“More than half the world’s mobile subscribers live in Asia-Pacific – mostly in China and India. Although the region has reached its peak in terms of subscriber growth, Asia-Pacific will account for almost two-thirds of new subscribers globally by 2020, with most of the incremental growth coming from the two dominant markets, India and China. By 2020 there will be more than 3.1 billion mobile subscribers in the region, or three-quarters of the population.” – The Mobile Economy, Asia-Pacific 2017[1], GSMA
GSMA reports that in 2016, mobile technologies and services generated 5.2% of GDP in the APAC region, which translated into a contribution of $1.3 trillion of economic value. By 2020, mobile technologies and services are expected to contribute $1.6 trillion (5.4% of GDP) in economic value, as countries benefit from the improvements in productivity and efficiency brought about by increased take-up of mobile services and adoption of new mobile technologies such as M2M. The mobile sector also makes a substantial contribution to the funding of the public sector, with approximately $166 billion raised in 2016 in the form of taxation.
Mobile technology and services are playing an increasingly dominant role as main mediums for consumption. Mobile phone manufacturers, hence, are becoming the most disruptive forces in the payments market and beyond, given that the number of smartphone users worldwide is predicted to be over 2.5 billion by 2019. Smartphone manufacturers around the world now have an unprecedented opportunity to win a game they may have not even been interested in just a couple of years ago. Apple[2], Xiaomi[3], Huawei[4], Samsung[5], etc. – all major phone manufacturers around the world – are
