How the Internet Is Changing Life for the World’s Poorest People

[Commentary]  One of the internet’s most important qualities is that it slashes transaction costs to a bare minimum. What has followed is a remarkable development: It is becoming cost-effective, even profitable, to serve the world’s poorest two billion people—whether they are online or not. Entrepreneurs are devising new services to provide neighborhood-scale renewable energy and clean water, gas cooking-stoves, microloans for consumer goods and insurance against natural disasters. The enablers are mobile money, the internet of things, data science, even satellite imaging—all now remarkably cheaper and more accessible. One thing that isn’t necessarily required: a smartphone. While the narrative from US tech giants like Google and Facebook implies that economic development comes from directly connecting people to the internet, billions of people can’t afford smartphones, and many might never get them. Innovators must think around that barrier.