android.

Twitpay uses the power of micro blogging to make a micro payment and is also intregated with Paypal.

Another big mover in the micropayment market is Boku  which does away with the need for any form of plastic card.  They claim a 60% conversion rate as opposed to 7% using traditional credit cards on line.



 

Four key things to consider when selecting a provider:

• who understands the current digital climate best and is adapting their product to meet the market?
• who has the lowest fees?  - per transaction, hidden costs?
• which system provides the easiest integration with your current operation?
• who has a proven track record and longevity? (there have been many micropayment providers that have failed in the past so my advice is to stick to the tried and true)

Most of the past debate around micro payments has been in paying for content in publications, with Mr Murdoch (not surprising) being a staunch advocate.  The debate will rage until the case is commercially proven, either way. 

The fact remains that people are prepared to make micro payments for the services that interest them and there is also an opportunity to capitalise upon impulse buying.

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