By Andrei Skvarsky.
Emerging market countries are growing much faster than developed ones, they have been quicker to adopt new high technology than their developed counterparts, and their populations include increasingly affluent and rapidly growing middle classes, real estate portal Lamudi says.
Emerging markets are likely to show growth for the period from 2013 to 2020 that is three times as fast as that of developed markets and accounts for 65% of global economic growth, Lamudi has said in a statement, citing Euromonitor International.
It is estimated that 88% of the world’s population will be living in emerging market countries by 2016, the statement said.
Emerging market countries have middle classes that are growing rapidly, possess increasing amounts of disposable income, are hence showing rising demand for high-quality goods, and are generally younger and more focused on high technology than their counterparts in developed countries, Lamudi said.
In many emerging market nations, new technologies such as wireless, mobile and app usage and mobile banking are adopted more quickly than they have been in developed countries as many emerging markets have skipped steps taken in bringing, say, desktops and dial-up Internet into daily use that developed nations have had to take, according to Lamudi.
Indonesia, for instance, is one of the world’s largest smartphone markets while Kenya is a global leader in the use of mobile payment technology.
Lamudi complained, however, that quite often all emerging market countries on the same continent or in the same region get lumped together.
“From Internet penetration to infrastructure development, local culture to taxation laws, each and every country in the emerging markets needs to be approached differently, with a tailor-made business strategy in place,” it said.
It cited Ethiopia and Kenya as examples. Although the two countries are neighbours, in the second quarter of 2014 only 1.9% of Ethiopia’s population was using the Internet while in Kenya 47.3% did, Lamudi said.
“Young and growing populations, coupled with economic growth, make the emerging markets a desirable choice for startups, small and medium enterprises, and multinational corporations,” said Paul Philipp Hermann, co-founder and managing director of Lamudi Global.
“Growing middle classes in these countries are flocking into the cities, bringing a strong purchasing power, high penetration of mobile phones and an enormous demand for online service – presenting plenty of opportunities for new business ideas.”
Lamudi, a company headquartered in Berlin, does successful business in 32 countries in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America with more than 900,000 real estate listings. It is a platform for sellers, buyers, landlords and renters to find or list properties online.
Sorry, comments are closed for this post.