How China, India, Mexico, and Russia are quickly catching up to America

The United States has always been the single most lucrative market for companies in the entertainment and online media businesses but there are a few emerging markets that are quickly closing the gap. Despite their rapid growth, Mexico and Russia can never hope to exceed America in terms of earning potential for companies due to the fact that they both have less than half of its population. China and India, on the other hand, have far more people than America does. 

While the U.S. still has the highest earning potential for both online media and entertainment companies, emerging markets like China, India, Russia, and Mexico are quickly catching up. A new report by Ernst & Young says growth will be fueled by rapidly increasing Internet penetration. There are expected to be two billion broadband connections by 2016 in the emerging markets covered by the report, twice that of mature markets Smartphone shipments to emerging markets will also double between 2014 and 2018. China, the top emerging market for online media companies, is expected to have 500 million wireless broadband connections by 2016 (to put that number in context, it has a population of 1.36 billion). The country’s regulations, however, make it an infamously difficult market for foreign companies to enter. Facebook and Google are just two U.S. tech giants that have been blocked or restricted.