Don't you think it's something like the following: think of a country's economy as a technology stack. You need to have the base levels of the stack in place before you can make more abstract things.
In places like Africa and India, there's a lot of access via mobile phones. But there's also a lot of missing pieces: transporation goods and services, smartphones, etc.
It seems to me like there's a lot of opportunity for media startups in both places, but that actual monetization is difficult because there isn't much in the way of ecommerce (due to logistical issues) and there isn't much in the way of advertising (because there's a lack of a base level of businesses to support it).
As for going global from a place like Africa: totally possible. But most startups follow a plan of succeeding at something small first.
I also think that Africa is going to leapfrog certain stages of technology / development and not others. For example, mobile banking in Africa is more widespread than it is in the US. My guess is that the first huge ecommerce company in Africa will be some weird hybrid of mobile, local, and banking infrastructure that people already trust.
In places like Africa and India, there's a lot of access via mobile phones. But there's also a lot of missing pieces: transporation goods and services, smartphones, etc.
It seems to me like there's a lot of opportunity for media startups in both places, but that actual monetization is difficult because there isn't much in the way of ecommerce (due to logistical issues) and there isn't much in the way of advertising (because there's a lack of a base level of businesses to support it).
As for going global from a place like Africa: totally possible. But most startups follow a plan of succeeding at something small first.
I also think that Africa is going to leapfrog certain stages of technology / development and not others. For example, mobile banking in Africa is more widespread than it is in the US. My guess is that the first huge ecommerce company in Africa will be some weird hybrid of mobile, local, and banking infrastructure that people already trust.