Best Regions to Invest in the Mobile Web

The mobile web presents an interesting phenomenon. In many ways, this culture of mobile phones feels concentrated in North America, where Silicon Valley famously houses Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL). You only need to look around on a bus or in a foot court to see the vast majority of people surfing the web on their mobile devices.
However, despite the ubiquity of mobile phones in Canada and the US, this far from the largest growth region when it comes to investing in the mobile web. Instead, it’s emerging markets in the Middle East and Africa that are feeling the greatest impact from the widespread adoption of mobile devices and mobile internet connectivity.
A large part of this equation comes down to timing. The majority of North Americans were already connected to the internet via desktop computers, which made the switch to cellphones relatively non-eventful. Meanwhile, mobile internet presented an amazing opportunity for emerging markets, where a lack of infrastructure and capital had previously acted as obstacles to internet connectivity. Therefore, markets like India are some of the most exciting when it comes to the mobile web.

Who is on the mobile web?

The mobile web is so ubiquitous that practically every region on earth is exposed its impact. Cisco reports that there was a global 4 percent increase in mobile users between 2014 and 2015, as the figure inched from 4.6 billion (or 64 percent of the world’s population) to reach 4.8 billion (or 65 percent of the world’s population). Projections illustrate that, by 2020, a whopping 70 percent of the world should be connected via the mobile web.
A good portion of the world’s smartphone users live in North America For instance, in 2015 84 percent of the region’s population was connected via smartphone and, in 2020, this number is expected to reach 87 percent (or 322.3 million mobile users). However, as explained previously, despite the prevalence of mobile usage in North America, other regions trump the US and Canada as the largest growth sectors in this market.

Importance for emerging markets

In specific, the Middle East and Africa is feeling an enormous impact from the emergence of the mobile web. Right now, almost half of the Middle East and Africa’s population are mobile users. By 2020, this figure is expected to reach 878.7 million, or 54 percent of the population. In other words, the market will see a compound annual growth rate of 4.4 percent in this region over the next five years.

This article was originally published on March 22, 2016 on Technology Investing News.
Securities Disclosure: I, Morag Mcgreevey, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.