K atie c ouric

Seeing the Opportunities in Other Parts of the
World
As I mentioned earlier, there are 7.6 billion people in the world. Too many
businesses focus too narrowly and end up ignoring people from other
countries. I always advocate standing out and being different from everyone
else, which is harder to do in the United States or the United Kingdom
because so many people are fighting over an audience in these markets.
Even if you’re a creative genius and have something truly remarkable to
offer, it’s hard to get attention without widening your scope.
People think that having the market share in the United States, United
Kingdom, and Canada is more valuable than having it in other parts of the
world. It’s true that your valuation skyrockets dramatically when you have

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an audience in these regions, but you shouldn’t discount opportunities in
other locations. I recommend testing your content or brand in different
markets that are not oversaturated and that have less competition.
WhatsApp is a perfect example of a successful company that did just
that. They had tremendous success capturing large shares of Malaysia,
Turkey, Saudi Arabia, India, and Brazil. Most people would automatically
discredit those countries or deem them irrelevant. WhatsApp, on the other
hand, grew and scaled those audiences. The team behind WhatsApp built
the company up until it was eventually acquired for $17 billion, which is
one of the largest tech acquisitions of our time.
One of the main reasons Facebook bought WhatsApp was its
international audience. Facebook already had enough customers in the
“higher-value” markets of the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada.
It needed an opportunity to extend its reach and scale to other parts of the
world.
Cost Efficiency
On the Facebook advertising platform, it’s currently much more cost
efficient to reach people in emerging markets. Acquiring a follower or a like
in India, Indonesia, Brazil, or Mexico is far cheaper than targeting people in
the United States. This is because there are not a lot of people fighting over
those countries, which creates an excess of inventory in the auction. Fewer
people bid on those areas, and thus the cost to acquire or engage users is
very low. This presents a huge opportunity to scale a massive global
audience.
Acquiring a follower in India, or some of the other emerging markets,
can cost less than a penny, whereas if you’re trying to get a follower in the
States, it can cost around seven to ten cents. Again, that fluctuates based on
the quality of your content, but it presents a big opportunity.