Spurred on by a rise in bus fares and the government’s focus on lavish new stadiums over the needs of the poor, thousands of Brazilian citizens have gathered to protest in the country’s largest cities. In São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, tens of thousands of people assembled outside government buildings. Protesters set fire to the state capitol building in São Paulo and were met by riot police who fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.

Jana surveyed our mobile research panel in Brazil to gather views on the protests, as well as the expenses associated with the upcoming World Cup. Our members were quite forthcoming in their responses. In response to the question “Are the protests in Brazil justified?”, 16 year old Jefferson wrote: “Currently Brazil is sorely lacking improvement in what is really needed; health, education, and security – which are in a precarious state. This gives the Brazilian people a reason to protest, because Brazil continues spending money on unnecessary things.”

“It is a shame that Brazil spends [this money] on something unnecessary,” he adds, “knowing that on the other side, people are dying due to [poor] health and violence.”

Taise, a 19 year old female from Salvador agreed with the sentiment expressed by Jefferson. She writes: “The protest is totally justified, to the contrary of what they are saying out there in the press.”

In response to the same question, Blenda, a 21-year old from Formiga writes: “The people are tired of so much negligence [and] such a lack of consideration for the population.”

Global ad spend will grow only 2.8% this year, according to market research firm eMarketer, down from 4.4% growth in 2012. Despite slower growth, total spending will reach nearly $517 billion by the end of the year. EMarketer projects that growth will increase to 4.9% next year, thanks in large part to ad spend surrounding the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. In fact, total ad spending in Brazil is expected to increase by 9% this year and as much as 12% next year.

Earlier this week, eBay announced that it is leading a $50 million investment in the Indian eCommerce website Snapdeal. The deal includes a multi-year commercial partnership, a significant equity stake for eBay, and access to Snapdeal’s 20 million registered users and large distribution network. Last year, Snapdeal boasted sales of about $100 million. The company expects this figure to rise to $400 million this year. According to the Internet & Mobile Association of India, the Indian eCommerce market market is expected to grow from $1.2 billion in 2012 to $1.8 billion in 2013, a 50% increase. As Internet use in the country continues to accelerate, so too will the growth of an already large online shopping market.

Yesterday, Mary Meeker released her annual presentation on global Internet trends. The report highlights some intriguing figures on Internet user growth, social media and mobile trends, and the increasing significance of emerging markets in global technology. Meeker begins her presentation with a breakdown of global Internet user growth. Of the top 15 countries ranked by number of new Internet users over the last four years, 14 are emerging markets. The U.S., at number 10, is the only developed nation on the list. China alone added more new Internet users, 264 million from 2008-2012, than there are existing users in the U.S. today. Emerging market consumers are quickly becoming the majority of people on the web.

According to a recent report published by S&P Capital IQ Equity Research, global advertising spend is expected accelerate over the next few months, driven in large part by emerging markets. Over the next 10 to 15 years, emerging markets are estimated to add $200 billion of advertising spending to the global market. A significant portion of this growth will come from the three of the developing worlds larger markets: Brazil, Russia, and China. Over the next three years, these three countries will account for 29% of global advertising growth.

In 1980, India and China combined accounted for only 5% of total global output. Just over 20 years later, the two emerging Asian nations now account for over 20% of total global GDP. While GDP growth rates have seemingly begun to level-off, there are countless other measurements of growth which have not. Currently, there are about 525 million people in the middle class in Asia Pacific. These consumers spend roughly $5 billion, accounting for about 25% of global middle class spending. By 2030 however, the Asian middle class will spend $32.5 billion per year and will account for 85% of global middle class spending. It is this increased spending power that will help drive continued growth in the global economy.

This week, Cambridge-based Akamai Technologies released its quarterly ‘State of the Internet’ Report. The report highlights key global metrics on the Internet and Internet connectivity. Perhaps the most interesting trend showcased by the study is the rapid increase in connection speed worldwide. In the fourth quarter of 2012 alone, global average connection speed increased 5% to 2.9 Mbps. This amounts to a total increase of 25% year-on-year.

Vodafone India, in partnership with ICICI Bank, India’s largest private sector bank, announced yesterday that it would begin the nationwide rollout of its mobile money service M-Pesa. The service, which aims to provide mobile banking capability to the 700 million mobile phone users in India who currently have no access to conventional banking, will be offered first in eastern areas of India before eventually being offered nationwide.

As it currently stands, there are roughly 120 million Internet users in India. This figure makes India home to the third largest internet user base in the world, behind only China and the U.S. Yet despite this seemingly large number of users, internet penetration in India is only about 10%, significantly less than the global penetration rate of 34%. As these numbers suggest, despite its size, India is still far behind the rest of the world when it comes to Internet usage. However, as a recent report from the McKinsey Global Institute suggests, Internet usage in India is about to take off.