Building for the Next Billion Users: Engineering for Emerging Markets

The next wave of internet users will not come from highly connected urban centers. They will come from emerging markets. From small towns, rural areas, and mobile-first populations across India, Indonesia, Brazil, Nigeria, and beyond. And building for them is very different. Because the assumptions most products make—fast internet, expensive smartphones, stable payments, high digital literacy—often don’t hold. If you want to build for the next billion users, you’re not just solving software prob