India is the new China for US tech investors
American Internet companies see India as the next best thing to China, since China's government imposes such tough Internet policies. India is now the world's fastest growing major economy and investors do not want to miss the opportunity to invest. A few years ago India was very behind digitally, but now there are 168 million smartphone users and 277 million Internet users, according to eMarketer. India already conducts more mobile searches on Google than any other country besides the US, it has 132 million Indian users on Facebook and 20 million Twitter users. The immaturity of India's Internet market means companies can test new ideas before they roll them out in other markets. Internet companies want to get into India now so they can get more people online and generate a profit later on, for example, Google wants 500 million Indians online by 2017.    

BANGALORE, India — American technology companies desperately want to win over people like Rakesh Padachuri and his family.

Mr. Padachuri, who runs a construction business in this city, the center of India’s technology industry, uses his smartphone to reserve movie seats through BookMyShow and to order pizzas from Domino’s. His wife, Vasavi, orders clothes from Myntra and Amazon.com, and downloads videos and games from YouTube and the Google Play store to entertain their 4-year-old daughter. His sister-in-law, Sonika, enjoys posting selfies on Facebook and follows the YouTube musings of Lilly Singh, an Indo-Canadian comedian.

They all stay in touch via a group chat they have set up on WhatsApp, a free messaging service owned by Facebook. “There’s no need to call each other,” Mr. Padachuri said last month during an interview at his home, which is next to a Best Western hotel. There’s barely a need to leave the house — groceries, a birthday cake, even a hairdresser can be summoned via an app.

The Padachuri family’s love of technology helps explain why India and its 1.25 billion residents have become the hottest growth opportunity — the new China — for American Internet companies. Blocked from China itself or frustrated by the onerous demands of its government, companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter, as well as start-ups and investors, see India as the next best thing.