Mobile in Emerging Economies:
Impact Areas and Opportunities
Dr. Madanmohan Rao
Editor: “Asia Unplugged,”
“AfricaDotEdu”
http://twitter.com/MadanRao

The “8 Cs” of Wireless Ecosystems
 Connectivity
 Content
 Community
 Culture
 Capacity
 Cooperation
 Commerce
 Capital

Dimensions of the Wireless Ecosystem
 Wireless as Instrument
– Providing affordable access to ICTs, local language
content/tools, sectoral benefits (news, education,
healthcare, environment, business, government)
 Wireless as an Industry
– Boosting digital content industries, venture capital,
stockmarkets, technical skills, regulation, global
alliances

Classification of Wireless Information Societies
 Restrictive eg. Myanmar
 Embryonic eg. Afghanistan
 Emerging eg. Nepal
 Negotiating eg. China
 Intermediate eg. India
 Mature eg. Australia
 Advanced eg. Japan, South Korea

New Media and Emerging Economies
 Disaster reporting and relief
 Human rights, freedom of expression
 Healthcare (epidemics/pandemics)
 Poverty alleviation
 Improving education, environment
 Social inclusion, access to capital
 Connecting diaspora
 Cultural preservation
 Government transparency, accountability
 Enhancing private sector, SMEs, informal labour

Disaster Reporting and Relief
 Mobile alerting systems (eg. SMS warnings)
 Citizen reporting and collaboration
 RFID tagging on relief shipments
 Mesh, WiMax “in a box”
 Examples
– Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar
– Earthquake in China
– Terrorist attacks in India
– AIDS/HIV in Africa

Mobile Media in Asia
 Japan: cutting edge of broad-based ecosystems;
reduce the digital divide (eg. for disabled citizens)
 South Korea: leader in WiBro, mobile banking/gaming
 China: government concern - use of SMS/blogs for
spreading rumours and political messages
 India: connecting startups with social entrepreneurs
 Philippines: m-payments (remittances)
 Nepal: communicating across mountainous regions
 Bangladesh - Grameen Telephone: shared access +
microfinance (village “phone ladies”)

Mobile Payment
 M-PESA in Kenya
 Zain’s Zap
 MTN’s MobileMoney
 PLDT’s Smart Money

Mobile Activism in Developing Countries
 NGO Breakthrough in Bangalore has SMS HIV/AIDS
helpline for answering queries; also domestic violence
 IKSL.in offers agri "voice SMS" messages and helpline
to Indian farmers in local languages
 Suruk.com offers SMS-based info/rating services for
autorickshaw (tuktuk) drivers
 Informal labour: GreenMango, BabaJobs, CellBazaar
 Greenpeace: SMS to raise funds (India), monitor forest
destruction (Argentina), send climate alerts (Australia)

Startups: Networks, Innovation, Awards
 MobileMonday!
 India: NASSCOM Foundation, MSSRF
 Frost & Sullivan: African Excellence Awards
 South African Innovation Fund

Opportunities: Startups, Services
 Hardware: chips, tags, multiprotocol readers (eg.
Intermec, ThinkMagic)
 Content/service (eg. Yulop)
 Integration (eg. OATsystems)
 Offshoring (eg. TCS, Infosys/OnMobile – India)
 Support services (eg. certification)
 Investors: VC, corporate (eg. UPS Strategic
Enterprise Fund: Savi, Impinj)

Issues for Entrepreneurs
 Industry lifecycles: size, growth; rural areas
 Mentoring
 Getting/publishing case studies and research
 Top-down v/s disruptive
 RoI, metrics
 Localising, globalising
 Alliance strategies
 Exit strategies

Year 2030: Outlook
 Spectrum issues
 e-Waste
 Energy
 Theoretical frameworks for mobile media
 Innovation: “micro-multinationals,” “global brain”
 Personal knowledge management
 Visioning/scenario strategies
– eg. 20 Year Stepping: 1950, 1970, 1990, 2010, 2030, 2050
 “Silver” technologies and applications

The MobileMonday Advantage
 Local-to-local
– Peer networks, cooperation, awards
 Local-to-global
– Global MobileMonday resources: promotion, events,
awards, knowledge
 Global-to-local
– Global MobileMonday resources: knowledge, people

The MobileMonday Advantage
 People
– Chapter founders, mobile startups, investors
 Knowledge
– Research reports, news, books
 Events
– City/regional/global (eg. GSMA, Communicasia,
CTIA, DigitalAfrica)
 Partnerships
– Innovation Councils, World Bank

Tweets: http://twitter.com/MadanRao
madan@techsparks.com
digitalnomad@hotmail.com