India may be the next great frontier for American technology companies.
Facebook has embarked on an ambitious — and controversial — effort to expand access to the Internet among India’s population. Google, Microsoft and others are also eying expansion on the subcontinent.
And the world’s largest democracy is also courting Silicon Valley. In September, Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, toured Silicon Valley, visiting Facebook and Tesla Motor and holding private meetings with the chief executives of Apple, Microsoft and Google. He capped the day with an address to a sold-out crowd of about 18,000 people, mostly Indo-Americans, at an arena in San Jose.
But that mutual admiration doesn’t mean that American-style, paid streaming services will be a hit in India. Free video is the norm in India, making it hard for streaming services like Netflix and download services to make any headway. Adding to the challenge, piracy is pervasive in India. And even if people wanted to pay for online streaming, many lack the credit cards to make the transactions.
The winner in this environment, at least among American companies? Most likely, it’s YouTube, which has operated in India since 2007.