GMIC heads to Bangalore, gets set for the next mobile wave

Come September, the Global Mobile Internet Conference (GMIC), which has been a regular fixture in China, will arrive in India – the world’s second largest mobile market after the Middle Kingdom.

Entrepreneurs, developers, and investors will gather in Bangalore on September 26 for the event, themed ‘The Next Wave of Mobile’. The setting is apt for such a theme, given the innovations happening in India’s burgeoning mobile internet industry. Analysts say India will become the world’s second largest smartphone market by the end of this year, overtaking the US. Smartphone sales more than trebled in India in the financial year 2013-14, growing by 244 percent, with 52.4 million smartphones being sold in that period.

GMIC Bangalore will have an interesting mix of speakers who are well-versed with the two booming mobile markets in India and China, covering the whole spectrum from ecommerce and payments to gaming and gadgets. Among the speakers are Sachin Bansal, CEO of Flipkart; Hugo Barra, global vice president of Xiaomi; Vishal Gondal, founder and CEO of GOQii; Zhang Hong Jiang, CEO of Kingsoft; Naveen Tewari, CEO of InMobi; Yu Yongfu, CEO of UCWeb; Sasha Mirchandani, founder of Kae Capital; and Fu Sheng, CEO of Cheetah Mobile.

As part of the event, there will be a ‘G-Trip’ for mobile industry leaders to visit Indian mobile and IT companies.

Tech in Asia is the media partner of GMIC Bangalore 2014, and so our readers get a chance to receive a 20 percent discount on passes. To claim this, enter code GMIC-TiA20 while registering for the event. There are also some free passes for developers and those working with startups. Fill up this form for those.

Apart from Beijing and now Bangalore, GMIC is held in San Francisco and Tokyo.