The Emerging Global Web

global web
the emerging
https://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/curious_e/10642468063

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/psd/3149878971
the web was ﬁrst conceived
25 years ago...

...by an Englishman
Source: CERN

...the initial concept
was revised with the
help of a Belgian
computer scientist...
Source: Wikipedia
Robert Cailliau

built in France (!)...
and the ﬁrst web site ﬁnally
Courtesy: Google Maps
Source: Exact location where the web was invented

and hosted on a computer
designed in California...
Source: Wikipedia
(note the critically
important “do NOT
power down” sticker)

...but within the walls of a Swiss
research institute
https://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/calistan/4034215937

as the ﬁrst crop
of dot.coms went bust...

30%
North
America
29%
Europe
19%
Japan/Korea
2%
Australia
13%
rest of Asia
5%
LATM
1%
Middle
East
1%
Africa
most of the internet’s
users came from
developed economies
Source: Internet world stats - Internet users by region, 2000, per the IMF deﬁnition of “developed” in 2000)

1. U.S.A.
2. U.S.A.
3. U.S.A.
4. S. Korea
5. S. Korea
6. S. Korea
7. U.S.A.
8. Japan
9. U.S.A.
10. U.S.A.
...as did all the traﬃc on
the Alexa “top 10”.
Source: Alexa.com, Sept 2000, via Wayback Machine

today, the situation is quite diﬀerent....

Internet penetration nears saturation in developed economies...
Internet Population and Penetration

5. Baidu (China)
7. QQ (China)
11. Taobao (China)
13. google.co.in
14. Sina (China)
10. hao123 (China)
17. Weibo (China)
20. Yandex (Russia)
...and traﬃc from fast
growing emerging
economies such as China,
India, and Russia now
makes up almost half of
the Alexa “top 20”.
Source: Alexa.com, April 2014

Source: Age of Man - interactive map, National Geographic
close to 3 billion of us
have yet to use the internet...

Xiaomi Hongmi
yet thanks to devices such as this,
won’t have to wait much longer
to discover it...
(...within a year, similar devices will
cost half this much)
Android platform
£83 ($130)
built & designed in China

but the internet the next billion will discover isn’t quite like
“ours”...and that’s what we’re going to discuss today

begin this story by talking
https://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/goingslo/9328307647
which is why we’ll
about sheep...

“…if you have an Instagram account, you can slap a tag
on anything, take a picture of it, and sell it...”
– Fatima Al Qadiri, Mousse magazine
https://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/bombardier/5456285991

you know—hacked products.”
She sells dried fruit. A friend’s cousin is selling
weird potted plants...people are creating,
– Fatima Al Qadiri, Mousse magazine
“...even my grandmother has an Instagram business.
https://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/qilin/3923289556

Instagram businesses are
particularly popular in Kuwait
https://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/jackversloot/5023997659/
(for some unknown reason...)

more than 10,000 similar businesses
are powered by Facebook...
but over in Thailand,

businesses such as these provide a glimpse
informal economy...
of a new, digital and mobile-fuelled
the last few 1000 years of
“informal economy” has
looked something like this
http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/dgmckelvey/7053122601

they’re still relatively ad-hoc...
no shopping cart or online
form, just contact her using
your mobile and a popular
social messaging app
are a bit diﬀerent...on the one hand
these new kinds of “informal” business

and poses a new level of
sophistication...
orders shipped daily
by courier with
tracking number
yet they are modern, global,

follow on
Instagram
contact on mobile
and WhatsApp
the goat man has fans!
gotta love the
q8animals hashtag!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/57634952@N00/3031070035/
These services don’t offer “a great experience” but are ”good enough”
and offer a good balance of reach, effort, functionality and
adaptability to local circumstances. They also fill an important gap...
83% of Thai internet
users use Facebook
Facebook even
works on his
crappy old phone
she can manage the
“site” and respond to
inquiries on mobile
while sitting here all day
the motorcycle taxi around the
corner can make quick
deliveries if needed

“...most of these pages see their largest growth
out in the countryside, where the population
is largely underserved by other e-tailers
as well as brick-and-mortar shops”
– Thailand’s powerful wave of Facebook commerce
http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/wakxy/5233200705/

but reaching the underserved doesn’t merely
apply to large rural populations...

China has 14 cities with populations
over ﬁve million...
https://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/decar66/6341327886

...a whopping 41 cities with
more than 2 million inhabitants
http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/tahini/10468208216

...and a middle class growing at a rate of
80,000 people a day
http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/tahini/10468208216 Source: China Connect

rural residents can be hard
http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/lukewebber/4588854679
reaching China’s 600 million

its close to 700 million urban residents
but opening enough stores to service
can be outrageously expensive
http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/tuchodi/5620884999
(or downright implausible)

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/milo_riano/4336541309
so to many Chinese, shopping online
isn’t so much an electronic version of commerce,
it *is* commerce, pure and simple

https://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/curious_e/10473440064
...and using their mobile to do so isn’t just
a modern alternative to using a PC, it’s their primary
(or sometimes only) means of using the internet

Chinese e-commerce is also diﬀerent
in one very important way...

