Which countries would have most to gain from a GEMs launch?

The potential unpopularity of a raw online marketplace in the first world notwithstanding, GEMs is unlikely to be launched in a developed country. It is in ‘second world’ nations that the opposition to such a move by government could be most readily overcome. The possibility of GEMs in a far off country might be enthusiastically supported by investors who would bitterly contest the same project on their home ground. Unlike, say, online entertainment applications GEMs can operate with very basic displays to users and would not require substantial bandwidth or advanced technology in terminals. The personal computers with 486 processors now being piled into skips across Europe and the US and the copper wire discarded for high-density fibre optics could provide the spine for a usable, if not particularly glossy, GEMs in a developing nation. Many of these countries are propagating the awareness and technical backbone required for a GEMs service. Internet access and usage is accelerating faster in developing countries than elsewhere.70 In China, for example, twice as much fibre optic is now being laid as in the USA, encouraging the number of Net accounts to double in the first half of 1998.71 The Prime Minister of India (which has an existing middle class of 200 million people) has set out to reverse his country’s slow take up of the Internet with a national task force designed to make the country ‘an Information Technology superpower’. 72 Brazil is now committed to growth through privatization deals to create commercially driven infrastructure. With a favourable government any of these countries could achieve much from launching a first GEMs service.