When broadband arrives, apps follow. Many initial uses of cellphones are for personal enjoyment (79% of time spent in India is on entertainment, search social and messaging). With time, however, other useful services involving health, education, finance and government services become popular.

As one example of this progression, the education technology (“edtech”) sector in India is now booming. The firm Byju’s, for example, has released an education app already downloaded over 14 million times (with 900,000 paid users). Byju’s uses innovative curriculum, such as a Bollywood dance troupe rhythmically moving to demonstrate the Pythagorean Theorem. If students don’t have a sufficient internet connection to download materials, Byju’s will send them a memory card with appropriate resources.

Byju’s boasts prominent investors including Sequoia Capital and Tencent and a valuation of $800 million.

India faces profound challenges in education: over half of fifth graders, for example, can’t read at a second grade level. The edtech sector is hoping to help.