Web users in BRICI countries – Brazil, Russia, India, China and Indonesia – will almost double in the next five years, as PC and smartphone penetration grows, analysts say.
The number of subscribers accessing the web in the five markets will grow from 610 million in 2009 to 1.2 billion in 2015, Boston Consulting Group predicts, as PC penetration doubles from 440 million units currently.
But the prime access to the web in these emerging markets will be on the mobile phone, not the desktop, creating consumption patterns vastly different from the developed world, BCG said.
“The internet is already having a fundamental impact on consumption patterns, and the patterns we’re seeing are significantly different from those in the United States and Japan,” says David Michael, who heads BCG’s global advantage practice.
“Companies relying solely on traditional means for reaching consumers in the emerging markets need to understand the impact that the shift to digital media is going to have.”
The number of mobile subs in the five countries already stands at 1.8 billion active subscriptions, BCG says, four times higher than the combined figures for the US and Japan.