By Andrei Skvarsky.
Lamudi, an online real estate dealer with operations in 28 countries in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America, argues there exist widespread myths that may stop Western companies from taking advantage of “exciting” opportunities offered by emerging markets.
Emerging markets are a much larger group of countries than is often assumed, investment risks they conceal are avoidable and heavily outweighed by advantages offered by them, and they have sufficient Internet penetration to ensure successful business, Lamudi, which itself focuses exclusively on emerging and frontier markets, says in a statement.
One myth largely limits emerging markets to the BRICs – Brazil, Russia, India and China – or the BRICS group with the addition of South Africa, the Berlin-heaquartered company says.
However, quite many other countries, including the PINEs – the Philippines, Indonesia, Nigeria and Ethiopia – are “experiencing their own business boom”, which is “fuelled by a growing middle class and strong economic performance, as well as advances in technology, improved healthcare and education”, Lamudi says.
It cites a joint report by the Washington-based Urban Land Institute (ULI) and PwC entitled “Emerging Trends in Real Estate Asia Pacific 2014” as putting Manila among the region’s top five cities for its investment potential.
It is another myth that emerging markets are just too risky, the company says.
“There are always risks to consider when investing in a new market”, but one could miss “exciting, new” investment opportunities if one keeps clear of emerging economies, while “strongly researched decisions”and “realistic strategies” would enable not only big but also smaller businesses to evade potential dangers, according to Lamudi.
“Smaller businesses have the opportunity to become part of a developing economy, to provide consumers with new services on a more personal level and to work with local companies to expand alongside the country’s economic infrastructure,” the company says.
Nor is it true that Internet penetration is too low in the developing world, Lamudi argues, citing market studies and pointing out that 95% of Jordanians now own a mobile phone.
A study by venture capital firm KPCB shows the smartphone adoption rate to be growing nearly twice as fast in emerging markets as in more established economies. Another recent study ranks Jordan second in Internet usage in the Arab world.
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