India replaces tough China as next big frontier for US tech companies

Bengaluru

US technology companies desperately want to win over people like Rakesh Padachuri and his family.

Mr Padachuri, who runs a construction business in this city, the centre of India's technology industry, uses his smartphone to reserve movie seats through BookMyShow and to order pizzas from Domino's. His wife, Vasavi, orders clothes from Myntra and Amazon.com, and downloads videos and games from YouTube and the Google Play store to entertain their four-year-old daughter. His sister- in-law, Sonika, enjoys posting selfies on Facebook and follows the YouTube musings of Lilly Singh, an Indo-Canadian comedian.

They all stay in touch via a group chat they have set up on WhatsApp, a free messaging service owned by Facebook. "There's no need to call each other," Mr Padachuri said during a visit last month at his family's home, which is next to a Best Western hotel. There's barely a need to leave the h…