Entrepreneur Ted Leonsis gave a keynote address to Wharton’s Entrepreneurship Conference a couple of weeks ago. Leonsis rose to leadership in AOL after that company bought his business in 1993. An article summarizing his address has been posted at the Wharton site.
He offered his views of the future of the global Internet economy.
…[C]onsumers now see the Internet as a routine and indispensable part of their work and home life, spending 23% of their time hooked up to the web, compared to seven minutes a day when he began with AOL, he said. Latinos and African Americans are the fastest-growing groups online. And the U.S. is only part of the story. He noted that North America now accounts for just 16% of worldwide Internet users, down from 35% in 2000. “China has more Internet connections than the U.S., and most of them are on their phones…. If you’re building products and services just for the U.S. market, you’re giving up 80% of the market,” he told the audience. Even though the global potential for online services is huge, he doesn’t see enough business plans that have “an international vision of globalization.”
He concluded his remarks by saying: “I wish I was 25 again… I think it’s the greatest time to be an entrepreneur.”
Amen!!
(via Robin at the-venture-pad-collective).