76%
of online retail
involves individual
merchants
of online retail is sold
through online
marketplaces
90%
Source: The Economist

China’s giant, virtual marketplaces enable
buyers and sellers to ﬁnd themselves
a modern virtual
version of this
http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/mckaysavage/135932500/
like public markets and town centres,

The largest marketplace is Alibaba’s Tmall. With more than 180 million
customers, Tmall contains products from more than 150,000
merchants and 200,000 well known brands.

Tmall charges an entry fee, and a commission for each sale, but in
return provides a high visibility, high traﬃc, customizable, social-
media and mobile optimized e-commerce platform.

For major brands such as Apple, hosting a virtual storefronts on TMall
is a good alternative to opening hundreds (or possibly thousands) of
brick and mortar stores across the country.
apple.tmall.com

Alibaba also oﬀers a C2C site called Taobao, which enables consumers
(and smaller merchants) to sell products online. Taobao is a bit like
EBay, but vendors aren’t limited to selling things...

They can also sell services: This Taobao-based travel agent doesn’t
just sell you a trip, they can also arrange a travel visa, sell you a Thai
3G SIM card, a wi-ﬁ dongle, a subway pass, or local transportation.

C2C and B2C
commerce on Taobao
T-Mall merchants pay
a commission and an
entry fee
we’ll discuss
this bit later...!TaoBao merchants don’t pay to sell
stuﬀ, they buy advertising and other
services to help them stand out
and“A mix of ,
with a dash of .”

This family of sites enables consumers to shop for a huge range of
products that might otherwise never be available in their region.
(And yes...Tmall can sell you a new Peugeot...or a Lamborghini).

“...such is Taobao’s success these days that
running a “Taobao shop” is a national pastime,
sort of like a second job or hobby for tens of thousands
of Chinese oﬃce workers, housewives, and students”.
- Owning a Taobao shop is a new national hobby
http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/mckaysavage/135932500/

For many people however, it’s far more than a hobby. These sites have
enabled millions of new jobs—especially in smaller towns or rural
areas where residents can now sell their locally made products or
produce to an audience of billions.
http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/tuchodi/5642172895

https://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/tuchodi/5628755801
1 million
by the end of
2012 more than
T-Mall and Taobao
stores were registered
in rural areas
Source: CNN

https://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/ahenobarbus/7979295403
one half
T-Mall & Taobao also
accounted for more than
of all parcel deliveries
in China
Source: CNN

the Chinese marketplace model has
already slipped beyond its borders...

“...most of the people have phones but
there are only 3 malls per 20 million inhabitants...
It’s a unique time...the right time to leapfrog over ‘oﬄine’.”
- jumia.com co-founder
THE BIGGEST ONLINE SHOPPING MALL IN AFRICA
Egypt | Kenya | Uganda| Ivory Coast| Nigeria | Morocco

Access to marketplaces is creating opportunities for Western
micro-businesses, that can now source materials directly from
factories around the world.
Julie sources cake decorating
supplies direct from China using
Alibaba and sells them to customers
around the world using Etsy
Hi! My name is Julie, I live in the Bay
Area and I am the owner of Cakes And
Kids. I am wife, mother and entrepreneur
and I am forever grateful that I get to do
what I love every day!

Small and mid-size companies in emerging economies are also taking
advantage of western platforms to reach western customers with
unique and often personalized products.
family business
5 people
1 designer, 2 tailors
clothes advertised
on Etsy and made
to order
delivery in 1-2 wks
Kelans Art Couture, Foshan, China

Chinese entrepreneurs in Western markets, or “online shopping agents” in
China are also acting as middlemen, shipping hard to find (or highly
taxed) Western goods to Asia, then re-selling them on sites such as Taobao.
“... even if [Western] retailers or consumer product
companies haven’t stepped foot in mainland China,
their products are already here. Unofficially.”
- Think your brand is not for sale in China yet?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnas/7652202244

This is creating a new and fast-growing
group of highly globalized digital-ﬁrst
consumers. Consumers who live in
one region, but actively shop or seek
out products from another.
https://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/ding_zhou/11902149336

https://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/decar66/5150814952
but with millions of vendors in
consumers ﬁnd products they truly want?
these giant marketplaces, how can

“Meet Jing
Jing is an aﬄuent young Chinese girl who started blogging
about her life and style while studying abroad in the UK.
She is now your competition”.
http://jingxujing.blog.163.com/
Source: 青年志 | Open Youthology

“She’s a marketer.
Her Weibo micro-blog
now has over 28,000
followers. She blogs
about her life, her style
and tips for beauty and
fashion”.

