This may be realistic, but somehow disappointing. Google India boss Rajan Anandan thinks 50 percent of Internet use in the future will not be interactive. I wonder what the people who campaigned against Free Basics and access to the “full” Internet think of this.
While some people make the case that cost of data in India is among the lowest in the world, Anandan pointed out that you had to look at it in terms of the overall income. In the US, the cost of data is 0.3% of the average income while in India it is at 6%.
Both of them called for reducing data costs saying that the increased volumes would ensure that the unit economics would work out. Adoption at scale will happen when people see how their life can change through access to the Internet. Of the 300 million connected users, 100 million are in rural India of which only 10% are women.
Innovation too will play a role in how people access and consume data. Anandan said that YouTube offline saw the fastest growth for any Google product in India which had then prompted the company to launch offline maps and a search lite option. “In five years, 50% of the Internet consumed in India will be offline,” he said.
Comments are closed.