對谷歌來說，這種顛覆是一座潛在的金礦。Reliance Jio的網絡和莫迪總理的政策攜手撬開了一個此前遙不可及，或者規模太小而不值得投資的市場。2017年，在Reliance Jio網絡啟動后不久，谷歌開發了其首款數字支付應用Tez，從而抓住了數百萬印度人突然開始進行數字支付這一機會。去年，它將這款應用更名為“谷歌支付”（Google Pay）。根據該公司的數據，谷歌支付目前在包括美國在內的29個國家擁有約4000萬月活躍用戶，2018年的交易額約為600億美元。

讓谷歌感到意外的是，它為適應印度的特殊挑戰（比如不穩定的互聯網連接、只會說本地語言的新用戶，以及高文盲率）而設計或調整的應用，竟然擁有廣闊的全球市場。在這方面，谷歌支付并不是唯一的例子。另一個例子是 2005 年在美國推出的“谷歌地圖”（Google Maps）。在印度，這款應用面臨巨大的局限性。數千條印度道路沒有正式名稱，即使有，當地人也不知道。常駐新加坡的谷歌“下一個十億用戶”團隊的負責人凱撒·森古普塔表示：“毫不夸張地說，我們必須自己繪制地圖。”他說，谷歌決定用人們說話的方式來繪制印度地圖。現在，如果你在新德里走一圈，谷歌地圖可能會這樣給你指路：“在第一個柱子左轉，在醫院右轉，然后在學校右轉。”（這種創新也被移植到了發達國家。谷歌地圖會特意提到地標性建筑，比如街角的藥店。）印度司機也知道，方向取決于你乘坐哪種交通工具。因此，谷歌工程師專門為該國的機動三輪車司機調整了地圖服務，為他們提供不適用于汽車的路線指引。

為了讓數百萬印度人在經常不穩定的互聯網連接上使用谷歌地圖，工程師調整了這款應用，允許用戶下載路線指引，并離線導航。現在，你可以在世界上其他任何地方離線使用谷歌地圖。（2015年，谷歌還在印度推出了YouTube的首款離線版本，這一功能現在已擴展到80個國家。）“人們以前使用的是紙質地圖。”森古普塔說。“今天，如果你在印度四處走走，你會看到每個人都在使用谷歌地圖，因為它可以離線使用。”

谷歌地圖在印度廣受歡迎還有另一個原因：印度大約有10種方言，這款應用則使用其中的10種指引方向。谷歌搜索和其他應用也是如此。這就要求硅谷的谷歌工程師從零開始設計鍵盤，因為好幾種印度語言此前從未在任何電腦或手機上輸入過。“這些語言根本就沒有數據庫。”谷歌語音技術部門的達恩·范·埃施在加州表示。谷歌派遣員工前往印度的偏遠地區，錄制了12萬個當地語言短語，然后將這些記錄輸入算法，利用機器學習技術將語音轉換成文本。這一功能在印度引起轟動，隨后相繼在其他國家推出。范·埃施表示，許多人表現得非常激動——多年來，他們一直覺得互聯網是供別人使用的，與自己無關。“我在2017年去了一趟印度，展示了一款適用于曼尼普里語的鍵盤。”他說。曼尼普里語是印度東北部的主要語言。“人們后來擁抱我，感慨萬千地說道：‘我的語言終于在網上了。’”

此外，谷歌還為一些源自于競爭對手的問題設計了解決方案。它發布的應用Files就是一個例子。這款應用允許用戶清除未讀或重復的電子郵件和消息。Files于2017年在印度推出，目前在全球擁有約3000萬用戶。但Files的創建初衷是為了解決印度特有的一個頭痛問題：每天出現在WhatsApp上的數百萬條早安問候信息。這款隸屬于Facebook的即時通訊應用，在印度擁有約2億活躍用戶。每天黎明時分，無數印度人都會給所有聯系人發送WhatsApp消息：“早上好！”并配以鮮花和勵志語錄。那些試圖搞清楚為什么印度的智能手機總是死機的谷歌科學家最終發現，這個問題與鋪天蓋地的早安問候信息有關。莫迪總理顯然沒有意識到人們的惱怒，他在2017年向議員們抱怨說，幾乎沒有人回應他每天早上的問候。相反，谷歌工程師做出了更為果斷的回應，他們設計了Files應用。現在，人們只需要輕輕一點就可以刪除這些信息。對不起，總理先生。

