NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

The Future: The meek shall inherit the tech, part 1

[T]here’s one more group of people technology companies have long ignored, who have the potential to be a major new market, and who, if tapped, could help shape technologies for decades to come. Who is this? The world’s poor: the 4 billion-plus people who live on less that $20,000 a year. Read full article here. ...

Source

Red Herring

Selling to the Poor

Allen L. Hammond and C.K. Prahalad write about the largest untapped consumer market on Earth: the world’s four billion poor people. The market for goods and services among the world’s poor?families with an annual household income of less than $6,000?is enormous. The 18 largest emerging and transition countries include 680 million such households, with a total annual income of $1.7 trillion?roughly equal to Germany’s annual gross domestic product. ...

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Foreign Policy

WLL: Bringing Phones to Telecom’s Last Frontier

Until a few years ago, telephones were a rarity in India. The country just wasn’t wired for them, and consequently, they were priced beyond the reach of most people. But walk around in old town Delhi and crowded Bombay, as I did during the past couple of weeks, and you’ll be struck by the ubiquitous billboards hawking phones and instant connections for just 1,000 rupees, or $25. How is this possible? It’s all thanks to a technology called wireless local loop. WLL systems are ea...

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Busines 2.0

Seeking Riches From the Poor, by Megan Lindow

There is a great demand for simple technologies that can be used by people in Africa who lack access to banks, phone lines, credit cards and computers. South African entrepreneurs are in a unique position to develop and deliver these products to Africa’s poor, says Raven Naidoo, a founder of Radian, a small technology-consulting firm. Read full story here...

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Wired News

6 Truths about Emerging-Market Consumers

They?re brand-aware, savvy shoppers who like mom-and-pop shops more than modern markets, a new pan-Latin study shows. Selling consumer products to Latin America?s 250 million low-income consumers ? men and women who constitute 50 to 60 percent of the region?s population and wield some $120 billion in annual purchasing power ? is more than an attractive opportunity: It is a necessity for large corporations trying to accelerate their growth. ...

Source

strategy+business

Region

Latin America