Why Are the World’s Poorest Embracing M-Commerce Faster Than the Richest?

Most people in the western world don’t know it, but the most cutting edge mobile technologies aren’t in Silicon Valley; they’re in places like rural China, Africa, and India.

When the Internet first went mainstream in the mid-1990s, the “digital divide” became a pressing concern as the Internet quickly became a have and have-nots kind of thing. There were those rich enough to have computer access and electricity—and then there were those who were too poor to develop the digital skills needed in a tech-driven economy.

Solutions, mostly from philanthropists, quickly came up. There was the One Laptop Per Child movement that Bill Gates famously mocked. Then there was Mark Zuckerberg’s push to get everyone on Earth connected through his own organization. “We believe everyone deserves to be connected,” he wrote. The push to get everyone online has real momentum now.

But it may not be very necessary, since many developing countries are doing a great job of using technology to make their lives better.

Mobile payments have become a massive business in Africa, where payment remittances are a major source of income; Somalia receives 4% of its GDP as remittances from expats living in the west, mostly in America.

In fact, some estimates believe mobile payments in sub-Saharan Africa will reach $33 billion in 2015.

Mobile payments within countries are a big deal, too. In fact, Kenya leads the world in mobile payments, although much of that is through SMS. But the main idea—using technology to improve economic infrastructure—has taken root.

And it’s all mobile. In fact, some estimates say mobile payments are saving Africa $2 billion per year, and sending payments is still faster and easier in many African countries than it is in the United States.

In other parts of the developing world, mobile payments are much more sophisticated—and bigger.

India’s ICICI bank is working on mobile payments, while startups are bringing mobile payments to rural India.

Of course China’s mobile payments system is obscenely sophisticated, so that now you can pay for medical care with Alipay in addition to your tax bill, parking tickets, and many other things.

Internet 1.0 may have passed the developing world by, but the mobile web has not.

In fact, they are quickly embracing the technology to make their lives better, and adopting their infrastructures faster than anything we’ve seen in the United States.

Already, many countries have surpassed the United States in making mobile payments easier and more efficient. When will the developed world catch up—if ever?