This is according to Sunil Joshi, president of Tata Communications' enterprise business for emerging markets, speaking at NetEvents 2009 Asia-Pacific Press Summit in Singapore, where he highlighted how EMs are expected to grow sevenfold by 2025, higher than the 6-11% pre-economic crisis global GDP. Much of the growth will come from markets with domestic demand, and from the youth, which Joshi dubbed as the "emerging market among EMs."
"EMs are (countries) with large middle class population (with) small premium segments, (and the) rates of urbanization among these are impressive," Joshi says. What can only be more impressive is that "among the EMs, the population pyramid is (dominated) by the youth."
The Philippines, for example, is expected to register a 3% growth rate of urbanization, second only to Kenya (4%), and ahead of other countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), such as Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore, all registering rates around 2%. And driving the Philippines' growth is the youth, reaching 38% of the market, the highest among young population markets in the world. The American young population market is only 21%, while UK's is 18%.
"Understandably, international brands leverage on the power of youth to sell in emerging markets," Joshi says. "(And, understandably, too) the influx of international companies to cater to the needs of the youth will create (better telecommunications and IT services)."
Rapid adaptation of technology can already be seen in the use of short message service (SMS), better known as texting, in the Philippines, where an average of around four million text messages are sent daily, for a staggering total of over 14 billion per year, making the country the "Texting Capital of the World." This, Joshi says, is technology in action.
However, servicing the Philippines also highlights "an important lesson in servicing EMs," Joshi adds. "Each country has its own nuances, its (markets') own buying attitudes, so responses need to be specific to local demands. There is a need to adapt to EM needs."
Tata Communications itself has grown 21% in five years as it targets EMs, specifically offering, among others, IP (Internet protocol), MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching), and Ethernet to such EMs as the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia, also among others. "We will continue to invest where customers want to go and to grow," Joshi says.
This, he adds, remains the best way to effectively tap EMs.
--With Notes from Deb Gutierrez