“She’s a retailer.
Her Taobao shop oﬀers copies
of luxury products she wears on
her blog. All her products are
limited edition and priced low.
It usually takes her a
couple of hours to
sell out”.

Jing promotes products
but uses Taobao to transact
on her blog and social media,

The millions of people without Jing’s time or commitment can instead
sign up for an account at an “online shopping neighbourhood”.

“Online shopping neighbourhoods are
online destinations created by social media,
where consumers can explore a curated
selection of choices”.
青年志 | Open Youthology

one of the largest sites is Meilishuo
with over 32 million users,
(which means “beauty talk”)

Sourrce: Technode and Pando Daily
5-6 million
Meilishuo generates
clicks for online
merchants per day
£300 million
...and in 2012
generated an estimated
($500M) in revenue
for downstream
merchants
Similar to an online travel agent, Meilishuo gets a cut
for each outbound transaction it generates....
http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/ducdigital/2892313560

If you think this sounds kind of boring,
because it’s all about girls discussing shoes,
imagine translating this model to geeks talking
about gadgets, or fans talking about books...

Part of the reason these services work, is that they feed into the virtuous
circle of mobile and social media adoption.
Source: The internet economy in the G20 (PDF)
Developing markets are going “straight to social”
Users adopt social networking quickly as they come online

...but the most popular social media services in China
aren’t just “sites”—they’re platforms...

one of the most popular
(lately) is WeChat
three years old
500 million users
or Wēixìn - 微信 - in China
mobile-only

“Literally every single person I know,
everyone I’ve met in China, is on WeChat.
I don’t use email, I don’t use the phone, I don’t use
SMS to communicate with anyone – only WeChat.”
Hugo Barra, VP Xiaomi Global (ex VP Android Product at Google)
Photo: http://www.oezratty.net/, watch the video interview from LeWeb 2013 on YouTube

(recorded) voice chat
RSS-style subscription content
mobile contact exchange
highly customizable API
payment platform
text chat
group text or video chat
photo blogging
mobile-only, and far more
than just a messaging app
virtual wallet

WeChat’s API is extensive, enabling brands to create “mini-sites”
containing news, IVR style support or full-blown transactions
through with WeChat’s virtual wallet and payment platforms.
WeChat subscription channels API integration enables
customizations such as sub-
sections...
download our app
find
nearby
stores
...and product or service
inquiries using an automated
short messaging service
here’s the
stuff you can
ask regarding
coffee...
“cappuccino”
tell me about
“coffee”

(if you’re looking for fragments of a “one web”
philosophy, you’re sadly not going to ﬁnd it here)

5 million
this Chinese New Year,
more than
people used WeChat to
purchase 20 million virtual
“Hongbao” (red envelopes
containing money)
in one 24 hour period
Thanks to clever campaigns, WeChat wallet usage is rising fast!
Source: TechInAsia

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ducdigital/2892313560
virtual wallets, mobile payment and alternative finance
models are quite popular in emerging economies, as they
help address a whole host of local challenges...
1/4 of adults
across sub-Saharan
Africa as a whole only
have accounts at formal
financial institutions
less than
of Indonesians have a
credit card
15%
Source: Wall Street Journal

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/kiwanja/3169409467/
In countries such as Kenya, India and the Philippines, entirely virtual banks
such as MPESA enable customers to send and receive money, or pay for
goods and services on or oﬄine using even the most basic mobile phone.

Indonesia, consumers can also choose to pay for
https://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/kamshots/468265643/
in countries such as China, Nigeria and
online purchases using cash on delivery

with so much commerce
taking place on giant marketplaces,
there is also a natural fear of counterfeits
https://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/ornellas/3308925864/sizes/l

To increase trust, Alibaba created Alipay, an online payment platform
(like PayPal) that also doubles as an escrow service and only releases
payment once goods have been received and accepted by shoppers.

With more than 800 million registered users, Alipay is now so common
that it can be used to pay for almost anything—including school fees
and loans, utility and mobile phone bills and even hospital charges.

T-Money - Korea
launched in 2004
Octopus - Hong Kong
launched in 1997(!)
Some of these “pay for everything” platforms are now decades old...
starting with one “mobile” technology, then migrating to
progressively more modern (or relevant) ones as they come along.
contactless card
wristbands
keychains
NFC/QR enabled apps
(PC) dongles
SIM integration
contactless card
keychains
NFC/QR enabled apps
(PC) dongles
AliPay integration
SIM integration
20 million cards in circulation
(for 7 million people)
71 million cards in circulation
(for 50 million people)

...and when you’ve run out of real things to pay for
virtually...why not invent a few virtual things to pay for...

