Global tech companies see India’s vast offline population as untapped market

Only about a fifth of India’s roughly 1.2 billion people are online, according to a recent Pew Research Center report, and the world’s biggest technology companies are clamoring for this large, untapped user base. Facebook recently tried (and failed) to implement its “Free Basics” Internet program, and Google is also vying for the vast Indian Internet market.

India lags behind other emerging nations in Internet access and smartphone ownership. Across the 21 emerging and developing nations surveyed in 2015 (including India), a median of 54% have Internet access and 37% own smartphones. In India, however, only 22% have Internet access and only 17% have a smartphone. While the share of Indians with Internet access has grown by only 6 percentage points since 2013, those who are online are increasingly likely to use the Internet frequently.