The Big Picture With The Under $2 a Day Crowd

by Andrew Meyer on July 13, 2007

I think we are going to start seeing more and more companies seeing the big picture in regards to low-income users in developing nations. How? Technology.

I’m starting to see more and more examples of this where technology allows companies to offer services to severely low-income users on slim profit margins. For instance, the mobile banking phenomenon among low-income Africans has been amazing which I covered here.

And why would companies want to offer these services to low-income users for slim profits margins? The reason is that those low-income users make up like a two billion potential market worldwide.

Companies might be making slim profit margins per user but with all those users it becomes profitable. And, it builds the base of a potentially lucrative consumer market.

There are millions and millions of people in developing nations that need and want access to products and services that don’t yet fit into their $2 a day budgets. Companies need to see the big picture and develop products for this market. It’s going to take plenty innovators and risky entrepreneurs but it will surely payoff.

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