The competition is “insane” and there is a talent war raging. Technopreneurs eyeing the China market have been warned! But lessons learnt in this battlefield will be invaluable in helping them plot their strategies in other arenas closer to home.

The insights into China was one of the various country perspectives presented at the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore’s (IDA) Global Market Forum on 27 June 2012, which was focused on the theme “Understanding International Mobility Trends and Opportunities”.

Participants at IDA’s Global Market Forum on 27 June 2012, which focused on the theme “Understanding International Mobility Trends and Opportunities”.

The numbers certainly suggest opportunities aplenty in China. Mr Lee Sze Chin, Centre Director, IDA Shanghai Officer, noted that the country has become the world’s largest smartphone market, accounting for 22 per cent of the 146 million smartphones shipped worldwide in the first quarter of this year. It also overtook the United States in iOS and Android activation.

Android, in particular, “rules the middle kingdom”. The platform accounted for 55.4 per cent of all smartphones in the first quarter, compared with 12.4 per cent for iOS. The popularity of the platform is driven by low hardware costs, said Mr Lee, citing the example of service provider China Unicom which cut the prices of its smartphones by 30 per cent to RMB700 (S$140) in an effort to win market share.

The China mobile Internet market is currently worth about RMB 30.6 billion (S$6 billion). Search, social networking and email are the top apps among active e smartphone users. Video streaming is also popular, as is online shopping.

However, the competition is “insane”, said Mr Lee. “You have to be prepared that if you do something well, there will be a lot of competition. It is also harder to monetise because there are 70 app stores and 400 different channels, and a few thousand variants of Android phones. It will be difficult to develop solutions for all of them.”

Then there is the ongoing talent war for China’s 1.8 million mobile developers. iOS developers, especially, command a premium, and someone with three years’ experience could take home an annual salary of about RMB350,000 (S$70,000).

Mr Michael Tan: A lot of things can be picked up from the Chinese Internet companies that are very relevant for Southeast Asia.

While the challenges are formidable, there are interesting and useful lessons to be picked up in China. A case in point is the use of social media. Many China companies are aggressively using social media platforms to push out new products. For example, using social media platforms such as the micro blogging channel Weibo, a new handphone brand called Xiao Mi sold 300,000 units within 34 hours. “There is potential for some of these practices to be replicated in Southeast Asia,” said Mr Lee.

Mr Michael Tan, Chief Executive Officer of Phicomm Communication Asia Pacific, agreed. “For many countries, there has been a gradual shift from being China-centric to smaller but still interesting markets,” he said, citing Indonesia and Myanmar as two examples. “A lot of things can be picked up from the Chinese Internet companies that are very relevant for Southeast Asia.”

Mr Sanjay RM: With increasing affluence, the next wave of growth will (in India) be in the mobile value-added services market, which is currently worth US$5 billion and is growing at about 30 per cent a year.

Moving on to India, Mr Sanjay RM, Centre Director of the IDA Bangalore Office, noted that the country has a mobile subscriber base of 900 million, about 50 million of whom are smartphone users. “With increasing affluence, the next wave of growth will be in the mobile value-added services (VAS) market, which is currently worth US$5 billion and is growing at about 30 per cent a year,” said Mr Sanjay.

One significant area of opportunity will be in the consumer segment, for example, in entertainment-related VAS and information VAS. “Things that are going to fly in India include music videos, gaming, and information VAS such as news, weather and product launches,” said Mr Sanjay, pointing to recent mobile marketing efforts by automobile companies, inviting people to test drive new vehicles.

There are also opportunities in the enterprise VAS space, where falling prices of mobile devices make it cost effective to use them as productivity and efficiency enhancing tools. For example, smartphones can be used as front-end dashboards, pushing information to employees in the field so that they can access real time data and reports. For example, in transportation and logistics where there are currently a lot of operational inefficiencies, there are opportunities for enterprise VAS to help in optimising schedules, proactive planning of routes and tracking and managing deliveries.

Mr Kevin Chan, Centre Director for the IDA Middle East Office, presented on the growth potential of Gulf Cooperation Council states such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, especially in sectors such as education, healthcare and transportation. He also gave insights into interesting business practices and market cycles in the region which tended to correlate with the weather, with higher levels of activity in the cooler months.

Rounding off the country presentations was Mr Steven Tong, Centre Director for IDA San Francisco Office, who spoke on the “Top Mobility Trends and Opportunities for 2012”, while Singapore companies LDR and V-Key also shared their overseas experiences.