Trend Radar 2008: Emerging Markets

This morning, as I was doing the HP piece, it struck me how big an impact Emerging Markets are having on companies right now!

“HP has done well globally, a strong reason for it to be unfazed by the slowing US economy. In 2007, 67% of its total revenue was from outside the US. In the fourth quarter, Asia-Pacific grew by 20%, EMEA by 19% and Americas was up by 10%. BRIC countries grew 37% y-o-y in Q4 and accounted for 9% of total revenue.” Wow!

We’re also seeing interesting companies gaining critical mass in the Emerging Markets. I have covered Mercado Libre from Latin America, Naukri from India, and others. All are good examples of these markets becoming real markets, not just offshore manufacturing, development, or back-office facilities.

This is where I find Cisco’s emerging market weakness a matter of concern.

In 2008, there is likely to be a great deal more concept arbitrage in all of the emerging markets, especially those flushed with venture capital like India and China.

This segment is a part in the series : Trend Radar 2008