Business Opportunites Worldwide
Go4business Opportunity has often been the first to spot lucrative business opportunities abroad. We have listed some of the business opportunites below and would be glad to hear from any members of the group if they have other similar opportunites or any advice that they could offer.
Business Opportuities are appearing in the Far East. Network equipment company Cisco has agreed to acquire the set-top box business of Hong-Kong based DVN (Holdings) Limited for $44.5m as part of its broader strategy to compete in emerging markets with locally designed and produced solutions. Skip related content
After the business acquisition, expected to close in the first half of calendar 2010, the DVN set-top box business will become a part of the opportunity, International Cable Business Unit within the Service Provider Video Technology Group (SPVTG) at Cisco led by Ken Klaer.
The company has also entered into a go-to-market alliance with the remainder of the DVN organization to utilize the company's middleware and advanced applications as well as integration and support services.
The investment is part of Cisco's ongoing long-term commitment to China. The company said the Chinese cable market with 160 million subscribers and the Chinese government’s plan for full digitization of the market by 2015 offers it a long-term opportunity.
Klaer said: "Cisco and DVN have similar cultures that emphasize video innovation and a shared vision to enable multi-media connected homes across China. With this acquisition, we will offer customers the powerful combination of DVN's products with the Cisco IP Next-Generation Network platform."
Cisco is expanding its portfolio through acquisitions. Last month, it announced its intent to acquire London-based software-as- a-service (SaaS) web security solutions provider ScanSafe Inc for $183m to expand its security portfolio. It also agreed to acquire IP-based mobile infrastructure solutions provider Starent Networks for $2.9bn to expand its mobile internet offerings for service providers, and Norway-based video communications provider Tandberg for $3bn to expand its collaboration portfolio.
Emerging Market Business Opportunities
Emerging Markets Offer Best Opportunity in Mobile Business Market
While still a small portion of the total mobile market, business customers offer between 20% and 80% greater ARPUs than the average mobile consumer in emerging markets. As well, mobile business customer revenues will grow over the next five years from one to four percentage points more than the overall mobile services market.
But one of the most important statistics from analysis of the mobile business customer in emerging markets is that about 72% of all mobile business customers are self-employed or work in businesses of fewer than 100 employees. This presents great opportunities for mobile operators.
Dan Shey comments on these business opportunities: "Smaller businesses in emerging markets still have relatively simple computing and connectivity needs; but these will evolve and become more sophisticated as the regions' economies grow. Operators in the emerging markets have the opportunity to become the primary solution providers of telecommunications and data services for a vast majority of companies in these regions."
The report also said that data services for emerging market mobile business customers will command an even greater portion of revenues than those in developed region markets, growing to as high as 59% of total mobile services revenues by 2014. In addition, mobile broadband services connecting computing devices such as laptops will, in most emerging market regions, provide more revenue than messaging services by 2014.
China's Gray Market; Cell Phone Industry's Dirty Little Secret
Like many other illicit business opprtunities, China's vast gray-market cell phone business is one of those things that everyone knows about. However, with gray-market shipments in this year set to grow to 144 million units, or nearly 12.5 % of the size of the legitimate global cell phone business, the gray market has become too big and too lucrative for the mobile handset supply chain to ignore anymore.
A market-research first, iSuppli Corp. has managed to lift the veil on China's secretive gray business handset market and develop an estimate of market size.
In contrast, worldwide unit shipments of legitimate cell phones will decline by 8 percent in 2009.
The gray market will peak in 2012 at 192 million units.
Gray-market handsets are cell phones manufactured in China that are not recognized or licensed by government regulators. Makers of these products generally do not pay China's value-added taxes and, therefore, profit illegally from their participation in the market.
Such phones employ fake International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers, which are used by wireless networks to identify valid devices. These phones also do not carry test/quality certifications or network entry permits.
"Because of its under-the-table status, China's gray market has been difficult to size up," said Kevin Wang, , China Research, for iSuppli. "with its vast size, growing competitive presence and increasing influence on the global supply chain, this market now must be reckoned with. That's why iSuppli has leveraged its extensive research capabilities to provide an estimate and forecast of shipments, the first time this has been done by a market research firm."
Gray business market comes out of the shadows
The gray cell phone market long has been a fact of life in China, with domestic demand propelling sales growth. However, the business underwent a fundamental shift in 2008, as domestic shipments began to decline, and exports started to boom. In 2009, exports are expected to exceed domestic shipments by a factor of more than three to one.
These exports are starting to impact the sales of legitimate established global business players.
"Chinese gray-market handset suppliers have become so successful that they are grabbing business opportunities from major international handset OEMs," Wang said. "Exports of gray-market cell phones are set to rise to 110 million units in 2009, up from 60 million in 2008. International consumers in both developed and developing economies are being lured away from established brands by the low cost of gray-market handsets."
Ironically, the export explosion comes at a time when Chinese consumers are turning away from gray-market phones because these products often come up short in terms of after-sales service and quality and as consumers are gravitating toward brand-name products,
Gray-market handsets typically enjoy a business opportunity of only two years, due to poor quality control during the manufacturing process.
Gray phones go upscale
While gray-market cell phones are a low priced opportunity, they aren't necessarily low end.
"In terms of business opportunities, gray-market handsets often are comparable with official phones," Wang said. "Nearly all gray-market phones have 2-megapixel VGA cameras and Bluetooth connections. Gray-market firms are even offering smart-phone models for less than $150, featuring Wi-Fi, QVGA-resolution touch-screen interfaces and the Microsoft Corp. Windows Mobile operating system."
Component opportunity
With its large size and rapid growth, the gray cell phone market has become a major revenue driver for suppliers of semiconductors and other components. While MediaTek is one of the primary supplier of semiconductors to the gray market, many other makers of semiconductors for legitimate handset OEMs also sell to gray-market manufacturers. However, the chips sold into the gray market often do not meet quality specifications of mainstream handsets.
While this represents a lucrative opportunity for these semiconductor suppliers, it does come with some risks.
"As the gray-market handset gets bigger, component suppliers may get some pressure from the legitimate OEMs and others in the ecosystem to stop selling into this area," warned Francis Sideco, principal analyst, wireless communications, for iSuppli. "This pressure may come in the form of shrinking design wins and potentially, intellectual property lawsuits." |
|