Meet yy.com—a giant “Google
Hangouts” style platform with
over 300 million users and 11
million channels, and programs
ranging from karaoke, to “talk
radio” and educational topics.

Unlike YouTube or Skype—
YY has it’s own virtual
currency.
Users purchase credits from the
site and use these to show
aﬀection for their favourite stars
by buying them virtual gifts
such as roses and lollipops.
Gifts range in cost from mere
pennies to as much as $50 (£35).

“top Karaoke singers regularly make $20K (£15K) a month
oﬀ of virtual gifts, with one college student reportedly
earning an astonishing $188K (£150K) per month
using the site to give Photoshop lessons”
- The largest social network you’ve never heard of

...meanwhile in Korea, 1000s tune in to AfreecaTV,
a similar service where Choi Ji-hwan earns
about 2 million S. Korean won ($1,880) each month
eating mountains of noodles and kimchi live each night
Source: Iamkorean

In most cases, mobile devices are the glue that tie
these platforms, services and communities together...

WeChat has for example,
built much of its functionality
around the QR code

WeChat automatically generates a QR code for each account.
To follow a person or brand, simply scan the code (on a device,
business card, poster, web site etc.)
(WeChat even provide templates enabling personalization of the code to suit your personality or your brand.)

This reliance on QR codes works, because in China (and many other
parts of Asia) almost every app (including locally built web
browsers!) has a built in QR code reader.
Qunar (travel brand) Baidu web browserTaobao

Some Chinese-made Android smartphones even have QR and
WeChat recognition built right into into the camera.
(In Japan, where QR codes were invented, manufacturers added this capability close to 10 years ago.)
the Xiaomi Mi3 camera

using QR codes to interact
and transact with brands has therefore
become common (...one might say mundane)
These college students sell
fruit on campus...in person,
but also through WeChat.

WeChat, AliBaba and other platforms are also working with department
stores and other “oﬄine” goods merchants to extend their reach—enabling
customers to purchase goods in store by scanning QR codes on products.
...kind of like this John Lewis and Barclay
Card concept... except that 300 million
people have a WeChat account, and 800
million have an Alipay account.

these brands and consumers aren’t merely
“leapfrogging” desktop, or ﬁnance, or physical retail...

in mobile
transactions in 2013
25 billion
in mobile
transactions in 2013
150 billion
(Alipay)
they inhabit a giant rapid-prototype of our future...
Source: Business Insider

a future inhabited by people
https://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/paulk/4693602730
for whom the words “oﬄine”, “online”
and “mobile” have become irrelevant

with little baggage to weigh them down,
they can ignore what’s “normal” and
turn constraints into opportunities
https://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/yto/3640718959

...the cool thing about prototypes,
is that they’re allowed to be a little crazy...

Russian e-commerce
brand Lamoda has turned
poor postal infrastructure
into an excuse to try
something that seems
completely un-scaleable...

“...Lamoda sends sales assistants directly to shoppers’
homes...uniformed delivery men bring the clothes,
wait for [customers] to try them on, oﬀers fashion advice,
take returns and process payments on the spot”
- Russia: Where the Deliveryman Gives Fashion Advice
https://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/41738141@N06/6814977720/

https://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/marketingfacts/6323249188/
...in Korea, grocery stores are embedded
on Subway platforms where users scan QR codes to
buy items that are delivered just-in-time for dinner

https://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/ivanwalsh/4317318193/l
...in China, online grocery chain Yihaodian
cleverly positioning them in high traﬃc
locations such as the Forbidden City
launched 1000 virtual reality branches in one day,
- Watch the campaign video

“Why build expensive roads to remote rural locations
when drones can do the job just as well?
- Forget Amazon: Drone delivery will take oﬀ in Africa
https://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/gabrielgm/9520473233
meanwhile in Africa...

(...combine drones with Lamoda’s up-selling at your
doorstep and things could get interesting...)

and the internet have already
the rise of mobile
changed our world beyond recognition

no one can predict what will happen next...

https://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/rapidtravelchai/8280368709
what we do know,
is that in the future the opportunities
will be more global than they’ve *ever* been
(even Oreos aren’t sacred)

to meet tomorrow’s challenges,
and compete in this giant marketplace...

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/brownpau/4969358409
we should always remember
that what may seem futuristic to us...

https://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/rodriguez5000/12149403593
The Economist: The next frontier
“To Westerners, ‘mobile banking’ is a new way
of doing something old. To many Africans, it’s the
obvious way of doing something new”
may merely feel new
and practical to others...

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/tinou/453593446
thank you
many thanksto the amazing
photographerson
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0
@yiibu
hello@yiibu.com
contactus
at
Presentation deck available @
http://www.slideshare.net/yiibu

The Emerging Global Web

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