08/17/09 Baltimore, Maryland
We’re watching Far East telecoms. Chinese Internet population is increasing at an astronomical rate, growing 42% last year alone, to nearly 300 million users, according to the China Internet Network Information Center. Now the government is setting its online ambitions toward the countryside, vowing to hook up every village with broadband lines by 2010.
Still, the region’s penetration rate is only 17%, compared with 75% here in the U.S. The opportunities are boundless.
Most of the time, backdoor plays offer the largest profits in growth industries like this one. Sometimes, however, a straightforward approach is your best chance at the quickest gains. This is one of those times.
Take China Mobile, for instance. This telecom behemoth is the most obvious play in the region. In the last three years, the company doubled the number of subscribers and grew its bottom line 107%. That’s a rare feat for a $230 billion company.
China Mobile’s growth is impressive, but it’s nothing compared with what a small-cap player can do in this field. There’s plenty of room to grow in the telecom industry of the Far East.
That’s why we’ve been looking for under-the-radar Internet providers in Asia. And we just we found a beauty.
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