Editors blog: A world of possibilities in a sea of political weirdness

Politics: never quite does what you expect, does it? The re-election of Donald Trump came as a surprise – though through the lens of hindsight, it shouldn’t have been – and his tenure as POTUS 49, still to commence at the time of writing, looks set to be a stormy one, not least for business.

I won’t try and work out what it might mean for the telemedia industry at this stage, but what is worth pointing out is that, while the US, Europe and the UK all flounder under a generational shift in political leadership/confusion, from a business perspective, other parts of the world – those often and offensively deemed to be ‘developing’ – are surging ahead.

This end of 2024 issue of Telemedia magazine is focussed on two themes: on how established services can acquire users without breaking the bank in the ultra competitive and saturated ‘developed’ markets (see page 1 and page 8); and, more pertinently, on the new – new tech, new services and new markets (all the other pages).

With World Telemedia Dubai scheduled for May 2025, we take a deep look at MENA (see page 1). This market is buzzing with innovation, new services and new opportunities. We take a look at what that means for the sector and just how content, marketing, payments and tech are all driving some key innovations.

But the world doesn’t stop there. Sub-Saharan Africa – the bits that aren’t the NA in MENA – is also poised for growth. It is an underdeveloped market, but one ripe with possibilities and something that needs to be explored. It will, IMHO, be the next big thing (see page 12).

Which brings us to the current ‘big thing’: India. This massive market isn’t talked about enough and, as we show, has huge potential for growth, even though it is already a massive market (see page 10).

Together, these emerging/ evolving markets are going to be the life blood of telemedia in 2025 – among other things (see page 13) – and offer a relative level of calm and stability as we approach a year that is going to be, to put it mildly, “interesting”.