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India is the next internet frontier (2018)

edition.cnn.com

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Re: India is the next internet frontier (2018)

#2
There is a revolution boiling. Jio not just made internet accessible, it became catalyst in braking the barrier of classes and location and thinking, and education. The whole importance of it will be felt in coming decades if not years. It's crazy out here.

Re: India is the next internet frontier (2018)

#3
factual error - "almost a third of the unconnected are in India". It should be "almost a quarter of the unconnected are in india.". 0.9B of 3.5B.

There are ~550M internet users in India (2019), that leaves out ~750 million unconnected users. 150M less than 0.9B.

There are other factual errors as well. Real sloppy journalism.

Re: India is the next internet frontier (2018)

#4
A positive thing for International companies is that India has a very large section of English speakers and that is only growing. So they did enter and expanded in the market easily.

But in the last few years due to Jio revolution, people from tier 3 cities and villages and getting connected to the internet for the first time. So companies wanting to capture these markets have to put extra effort into their products. Aside from language preferences, this section sees products in a different manner. Like Tiktok and Youtube have very different "popular" videos here.

Re: India is the next internet frontier (2018)

#5
post #2

There is a revolution boiling. Jio not just made internet accessible, it became catalyst in braking the barrier of classes and location and thinking, and education. The whole importance of it will be felt in coming decades if not years. It's crazy out here.

I am all for cheaper and accessible internet, but I have a few concerns.

On pricing, the incumbents really needed a jolt with their terrible pricing. But I think Jio went a little too far. It achieved all that it has by excessive and extended predatory pricing, primarily because it had access to unprecedented amounts of cash (from Ambani/Reliance) that the other providers do not. Vodafone-Idea and Airtel (the other major providers) have both suffered massive losses, the former has defaulted on their loans, and the stock has fallen to all time lows, and the firm itself is looking to exit the market - which is even worse as this could lead to a duopoly.

As for the access, I am not sure if India is ready to deal with unchecked free flow of information, considering how much of our population is prey to false propaganda and fake news. Whatsapp has already causes enough harm with the mindless sharing of unchecked/unverified news. With recent reports [1] of the ruling political party (BJP) resorting to distribution of deep fakes using dedicated IT cells to push a false narrative, the situation doesn't look comforting.

[1] - https://www.technologyreview.com/f/615247/an-indian-politici...

Re: India is the next internet frontier (2018)

#6
post #3

factual error - "almost a third of the unconnected are in India". It should be "almost a quarter of the unconnected are in india.". 0.9B of 3.5B. There are ~550M internet users in India (2019), that leaves out ~750 million unconnected users. 150M less than 0.9B. There are other factual errors as well. Real sloppy journalism.

The article is from 2018 as mentioned in title.

Re: India is the next internet frontier (2018)

#9
post #5
post #2

There is a revolution boiling. Jio not just made internet accessible, it became catalyst in braking the barrier of classes and location and thinking, and education. The whole importance of it will be felt in coming decades if not years. It's crazy out here.

I am all for cheaper and accessible internet, but I have a few concerns. On pricing, the incumbents really needed a jolt with their terrible pricing. But I think Jio went a little too far. It achieved all that it has by excessive and extended predatory pricing, primarily because it had access to unprecedented amounts of cash (from Ambani/Reliance) that the other providers do not. Vodafone-Idea and Airtel (the other m…

Vodafone may not survive the back taxes [1], and Airtel is struggling with those as well. Somehow Jio didn't have to pay any. https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-what-i...

Re: India is the next internet frontier (2018)

#10
This might very well be a false dawn. Internet speeds are downright awful after the Jio-led boom, prices might go substantially up if we are reduced to a duopoly, and the startups that raised billions on the promise of 600M internet users are now finding out that just because people have internet doesn't mean that they are a valuable audience for businesses.
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