On the TechCrunch website, Josh Constine reports on a new prize being offered by Internet.org.

Specifically, Constine say, “Internet.org is launching a contest to build apps that convince Indian farmers, migrant workers, women, and students why the Internet is valuable by offering localized content. This Innovation Challenge will award $250,000 prizes to the best app, website, or service that makes the Internet relevant to each of the four populations above.”

Facebook is backing this contest. It stands to gain millions of new members if the unconnected find reasons to connect and, once they do, gravitate toward Facebook.

India isn’t alone in have large numbers of people unconnected to the Internet. The Philippines, Tanzania, Paraguay, and Zambia, for example, also have a low percent of their citizens connected.

The overwhelming majority of unconnected people in India say they don’t see any advantage to becoming connected. Thus, the winning app needs to appeal to a broad swatch of people and be viewed as a “must have” app. Otherwise, the opinions of the majority will remain the same.

Here are many marketing opportunities enterprising marketers can take advantage of. The rewards can be quite large, even for those who don’t win the $1M prize.

You can read the whole article here: Internet.org Offers $1M Prize For Apps That Make People In India Want The Web.

: TechCrunch.

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