Why Asia’s Silicon Valley is in India, not China

Photo credit: Ramesh Lalwani

I was dining alone at a hotel in Bangalore when an Indian stranger came up to me. He asked, “can I join you?”

I was surprised by his forwardness. No one does that in Singapore where I come from. This behavior, I later found out, is common in India.

After learning about what I do, he peppered me with questions about the tech industry. Returning the favor, I asked him about the brands he uses.

“Ola or Uber?” I said.

“Uber,” he replied, adding that it provides better service and Indians generally perceive American brands to be of better quality.

So here’re the crucial difference between India and China. India has deep cultural and political affinity, as well as admiration for the US. Facebook and Twitter, both from the US, are already widely used by people in India.

China has the Great Firewall.

Indians willingly engage the outside world and welcome outsiders in. Playing the good host is absolutely important among Indians. Again, China is a different beast.

And because of these qualities, India can become a torchbearer for Asia’s tech ambitions, equalling or surpassing China.

China against the world

Indian engineers rival the Chinese, but with a crucial edge: they speak better English. Both India and the US are former British colonies, making English the language of business.

This advantage means the best Indian engineers got cushy jobs at tech companies in Silicon Valley. They’ve even climbed all the way to the summit, as Google and Microsoft are now run by Indians.

Likewise, many Silicon Valley companies see India as their second home, setting up engineering centers and tapping into a huge, growing mobile market. There’s a huge pool of programmers in the massive outsourcing industry waiting to be tapped by startups.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg may break out into a Chinese speech or two, but it’s in India where the consumers and next billion users are. This is why it’s pushing Internet.org in the country, which one writer calls the “Facebook Poor People Acquisition Department.”

Deep moat, many bridges

VC-fuelled bubble