Mobile doesn’t work? Tell that to China.  This year they are due to Spend Nearly Half a Billion on Mobile Ads. Overall ad spending levels in India, Russia and Brazil are still low, but the Chinese market will see nearly half a billion—$448.7 million—in mobile ad spending this year. Next year, eMarketer predicts, advertisers in China will spend $717.8 million on mobile.

If you don’t know already. China’s economy is the world’s second biggest, with a  $5.8 trillion gross domestic product that eclipsed Japan in  2010. The big question is will China pass the United States? When?  There was a similar debate about Japan in the 1980s before  growth stalled after a collapse in that country’s financial  and real estate markets. Below is a brief PDF that show the fast, current and longterm growth of China.

A rare note of caution coming from UK businesses, in reference to BRIC economies. The business advisory firm, Deloitte, has released its annual entrepreneurship report.  It surveys about 350 entrepreneurs across the United Kingdom, and finds that the UK, Western Europe, and North America remain the preferred markets for growth.

Surprisingly, there’s an abundance of caution towards the BRIC nations, even though Brazil, Russia, India, and China represent 70% of global growth.   Among the entrepreneurs surveyed, just 1.5% consider China as a prospect for the growth of their business.  Less than 1% choose India and Brazil, and just 0.3% like Russia, despite its resurgent market.

Specifically, the survey asked: “Which geographic market represents the best opportunity for significant growth for your business over the next three years?”  Expansion plans are predominantly focused on the UK market, although North America grew in favor over the previous year.  Very few entrepreneurs are targeting the BRIC.

The head of Deloitte’s entrepreneurial business team, Tony Cohen, says “there’s less optimism and more caution for the BRIC because doing business there… opens up new risks.  One has to look at culture, regulations, contacts, systems… North America speaks the same language. Western Europe is much closer.”

While entrepreneurs may be wisely managing risk as the economy recovers slowly, are they also missing out on opportunities in the fast-growing BRICs?   Tony Cohen says, “It’s always possible…. But UK businesses appear happy to build growth in the UK for now, with a view to expanding in due course.”

The survey also finds that more than half (55%) of entrepreneurs surveyed expect short-term negative effects as a result of financial pressures on their business.  However most report no change in their overall strategy as a result of the difficult economic times.

Via cnn

Interesting artcile from the Economist about how the mobile internet will transform the BRICI countries. It talks about a user Ranvir Singh who suggests that buying a mobile phone was the wisest $20 he’d ever spent.

Mr Singh, a farmer in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, used to make appointments in person, in advance, to deliver fresh buffalo milk to his 40-odd neighbours. Now his customers just call when they want some.Mr Singh’s income has risen by 25%, to 7,000 rupees ($149) a month. And he hears rumours of an even more bountiful technology. He has heard that “something on mobile phones” can tell him the current market price of his wheat. Mr Singh does not know that that “something” is the internet, because, like most Indians, he has never seen or used it. But the phone in his calloused hand hints at how hundreds of millions of people in emerging markets—perhaps even billions—will one day log on.

Only 81m Indians (7% of the population) regularly use the internet. But brutal price wars mean that 507m own mobile phones. Calls cost as little as $0.006 per minute. Indian operators such as Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications sign up 20m new subscribers a month.

In other developing countries, too, there are many more mobile phones than internet connections. In Brazil, Russia, India, China and Indonesia (the so-called BRICI countries), there are 610m regular internet users but a staggering 1.8 billion mobile-phone connections, according to the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In a report called “The Internet’s New Billion”, BCG predicts that by 2015 there will be 1.2 billion internet users in these countries—dwarfing the total in America and Japan (see chart).

These new internet users will mostly log on via their mobile phones. This tends to be cheaper and easier than any other option. In Brazil, fixed-line broadband is often prohibitively expensive; in Russia, where it can be much cheaper, it is often unavailable. In India, where infrastructure is always a headache, it is hard to get a good basic landline, let alone broadband.

Poor people seldom have personal computers. In the BRICI countries, whose combined population is more than 3 billion, there are only 440m PCs. Many people use internet cafés, but these are inaccessible to rural folk. A connection in your pocket is far more convenient.

