Should all companies focus on Emerging economies?

Although the rate of growth of Emerging economies has surged to around 7% and despite the fact that economists are reporting that these economies will contribute, in 2007, to half the globe's GDP growth (measured at market exchange rates - and over three times as much as the USA), one should keep things in perspective when focusing on international expansion.

Companies should be looking for their own industry figures in order to learn the true market potential for their products, in various territories.

As far as the medical device market is concerned, the latest figures (FY 2005), for a select group of countries, as published by Eucomed, are as follows:

Country / Total expenditures in € Billions / WW market share

USA / 79.4 / 42%
EU / 61.8 / 33%
Japan / 18.8 / 10%
China / 3.1 / 2%
Brazil / 2.6 / 1%
Rest of the World / 21.3 / 11%

The above table speaks for itself.

Established countries' economies may be growing at a lesser pace than Emerging ones or they may even be slowing down a little bit. But if you are a start-up, small or medium medical device company, you are better off sticking to established markets first (because that is where the money is and because we know very well that it takes more or less the same amount of effort whether you expand into a large territory or a small one).