Tech Companies Struggle to Get World on Internet

The possibility of connecting four billion people to the rest of the world has led to a big scramble by tech firms and helped fuel sky-high valuations for investors’ favorite apps and gadgets. Device makers in China and India are pumping out low-price handsets, while Google and Facebook have captured attention with their work on Internet-beaming, mechanized drones and high-altitude balloons. In a small Indonesia village about two hours west of Jakarta by car and rural areas all across the world, the reality is less sanguine. Social barriers beyond the control of companies are keeping people offline. The race to bring the next billion online could take longer than many executives think. “It’s glamorous to say: ‘I’m going to the far reaches of the earth to connect people.’ But there are so many people who could technically access the Web but are not,” says Ann Mei Chang, a former senior director of emerging markets at Google and now executive director of the US Global Development Lab, part of the US Agency for International Development.

Just 16 percent of Indonesia’s 250 million people access the Internet regularly, according to the World Bank. The hurdles include low wages, lack of digital literacy and a dearth of compelling content that feels relevant. Many reluctant users can afford the Internet but wonder why they should bother. In 2013, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt predicted that the entire world would be online by the end of the decade. Yet the Internet’s reach among new users is actually slowing. According to consulting firm McKinsey & Co., growth of world-wide Internet users slowed to a compound annual growth rate of 10.4 percent from 2009 to 2013, down from 15.1 percent between 2005 and 2008. As many as 900 million people are expected to join the world’s online population by 2017, which would increase the total to 3.6 billion. That would leave roughly four billion offline. Those are big surprises in the developed world, where the value of the Internet is seen as a no-brainer.

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg thought poverty was the biggest barrier when he started Internet.org two years ago. The Facebook-led partnership aims to expand global Internet access. “We asked: ‘What data plan do you use?’ ” recalls Mr. Zuckerberg. “The answer was very simple but kind of mind-blowing,” he says. Most people replied: “What is a data plan?” Zuckerberg now says: “I thought what was necessary to connect everyone was new technology and a change in the economic structure. Instead, it’s all about content and awareness.”