【Tapping into a mobile-first Asia】
In the past decade, mobile phones have run the full gamut of the innovation diffusion curve, becoming accessible to everyone from the innovators to the late majority—of all demographics. For many, phones have become their very first point of access to the worldwide web, constituting a “leapfrogging” phenomenon among emerging nations, particularly here in Southeast Asia.
“A comScore report reveals Indonesia’s mobile audience is almost 2.5 times the size of its desktop counterparts, and spends more than double the time online. Similarly, in Thailand, a staggering 90.4 percent of internet users go online via their smartphone.”
Suddenly e-commerce companies and startups alike have access to a traditionally unavailable customer pool, which continues to grow as more and more people come online. To that end--although almost a given at this point--businesses should seriously take into consideration adopting a mobile-first strategy.
To see a successful rollout of such a strategy, you need to look no further than several homegrown startups here in SEA, including ShopBack, Carousell, and Shopee.
Technology’s rate of evolution is almost unfathomable at times. It’s been only a decade since the release of the smartphone, yet these intelligent pocket computers have seemed to become as much of a barebones necessity as food and water.
We’re now entering the early beginnings of the next paradigm shift: AI & blockchain. These two nascent technologies are inching towards ubiquity much faster than we think. Startup founders should start experimenting and iterating in these areas so that they’ll be fully prepared when widespread implementation is inevitably reached.
-Jun Wakabayashi
Analyst, AppWorks
