You can’t have a Nasdaq 10,000 series of posts and not talk about China and India.

This Buzzfeed piece on the state of the mobile phone infrastructure and market in India was great.

I had never heard the term ‘next billion’:

Ever heard of the Next Billion? It’s a term that the big tech companies use for people in fast-developing corners of the world like India who can finally afford to buy a smartphone and get online for the first time in their lives. Tech companies are hoping to hook these users by releasing slimmed-down versions of their apps and un-bloating their operating systems to run on their low-end smartphones.

As weak as solutions are today for Indian consumers, it is easy to feel the opportunity at hand.

Next up is this ‘Letter From Shenzen‘ which outlines how Chinese tech isn’t an imitation of its American counterpart. It’s a completely different universe.

Here is a taste:

Shenzhen is a city built on exceptions. David explains that when the Chinese government decided to experiment with capitalism in the 1980s, it didn’t want to expose existing major cities like Beijing or Shanghai to the risk of failure. Instead, the government chose Shenzhen, a tiny cluster of fishing villages, even building up a wall in some parts to demarcate the boundary between socialism and capitalism.

Since the beginnings of the experiment, Shenzhen has exhibited all kinds of hockey-stick-shaped growth that people in Silicon Valley talk about in hushed tones of exaltation. The population has skyrocketed from 30,000 to almost 12 million, the cost of living has gone up, innovation is surging, and the time it takes to create, design, or build a new product decreases day by day.

Have a great week.