Market implications:

  • Two trends are merging
    that will drastically alter the future of the world’s trading economy:

    • The rapid rise of mobile and Internet technology adoption in emerging economies.
    • Advances in mobile payment, commerce and banking.
  • Together they will open the way for a significant portion of the world’s adult population to transact electronically. For many of these newly enfranchised consumers from emerging economies, the ability to use short message service (SMS), e-mail or  payment accounts will constitute their first and only access to the estimated $1 trillion global economy.
  • For global firms such as Coca Cola and Carrefour, it will provide electronic reach and the ability to transact with a significant majority of adults on the planet.
  • For entities such as eBay, TaoBao or Craigslist, it will open a huge opportunity for consumer-to-consumer transactions.
  • For mobile operators, Internet companies and financial institutions, it will open vast new markets for the provision of transactional and funds transfer capabilities.

[Source: http://gartner.com/predicts, Gartner, Inc., Gartner Top End User Predictions for 2010: Coping with the New Balance of Power]