India is gearing up to emerge as not only the global superpower but also a huge market for latest technologies. And this is applicable for urban as well as rural India. But, most of the technology companies see urban India as their market and don’t care much about rural India which comprises of more than 800 million people. Let’s see some trends from rural India and how it could be a big blue ocean for technology companies – especially in mobile content sector.

Latest Trends

A current report on ‘Internet in Rural India’ by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) says that there are 38 million claimed internet users and 31 million active internet users in rural India. It also claimed that internet users in rural India will reach 45 million by December 2012. Amazing – isn’t it? But, the surprise element is – most of these people use internet on mobile. Did you know that we have around 30 million people in rural India who use Internet? Did you ever think about people in rural India as your consumers? If not – it’s high time to think.

Opportunities & Challenges

Rural India cannot be termed as one market segment as there are lots of challenges and they differ from region-to-region. The biggest challenge is language. India is a multi-lingual, multi-cultural country and when we go to rural India the divide widens. Most of the north India recognizes “Hindi” as their mother tongue but that also has got varieties. It has Punjabi, Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Maithili, Magahi and so many other languages and dialects. If you go in south – it has “Tamil”, “Telgu”, “Kannada” and so on. You cannot go to entire India with the same approach. The difference is not only limited to language – culture, traditions and festivals are also different.

But, all these difference doesn’t stop you from considering rural India as your market. It’s a big blue ocean waiting to be explored. And, it is still the tip of the iceberg. Think about future when the penetration will go deeper. The target market size will not be just 30 million but 300 million.

Does that sound interesting to you? If yes – you need to find answer to some of these questions.

• How to create mobile apps and web pages in regional Indian languages?
• How to write & publish content in regional Indian languages?

Some of the areas that can be explored for the same are –

• News Content [Current affairs, Sports, Entertainment, etc.]
• Weather Report
• Health Information / Tips
• Agricultural Information / Tips
• Question / Answer Forum

Revenue Model

Rise above the myth that rural India doesn’t have buying power. If you see the reports from Indian telecom providers – you would find that most of their businesses comes from rural India. Let’s understand the revenue model for mobile content. It could be in various ways such as “Partnership with telecom service providers”, “A monthly subscription model”, “Airtel money” or/and “ads & promotional content”.

As they say for internet – If you have users, you’ll have revenue.

Add Value not Just Revenue

Think about adding value in the life of rural India. Don’t just consider it as a market – think about people who are willing to connect, connect to rest of the world. They are dreaming big – and, we can enable them to achieve those dreams.