How are Emerging Markets Challenging Silicon Valley


Silicon Valley has now become a new home for new techies. The past few years have seen a blast of job opportunities, be it for starters or the techie geeks opting for the Silicon Valley. It has become a home for all kinds of emerging markets, but there are major challenges which the market has to face with this boom.

Africa’s ‘Silicon Valley lures new tech start-ups and is witnessing investment from big capital firms. In fact, all the biggies like Google, Intel, Microsoft, and IBM have their tower block and innovation center in Africa.

As 60% land of Africa is uncultivated, so this is a brilliant way of using the land for development.

How are New Markets making Difference in Silicon Valley

The biggest challenge that emerging markets face in the Silicon Valley is to answer their connectivity with the valley. The answer is these markets helps you build an access to everything and make our life easier. The help you connect to the world and gives you more options to live a luxurious life.

Just for instance in the West its “Mobile first” but in Africa, it is “Only mobile”. The way we use mobile is very much different from the way the use it. For us it’s about internet, tablet, cloud, etc and for them it is mobile, bricks and mortar.

Building a Talented Team

Africa has a total population of 1.2 billion, but it is not right to say they have an abundance of techies out there. This may sound surprising but with all the companies running towards the valley you may face little trouble in finding talent.

The positive side is that, since you work outside the city, you become a recruiting head having a pool of candidates and you lure many freshers to join the team. So having freshers to your side can be your blessing and also your curse as it depends on how well you manage them and keep them.

Cost of Living

Money is one of the major factors that matters for any start-up company. Being new it would cost you a living to start your firm in the valley itself, it’s an expensive deal. Also, it’s not worth it, because it doesn’t yield you profit directly and it takes everything you have.

So it’s not a wise decision to start your new firm in the valley itself. Although you can think of expanding once you have a base and some profit of course. Not to neglect the fact that with people flowing to the Valley the cost of living, food, land everything is touching the sky.

Shelter in the New Place

According to the latest news, Silicon Valley lacks housing units of 40,000 to 65,000 to shelter the new workers as well as the locals in the region. This can simply lead to fall in the economic growth. As the need for housing increases the demand and cost of houses touch the sky, challenging the new market.

Addressing the Market

With the growing market, the communities are becoming more accessible and are growing rapidly. But the challenge of addressing and connecting remains the same. All the developing or business field need to meet their requirements. One way to overcome this issue is to build smaller communities that connect.

Yes, if you want to grow there, you have to connect with the people. It is very important that the people over there welcome you and relate to your growth. It’s not just the company and the employees that should grow, the country offering you the land should also have a share of development.

Connecting Business Locally

The business you are going to start should have some relevance and should be useful to the Valley, else it cannot grow. The truth is the place is growing and is accepting modernization. So the market should be open to the locals and should provide something useful to them.

If you fail to do so, it makes very difficult to extract profit. Connecting with the community not only helps you expand your market but also gives the local to grow, new chance of employment and development making them more open to new markets and adaptable to change.

Commitment to Work

When you move to the rural side there are many pros and cons. Sometimes you get to see a new side of life which you lost completely in your busy schedule like interacting with people face to face instead of texting or emailing them.

People in the Silicon Valley would welcome you with open arms, they love to have a chat with you but the challenge comes when you need people to see your vision. The biggest issue is to have their commitment to your vision. It’s like you are filling a blank paper, so they like your idea.

Handling Multiple Offers

But the second a new entrepreneur comes and talks to the people over there, they get confused and think of new offers. Also, the company needs human resource professionals, so the people have a variety of options to choose one. Making it difficult to have their commitment on your side.

With all these challenges it is very clear that starting a new company in Silicon valley is not that easy as it used to sound earlier. One should be aware of the trending economy and the current requirements of the people. You cannot just barge in and start your company.

Conclusion

Africa is welcoming all the entrepreneurs and the business ideas with open arms. The land is shifting from innovators to early adopters market. They are adapting to change and giving the world beautiful reason to visit Africa once at least and not just for business purpose but also to spend some quality time and enjoy nature.

Today we can seen people living in isolated communities of Africa availing the benefits of cell phones like they use mobile payments more than we do. India and many other countries are lending small microfinance loans to start business to send their children schools and open more employment options.

Updated on: 28-Jan-2020

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