The tech industry is awaiting the next billion people to come online so it can sell them their latest innovations or bombard them with ads.
But, as GGV Capital managing partner Hans Tung explained on Tuesday at the annual Coins2Day Brainstorm Tech conference in Aspen, Colo., many of those people will come from the emerging world.
“A lot of growth is coming from smartphones,” Tung said. “And if you look at where smartphone users are coming from, three places stand out.”
India, Latin American (largely Brazil), and Southeast Asia (especially Indonesia) are expected to be hotspots of online growth. Sao Paolo, Bogota, Mexico City, Jakarta, and New Delhi will be the new San Francisco, Seattle, and New York.
Yet, the very places primed for growth are largely being ignored by the tech industry.
“You look at some of these other emerging markets where the next billion users are coming from, they’re still underinvested,” Tung said.
The growth, along with the business opportunity, will be mostly younger users.
“They grew up on iPads,” Tung said. “They grew up listening to Spotify. They grew up looking at YouTube. They spend more time on YouTube than all the TV time I ever spent in my life.”
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—How Spotify “playlisting” turned an unknown artist into a star
—U.S. Risks falling behind in crypto, warns ‘Crypto Mom’ SEC commissioner
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