---
layout: default
title: "How Next-Gen Smartphone Users Are Being Bought and Sold"
description: "A Forbes India article examining zero-rating partnerships between tech giants and Indian telecom operators, and their implications for internet access and competition."
categories: [Media mentions]
date: 2013-08-13
authors: ["Rohin Dharmakumar"]
source: "Forbes India"
permalink: /media/next-gen-smartphone-users-bought-sold-forbes-india/
created: 2026-01-26
---

**How Next-Gen Smartphone Users Are Being Bought and Sold** is a *Forbes India* article published on 13 August 2013. The brief piece examines zero-rating partnerships between major technology platforms and Indian mobile operators, and their effects on how new mobile internet users experience access to online services.

## Contents

1. [Article Details](#article-details)  
2. [Full Text](#full-text)  
3. [Context and Background](#context-and-background)  
4. [External Link](#external-link)

## Article Details

<dl class="media-details">
  <dt>📰 Published in:</dt>
  <dd><em>Forbes India</em></dd>

  <dt>📅 Date:</dt>
  <dd>13 August 2013</dd>

  <dt>👤 Author:</dt>
  <dd>Rohin Dharmakumar</dd>

  <dt>📄 Type:</dt>
  <dd>Analysis</dd>

  <dt>📰 Publication Link:</dt>
  <dd>
    <a class="btn" href="https://www.forbesindia.com/article/checkin/how-nextgen-smartphone-users-are-being-bought-and-sold/35859/1">
      Read Online
    </a>
  </dd>
</dl>

## Full Text

<div class="highlighted-text" id="fulltext">

<p>After Facebook and Google, Twitter became the latest to buy millions of Indian smartphone users in July.</p>

<p>Now, the actual announcement was about how Twitter had partnered with Vodafone India to offer its services 'free of cost' to mobile subscribers for three months. It had already inked similar deals with Airtel and Reliance, according to Medianama, a digital media news site. Google and Facebook, too, announced such agreements during the past year, whereby mobile subscribers could use their service 'free of cost' through their phones.</p>

<p>Nothing is really 'free' on the web, which is why we have the adage: "If you're not paying for it, you are the product". So these large web companies are actually buying millions of first-time mobile internet users by paying off their respective mobile operators. Of India's 137 million internet users, roughly 120 million access mobile internet.</p>

<p>Sunil Abraham, director of the Centre for Internet & Society in Bangalore, thinks India could be going down the Indonesia route. "If you ask the average Indonesian mobile user if he or she has internet access, they might say no. Ask them if they have Facebook or Twitter, and they'll say yes!" Incidentally, 96 percent of Indonesians use social media, mostly from their phones.</p>

<p>Smaller competitors to Facebook, Google and Twitter who can't afford to pay mobile operators on similar terms will find their competitiveness shrinking. Meanwhile, a large number of Indians will balk at paying for internet usage on their phones because the social networks are all 'free'.</p>

<p>First Published: Aug 13, 2013, 06:07</p>

</div>

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## Context and Background

This article was published at a time when Indian mobile operators were beginning to offer selective access to online services through zero-rating arrangements. The piece focuses on how partnerships between telecom providers and large technology platforms shaped early mobile internet usage for first-time users.

Rather than treating zero-rating as a pricing issue alone, the article highlights how such arrangements influence user behaviour and market structure. By subsidising access to specific services, platform companies could expand their reach among new users while limiting exposure to the broader internet.

Sunil Abraham's comparison with Indonesia underscores a concern raised in the article: that users may come to equate internet access with access to a small number of dominant platforms. The piece situates this dynamic as a competitive and informational risk, particularly for smaller services unable to negotiate similar terms with mobile operators.

## External Link

- [Read on Forbes India](https://www.forbesindia.com/article/checkin/how-nextgen-smartphone-users-are-being-bought-and-sold/35859/1)

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