Facebook Comes Before Tap Water as Indian Shanty Town Kids Get Smartphones

[dipsydoodle]

In a two-room shanty with no running water in northern Mumbai, Darshana Verma makes tea on a small stove. On a bench nearby, her 18-year-old son, Vishal, messages Facebook friends on the keypad of his Nokia smartphone.

“This is the Internet age,” said the 36-year-old domestic helper, who spent more than half her $300 monthly income on Samsung Electronics Co. and Nokia Oyj (NOK1V) mobile phones for her children. “Facebook is there, all these things happen there now -- they make friends, maybe they can even find jobs there.”

Cheaper Internet-ready phones may make India Facebook Inc.’s biggest market after the U.S. next year with more than 50 million users, according to Nielsen Co. As Google Inc.’s rival social network also gains in popularity, companies including Pepsi Co. are boosting Internet advertising to reach the 352 million children under age 15 who are coming online.

“There’s a mob out there,” said Tarun Abhichandani, group business director at IMRB International, part of WPP Group, the world’s biggest ad agency. “India has a young demographic, and it’s social networking that brings them online.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-03/indians-add-facebook-before-tap-water-as-smartphones-reach-poor.html

[indurancevile]

1. so are they supposed to save up their money to fund a municipal water system? huh?

[Tx4obama]

2. A lot of folks in the USA ....

spend their money on
cellphones
computers
iPADS
flat screen tvs
video games
etc
when they really can't afford to do so
so it is not surprising that it happens in other countries too.

[Shagbark Hickory]

4. True but they usually have running water and aren't taking a sh!t into a drainage canal.

[sudopod]

6. If only they had you there to tell them how to live.

lol

[blueamy66]

3. Wow, aren't our priorities screwed up

all over the place

[Shagbark Hickory]

5. Another score for the oligarchs.

Gotta get every last sole on earth indexed and catalogued into the database.