Comparing Asia to North America is such a false equivalence.<p>Asia is huge. Like 63% of humanity huge.<p>Of-course the market in Asia is going to be much more massive.<p>A lot of rural places in India have better Internet that I have sitting here in a British city - at a much more discounted price.<p>Everyday millions of people are coming online - internet virgins. They will have their own new taste, needs, etc.<p>The thing to understand before you think about investing your hard earned money in an asian country - is even though the volume of amazing ventures are a lot more - each smart ventures is followed by 1000s of dumb ones.<p>The signal to noise ratio in low - unless your are in the market - you will be scammed - this is why a lot of large companies have tried and failed to start industries all over asia.<p>Anytime you start pouring a lot of money anywhere - govt, scammers, etc all want to dig into you. Red-Tape, bribery, lack of transparency and rule of law.<p>This is not as overwhelmingly present in European or american markets.<p>I do not for a second doubt that the market size, growth, etc are going to be insane in asia for the foreseeable future - but there is a question of sustainability - and this requires structural change in government in many asian countries.<p>Unless you are interested in short term - high risk - high reward outcome. And are more interested in long term investment - then Asia needs some reform before you think about investing big time there.
Most of that VC is not being invested into innovative ideas, products or business models, but local versions of foreign companies than can't operate in China for diverse reasons, ranging from privacy to foreign ownership restrictions. The value created will be mostly limited to the Chinese market.