📈#070: Why U.S. financial markets grew 185% while GDP only rose 88%

Welcome to Market Mosaic, where, in this week's edition, we explore the 27.4% growth story behind Xiaomi's smartphone surge and dive deep into why U.S. financial markets outpaced global GDP growth by 97 percentage points.

Plus, we also show how India's massive logistics expansion is challenging consumer delivery expectations worldwide.

— Insights Team, Rwazi

In our edition this week:

• Sector Performance Tracker

• Technology

• Economy

• Consumer Universe

• Supply Chain
  

The global smartphone market shows fascinating consumer behavior patterns that extend far beyond device preferences. Samsung maintains its global dominance with 18.9% market share across 38 countries, but the real story lies in the dramatic surge of Chinese manufacturers challenging established players.

Xiaomi's remarkable 27.4% year-over-year growth demonstrates how consumers are increasingly prioritizing value propositions over brand prestige. Our data analysis shows a critical consumer insight: brand loyalty in technology is weakening as feature parity increases.

Apple's 1.5% growth, while modest, reflects a stable but maturing customer base willing to pay premium prices for ecosystem integration. Meanwhile, vivo's 21.9% growth indicates that consumers in developing markets are actively seeking alternatives that balance functionality with affordability.

The transformation of the U.S. financial system reveals profound changes in how consumers and businesses access capital. The 185% growth in debt and equity markets versus 88% global GDP growth shows a shift toward financialization of the economy, directly impacting consumer access to credit and investment opportunities.

The most striking consumer-relevant trend is the dominance shift in mortgage origination, where nonbank share surged from 12% to 75%.

Also, the rise of private equity-backed companies (from 4,900 to 11,800) while public companies declined suggests consumers are increasingly interacting with privately-held businesses rather than publicly-traded entities. This shift impacts everything from workplace benefits to customer service standards, as private equity ownership often prioritises operational efficiency over public market expectations.

The global digital services market has reached $4.3 trillion, representing 13.8% of all global trade, a figure that would have been unimaginable just a decade ago.

The composition of this market tells a fascinating consumer story. "Other business services" dominate at 41.2% ($1.8 trillion), indicating that B2B digital transformation is driving much of this growth. However, the consumer-facing segments are equally revealing: computer services at 20.5% ($872 billion) and financial services at 16.0% ($679 billion) show where consumers are most willing to embrace digital-first experiences.

Geographic distribution shows interesting consumer preferences. Europe's 52.4% share of global digital service exports, compared to Asia's 23.8%, suggests European consumers are more receptive to cross-border digital services. The U.S., leading individual country, exports at $649 billion (15.3%) shows both innovation and global consumer trust in U.S. digital platforms.

India's massive ₹20-22 trillion logistics market is now a response to fast-growing consumer expectations in the world's most populous nation. The market's composition shows how consumer behavior is reshaping an entire industry.

Road transport's 74% dominance reflects Indian consumers' demand for last-mile connectivity and flexible delivery options. The industrial warehousing sector's 75% share of the warehouse market (versus 25% agricultural) indicates the shift toward consumer goods distribution rather than traditional commodity storage. This transformation is driven by e-commerce growth and changing consumer shopping patterns.

The relatively small but growing air cargo segment (1%) is positioned for expansion as consumer expectations for fast delivery continue to rise.

Meet Ashton Slatev, VP of Product at Rwazi — a leader who's built AI-powered products across healthcare, supply chain, and market intelligence.

In this week's spotlight on AI-driven market intelligence, Ashton shares how the smartest teams are moving beyond static consumer insights to build continuous feedback loops that adapt in real-time.

🟣 Market Mosaic: If a product or brand manager has just 30 minutes with you to better understand how to leverage AI for consumer or user insights across different international markets, what's the one thing you would tell them to do?

🟢 Ashton: Most teams treat consumer insights as a one-time input—something you gather at the beginning of a campaign or product cycle. But in a world that’s moving this fast, the real edge comes from building a continuous feedback loop between consumers and your product strategy.

The smartest teams are using AI to not just analyze static datasets, but to dynamically identify gaps in their understanding and trigger new data collection in real time. That shift — from passively analyzing what's already there to actively closing knowledge gaps as they emerge — is what separates reactive teams from truly adaptive ones. It’s how we’ve built Rwazi to operate, and it’s where the industry is headed.

 
Thank you for reading and joining us on Market Mosaic this week. We hope this edition provides valuable, actionable insights for decisions with data. 📊

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Here are the insightful visuals we shared on LinkedIn — feel free to check them out, comment or repost if it hits home for you.