考研阅读精选：谷歌大巴之旅
『在印度，互联网用户仅占总人口比重8%，远低于世界平均水平。对此，谷歌发起了一项“移动网络大巴”的活动，以吸引更多的人，接触互联网，了解外面的世界。该项活动自09年启动以来，取得了不容小觑的成果。』Hailing the Google bus
谷歌大巴之旅
Oct 2nd, 2011 | From The Economist
http://images.koolearn.com/casupload/upload/fckeditorUpload/2011-10-24/image/70ef6460d495478290802b9569aa38c8.JPG
LIKE the travelling fairs that still roam India, a snazzy white bustrundles along the subcontinent's B-roads, stopping in small towns for afew days at a time and inviting locals into another world. But in placeof tightrope-walking girls and performing monkeys, its main attractionis access to the internet. For some visitors, it is their first timeonline.
The Google Internet bus is a free, mobile cybercafedreamed up by the search giant and run in association with BSNL, a largestate-owned internet service provider (ISP). It has covered over43,000km and passed through 120 towns in 11 states since it hit the roadon February 3rd, 2009. In return for its efforts, Google says it gains abetter understanding of their needs. That, in turn, lets it developproducts for the potentially huge local market.
Internetpenetration rates in the developing world continue to lag far behindthose of the west. Last year there were still only 20 internet users per100 people in the developing world. In the West the figure is 69. Butthat is changing rapidly. In the ten years to 2010, internet users inthe developed economies just about tripled. In the rest of the world,their number grew ten-fold.
Internet users in India make uproughly 8% of the population, or just under 100m people. By contrast,China's internet penetration rate already stands at 36% percent ofpopulation; Brazil's is nudging 40%. Google expects the number of usersin India to triple over the next three years. The bus set out to takeadvantage of this vast untapped market—and draw lessons for otheremerging markets. According to a Google representative, India representsa microcosm of new users, with a wide range of income levels,linguistic diversity, literacy levels, application needs, demographicsand infrastructure challenges. To paraphrase Frank Sinatra, if Googlecan make it there, it can make it anywhere.
The reasonsgenerally cited for India's abysmal internet penetration rate areexpense, poor infrastructure and meagre local content. Google thinksthese challenges are surmountable.BSNL already offers limited-usebroadband for as little as $5 a month.The fledgling third-generationmobile networks are making data services available across swathes of thecountry crazy about mobile phones. As for content, the Hindi Wikipediarecently passed 100,000 entries. Instead, Google argues, it is a lack ofawareness that is holding back greater adoption.
That willonly work up to a point. Tracing the bus's route, Google plans to tapIndia's internal emerging markets: second- and third-tier cities withmore (often much more) than 100,000 residents where metropolitansophistication has not yet taken hold. Yet these urban centres, evencombined with India's behemoths, still make up only a third of thepopulation. The rest of India lives in villages.
It is therethat the government has focussed its efforts. In a series of separatebut linked programmes (the most high-profile being the nationalidentity-card scheme run by Nandan Nilekani, a pioneer in Indian IT) thestate is erecting a public information infrastructure. The first stepis to install fibre-optic broadband connections to India's 250,000panchayats, or village councils. Other goals, which the government hasoutlined in a white paper, are even more ambitious. Panchayats are to beoffered not just broadband connections, but also computers, softwareand personnel "to create, organise, distribute and deliver relevant anduseful information related to government programs and services to thepeople at large."
Google and the government share the sameultimate goal. "We are trying to democratise information," says SamPitroda, who advises India's prime minister on public informationinfrastructure. Between the two of them, they may be able to swellIndia's 100m online population—even to a billion. (619 words)
文章地址：
http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2011/10/internet-developing-countries
页:
[1]