FOR GOOGLE, THE DISRUPTION is a potential gold mine. Together, Reliance Jio’s network and Prime Minister Modi’s policies have cracked open markets that until now have been out of reach, or too small to be worth the investment. In 2017, shortly after Jio’s launch, Google created its first-ever digital payments app, Tez, seizing on the millions of Indians who were suddenly making digital payments. Last year it renamed the app Google Pay, and it now has about 40 million monthly active users in 29 countries, including the U.S., with about $60 billion in transactions in 2018, according to Google.

That is not the only instance in which Google unexpectedly has found a global market for apps it designed or tweaked specifically for India’s particular challenges: Patchy Internet connections, new users who speak only indigenous languages, and a high rate of illiteracy. Another is Google Maps, which launched in the U.S. in 2005. Its limitations in India were profound. Thousands of Indian roads have no official street names, and if they do have names, locals do not know them. “We literally had to draw up the maps ourselves,” says Caesar Sengupta, who is based in Singapore and runs Google’s “next billion users” team. Sengupta says Google decided to map India in the way people speak. Now, if you walk around New Delhi, Google Maps might give you directions like “Turn left at the first pillar, right at the hospital, then right again at the school.” (That innovation, too, has been ported to the developed world, where Google Maps makes references to landmarks, like the corner drugstore.) Indian drivers also know that directions depend on which kind of vehicle you are in. So Google engineers tweaked Maps for the country’s three-wheeler scooter taxis known as auto-rickshaws, offering them routes that would not work for cars.

To get millions of Indians using Google Maps on their often erratic Internet connections, engineers tweaked the app to allow users to download directions and follow them off-line. Now you can use Maps off-line anywhere in the world. (Google also offered the first off-line version of YouTube in India, in 2015, an option now available in 80 countries.) “There was a time when people had paper maps,” Sengupta says. “Today you walk around India and see everyone using Google Maps because they work off-line.”

There is another reason for the popularity of Google Maps in India: It gives directions in 10 of India’s 50 or so local languages. So, too, do Google Search and other apps. That required Google engineers in Silicon Valley to design keyboards from scratch, since several Indian languages had never before been typed on any computer or phone. “There were no databases at all for these languages,” says Daan van Esch of Google’s speech technology unit in California. Google dispatched its staff to remote corners of India to record 120,000 phrases in local languages and then feed the recordings into algorithms, using machine-learning technology to turn voice into text. The feature caused a sensation in India and has since launched in other countries. Van Esch says many people’s responses are deeply emotional, after years of feeling that the Internet was something for others but not for them. “I went to India in 2017 and demonstrated a keyboard in Manipuri,” the dominant language in northeast India, he says. “People hugged me afterward and said, ‘At last, my language is online.’ ”

Google also has designed solutions to problems that originate from competitors. One example is Google’s Files app, which allows users to clean out unread or repetitive emails and messages. Launched in 2017 in India, Files now has about 30 million users globally. But Files originally was created to tackle a uniquely Indian headache: the millions of good-morning messages sent daily on WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook and has about 200 million active users in India. Countless thousands of Indians send WhatsApp messages to all their contacts at dawn every day, reading “Good morning!” and embellished with flowers and inspirational phrases. Google scientists trying to understand why smartphones kept freezing in India finally traced the problem to the good-morning blitz. Apparently unaware of people’s irritation, Prime Minister Modi complained to lawmakers in 2017 that almost none of them responded to his daily good-morning greetings. Instead, a more decisive response came from Google engineers, who designed the Files app. Now people can delete the messages with one swipe. Sorry, Mr. Prime Minister.