Connecting the world: Ten mechanisms for global inclusion

The Internet is one of the most transformational technological innovations in human history, similar to the invention of movable type, the electric motor, radio, or television. Yet at the beginning of 2016, only an estimated 3.2 billion people — 44 percent of the world’s population — are online and connected to the digital economy. The Internet’s truly revolutionary potential will be unleashed only when the remaining 56 percent are also connected. This will create millions of new jobs, develop vast new markets, and lift millions out of poverty. However, achieving universal access in a timely manner is looking increasingly difficult as Internet growth has slowed down in the past four years. This paper seeks to understand the challenges and identify mechanisms that can accelerate Internet growth and drive universal inclusion.

Internet access is enabled by three critical, interdependent markets, and structural challenges within them have caused the recent slowdown in Internet growth:

• The Connectivity Market — which seeks to provide affordable and reliable access
• The Content Market — which seeks to create relevant “use cases,” reasons for people to go online
• The Retail Market — which acts as the sales and service arm for the Internet industry and helps people to discover the Internet

In this report, we identify 10 mechanisms — promising ideas, approaches, and technological and business-model innovations — that will address the structural challenges in these markets and generate faster Internet growth.