The emerging market for millionaires and billionaires in Africa

The Start Of A Huge Internet Opportunity: The African Internet Scene

AUG 21, 2013

   20 years ago, barely anyone was using the internet. 5 years later, the fast adoption of the internet had made many people millionaires. Many people who had invested early. 10 years later, those men had become billionaires. The rapid rise of a disruptive force like the internet had moved money from the pockets of the old and slow class to the pockets of the young and nimble. Today those young men sit with the presidents and control large parts of this connected world. They are changing the world with technology in a way that scares the old politicians — they are making self-driving cars, spaceships and curing previously incurable diseases. That happened in the west. A few years later, the same snowball started rolling in Asia. The wires connected and people had access to the internet. Advertisements started making them curious, and they went online. They came, they clicked, and the bought. Just like in the west before, millionaires were made. A few years later, billionaires were made. Tens of thousands of people got massively wealthy. Within the last 5 years, all over the world, as information has been spreading, people have been coming online and spending their money; moving from the old slow offline methods to the quick and convenient online ways. And from Russia to Brazil to Romania — the smart folk who saw the trend and invested early have become incredibly rich. The same has started in Africa. Those people who invested early in other regions have seen that you make the most money when you invest early. They have started putting their money into Africa – a continent with a billion people with difficult road networks and poor transportation, where people have had difficulty communicating across cities and where schools are teaching material from the 60s. Think of what the internet is doing. It is like the deaf baby hearing for the first time with the ear implant. The villager will look online and he will see the modern world for the first time. He will read the latest books for the first time. He will watch the latest movies for the first time. He will watch tutorial videos for the first time. And he will purchase something online for the first time. This is the continent that needs the internet the most. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been made in Africa by the companies that connected people together with voice — the phone networks. What about when people are connected with video, with words, with song, and when they connect to their brother in the U.S? The men who invested in Asia before the internet took off know what will happen. They plan to sit in yachts in 10 years and smile at how they got in before anyone else. They know that the right choices now will make them billionaires in 10 years. The internet is changing a continent. People are coming online looking for what the internet has to offer. They want to learn. They want to make friends. They want to meet their wives. They want to buy. Because they are human and that’s what human beings do. For people who build for the internet, it’s one of the last huge untapped markets left. And for most of us, it’s the biggest opportunity we will ever have.By Mark Essien