mobileYouth®

1) India is young…very young

2) The mobile market in India offers massive potential

Here’s a market where there are 4 new mobile subscribers every second. India passed the US as the second largest mobile market in the world way back in 2007. It’s also a market where by 2011, one in 5 of the world’s mobile owning youth will be living.

While penetration levels may be low compared to developed markets consider India in the context of the middle class urban youth and you’ll see that penetration rates, particularly in the main conurbations such as Delhi, touch 99%+.

Check out the Upstart Radio interview on South Asia for more insight on this fact. You can also download a free infographic on the region here.

3) Youth drive the tech revolution

Interesting article by Ingene here.

4) When you consider India you have to consider the rural youth

There are 100 million rural mobile owners in India. Rural India is on the radar of global CPG brands already and tech is fast catching up. That’s why handset manufacturers are creating phones and packages targeted at being shared between families and villages.

How can services where consumers spend <$1 a month make money? Simple, consider the size. 600 million people living in rural India makes micro-margins potentially profitable.

5) Teens and tweens contribute most to content services

Where most adults prefer traditional voice services, youth drive the content market (according to Ian Stewart (Friendster) here). While prepaid remains a major barrier to the uptake of new content services, the launch of prepaid content cards offers one solution to the billing issue.

6) Mobile accounts for 90% of internet access.

See the stats here.

7) Mobile often offers a channel to bypass social convention

In a market dominated by social conventions and norms, youth often find new media offers a new social landscape unbridled by such restrictions. Where the initial defiance may appear whimsical, it can become rebellious.

8) Indian Youth offer the missing link in crowdsourcing local solutions for global brands

Nokia is already trying to draw on the creativity of the Indian scene to drive localized design.

9) Indian Youth are rediscovering their own youth culture

In some respects, Indian youth are still learning the ropes when it comes to picking up on global trends. Coffee culture, Vogue and MTV may have led the way but now Indian youth want their own. Bollywood can stand on its own two feet globally and to be “desi” now is to be cool and it’s a local offering with global variance rather than a local variant of a global offering.

10) Now Indian Females have a voice

In the country that gave you Indira Gandhi and Mummyji, it’s odd to think that the female voice has gone largely unheard. Yet there are signs of change, particularly at the bottom of the demographic pyramid. Here’s one example of content being aimed specifically for a burgeoning market – girl gamers.

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