Hordes of Indians will start using their mobiles to access the internet early next year when third-generation (3G) services, which allow subscribers to access the web, arrive. Kunal Bajaj, India director of Analysys Mason, a British consultancy, expects the take-up to be as fast—and as revolutionary—as it has been for mobile phones. “The telecoms companies have seen what happens when they drop prices. They’ve already tasted blood. The price wars will be just as aggressive,” he says.

The stakes are high. In developing countries, every 10 percentage-point increase in mobile-phone penetration yields an extra 0.81 percentage points of annual economic growth, according to a 2009 World Bank study. The mobile internet could be even more powerful. The unemployed will search for jobs online. Farmers in remote areas will find customised advice on crop planting.

The drawback of the internet is that you have to be literate to use it. That is a huge problem in India, where the literacy rate is only 60% (in China and Russia, it is over 90%). Mr Singh, the farmer, cannot read, so he cannot send text messages. He says he often needs help dialling numbers correctly, too.

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If you haven’t heard about the “BRIC MARKETS” then you better start now! BRIC is an acronym for the emerging markets and covers the following countries. Brazil, Russia, India & China.

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Brazil

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Population:

198,739,269

Economic Overview

Once again Brazil is turning into one of the world’s favorite investment destinations. With the Brazilian economy recovering and its stock market rated as the world’s number one in percentage gains, this is no surprise. Amidst the world’s economic pessimism the IBOVESPA (most important Brazilian stock indicator) has advanced 27,41% according to the MSCI scale (created by Morgan Stanley Bank). View oringinal article at www.helium.com

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Russia

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Population:

140,041,247 (July 2009 est.) country comparison to the world:

Economic Overview

Russia ended 2008 with GDP growth of 5.6%, following 10 straight years of growth averaging 7% annually since the financial crisis of 1998. Over the last six years, fixed capital investment growth and personal income growth have averaged above 10%, but both grew at slower rates in 2008. Growth in 2008 was driven largely by non-tradable services and domestic manufacturing, rather than exports. During the past decade, poverty and unemployment declined steadily and the middle class continued to expand.

Russia also improved its international financial position, running balance of payments surpluses since 2000. Foreign exchange reserves grew from $12 billion in 1999 to almost $600 billion by end July 2008, which include $200 billion in two sovereign wealth funds: a reserve fund to support budgetary expenditures in case of a fall in the price of oil and a national welfare fund to help fund pensions and infrastructure development. Total foreign debt is almost one-third of GDP

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India

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Population:

1,166,079,217 (July 2009 est.)

Economic Overview

India’s diverse economy encompasses traditional village farming, modern agriculture, handicrafts, a wide range of modern industries, and a multitude of services. Services are the major source of economic growth, accounting for more than half of India’s output with less than one third of its labor force. Slightly more than half of the work force is in agriculture, leading the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to articulate a rural economic development program that includes creating basic infrastructure to improve the lives of the rural poor and boost economic performance.

The government has reduced controls on foreign trade and investment. Higher limits on foreign direct investment were permitted in a few key sectors, such as telecommunications. However, tariff spikes in sensitive categories, including agriculture, and incremental progress on economic reforms still hinder foreign access to India’s vast and growing market. Privatization of government-owned industries remains stalled and continues to generate political debate; populist pressure from within the UPA government had restrained needed initiatives.

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China

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Population:

1,338,612,968 (July 2009 est.) country comparison to the world:

Economic Overview

China’s economy during the past 30 years has changed from a centrally planned system that was largely closed to international trade to a more market-oriented economy that has a rapidly growing private sector and is a major player in the global economy.

Reforms started in the late 1970s with the phasing out of collectivized agriculture, and expanded to include the gradual liberalization of prices, fiscal decentralization, increased autonomy for state enterprises, the foundation of a diversified banking system, the development of stock markets, the rapid growth of the non-state sector, and the opening to foreign trade and investment. Annual inflows of foreign direct investment rose to nearly $84 billion in 2007.

GDP – composition by sector:

agriculture: 11.3% industry: 48.6% services: 40.1% (2008 est.)

Source: CIA The World Factbook

So if you’re starting out in business or have an existing footprint on the business market I would strongly suggest that your start making connections into these markets sooner rather than later.  Other countries you should also be aware of are Vietnam and Trinidad & Tobago.