Our Emerging Markets Strategy: We have a product people buy as well as global distribution. But we haven't solved marketing. We believe that success in the US will drive global awareness. This would scale our mission of digital empowerment.
In my most recent post I talked about what Endless is. We have spent years building the most powerful educational tool for kids in emerging markets in the form of a computer operating system filled with content and tools, because a computer is the most powerful digital tool available. Spend a little time reading the post if you’re not sure what we do.
The question that I now want to answer for you is this: why is our success of Endless in the United States so vital to getting technology into the most rural regions of the world?
Generally speaking, there are three things that a company must do to be successful: Build the right product, construct a viable distribution channel and generate sufficient demand. Here’s how we rank Endless on these three dimensions:
1) Build the “right” product
We began by spending years in the homes of users in a dozen countries. We had a lot of flawed assumptions when we began this process. But by listening closely to communities and employing local experts to tell us what we didn’t know we came to understand what people really needed. We then spent years building the features they asked for.
By having access to a computer powered by our Endless operating system, children from poorly-resourced regions can unlock an entire world of content, games, and skill-creating tools. They can have it all without the need for costly internet. When we present Endless to a group of parents and teachers, we will often see half of the room sign up to buy Endless. Within an hour they have decided to spend a month’s salary for our product. They see hope.
We see moments like this story all the time:
When we show the product first-hand, people who have computers often ask us to replace Windows with a fresh Endless OS. They prefer Endless because of the educational features.
But what motivates me most is when we see our operating system in the hands of a 13-year-old girl in rural Philippines and children similar to her all around the world. Seeing their eyes light up I’m reminded of the quote, “all the statistics in the world can’t measure the warmth of a smile.”
We feel confident in the product we have.
2) Construct a viable distribution channel
I used to dream about the day we would walk into a store and see a computer running Endless OS. I have now seen that countless times. Endless is in 75 countries, with partners who have shipped millions of computers running Endless OS. That still blows my mind!
Distribution of that scale into global rural communities is hard, but we have achieved that. We are also working with ministries of education, solar companies and distributors who sell Endless hand-to-hand. Endless OS can also be also be downloaded at www.endlessos.com.
We have open distribution channels at scale.
3) Generate sufficient demand
Our biggest challenge has been scaling awareness around the world. People simply haven’t heard about Endless. The few who have believe that it is for people who can’t afford better.
We have tried many strategies to solve this. We have sold to ministries of education and have had success, but these are slow and hard to scale. We have done hard hand-to-hand sales processes. But these also require butane we will never have to get to millions.
The best path to scale is having users asking for the product, and allowing others to sell it.
Our challenge for many years has been to generate demand at scale, affordably.
Our Global Marketing Strategy
When we took a step back, we realized that maybe it was time to let the old ways die. To put aside the yearning to sell hand-to-hand directly to our users. We observed others who have scaled globally and saw a common theme. Demand for these products in the United States tends to validate the product. Initial success in the US generates interest elsewhere.
I'm very proud of what we have built. In fact, we regularly have people in the United States use it and say that they want it for their kids. We realized that in focusing on building the best computer for kids in emerging markets we had built a computer for kids everywhere.
This led us to the conclusion that if we succeed in our vision of building the best computer for children everywhere, including the US, success here will radiate around the globe. When a parent in America wants Endless, a parent in Indonesia is likely to want the same thing.
So what does this all mean for our current efforts in the US? Why should parents and kids here want what Endless is building? More to come in the coming posts. The short answer is that you’d be surprised to learn how similar kids everywhere are!