OLPC just made the market bigger

There are over a billion Internet users in the world. That's still a little under 1/6 of the total world population. But the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative aims to change that by offering a laptop to children in developing countries for close to $100 US.

The program's vision is to enhance education in developing countries. Just as many developing countries bypassed the "wired" phase of telecommunications, they will also be able to bypass the traditional "bricks and mortar" approach to education. Here is a quote from the mission statement of the OLPC organization:

Children are consigned to poverty and isolation—just like their parents—never knowing what the light of learning could mean in their lives... an incremental increase of “more of the same”—building schools, hiring teachers, buying books and equipment—is a laudable but insufficient response to the problem of bringing true learning possibilities to the vast numbers of children in the developing world.

Although OLPC's goals are to provide education and learning solutions to poor countries, the widespread availability of Internet-capable personal computers will in effect greatly increase the global online marketplace. Children have parents, neighbors, friends. All these individuals will now have access to the Internet.

Although they may truly be motivated by social change, companies such as eBay have supported this project. It is clear that they see the advantage of expanding the reach of the online marketplace.

Poor children and adults in developing countries don't represent a very attractive market for high end products. But these people do consume. Together, they represent a nearly untapped market of billions.

Companies who target this population with affordable and practical products and services, maybe relying on m-commerce, will surely reap huge benefits.

Regardless of the immediate marketing opportunities, a better-educated global population is sure to radically transform the economy. Will children in Bangladesh grow up to work in factories for extremely low wages or will they benefit from their education and global social networks to develop cheap, automated manufacturing techniques? Only time will tell.