Chinese Internet companies should go global by tapping emerging markets in the next three years, according to a top official at mobile Internet firm UCWeb.
Yu Yongfu, chief executive officer of UCWeb, the world's biggest mobile device browser provider, said his company achieved "unexpected success" after it started to explore emerging markets in Asia and East Europe a year ago.
"Compared with China, mobile Internet development in many other developing economies is relatively slow," providing great business opportunities for Chinese Internet companies, Yu said.
For example, Indonesia is the fourth-largest telecom market in Asia. It has a population of 240 million and 80 percent of them have cell phones. The market has a huge demand for mobile Internet, but the current infrastructure is inadequate, Yu said.
According to a report from Morgan Stanley, 3G users in emerging markets could reach 1.09 billion by 2012 - six times that of the number of 3G users in developed countries.
"UCWeb took a path similar to Huawei Technologies, by tapping emerging markets before turning to developed economies," Yu continued.
UCWeb realized an average month-on-month growth rate of 300 percent in overseas markets in the last six months. It also reached 30 million downloads abroad and formed an overseas customer base of more than 10 million in the past year.
By September 2010, the company had more than 100 million users worldwide, with page views of 50 billion a month across the world, the highest among all mobile device browsers.
UCWeb now holds second place in the cell phone browser markets of India, Indonesia and Russia, behind Opera Software ASA, a Norwegian maker of Web browsers. In India, UCWeb occupies a market share of almost 10 percent.
"I aim to make UCWeb the top player in India, Indonesia and Russia within five years," Yu said.
Although major Chinese Internet giants, such as Baidu and Tencent, have already expanded abroad in recent years, results have yet to become apparent. Baidu has less than 5 percent market share in the search engine market in Japan, though it began providing services in the country in 2008.
Another Chinese Internet company, Tencent Holdings Ltd, has been providing its instant-messaging service to users abroad since last December, challenging Microsoft Corp and Yahoo Inc.
Tencent and its largest shareholder, South Africa's Naspers Ltd, have made investments in Internet portals, e-mail and instant-messaging services in India, Russia and Thailand in the past two years.
"Investing in overseas enterprises, or listing on foreign exchanges, has not really lifted the influence of Chinese Internet companies in the global market," Yu said.
"Building up your own brand and providing better products and services is important," Yu added.
Yu pointed out that, for most Chinese Internet companies, expansion abroad is still a far-fetched concept. Therefore, successful models will enhance their confidence and provide an impetus for them to go global.
"What we need is more courage. The more education we receive, the more hesitation and less courage we have when facing risks to go global," Yu said.
He made the comparison with the time when private enterprises in Zhejiang province first tried to export small commodities overseas.
Those entrepreneurs did not speak a foreign language or have a high educational background, he said, "but they did it, and 'Made-in-China' is now known around the world."
