Why don't Indian companies take their web presence seriously?

My friend Gaurav Sharma (name changed for privacy) asked this question. He is the CEO of a leading Indian web solutions company, so his question has got to have a good mix of bewilderment, frustration, anxiety and most worryingly, facts behind it...

This is an interesting question, and when I began exploring it, it unravelled into a many folds of Indian society, and economics which I think we all see, but maybe overlook. I come from a unique (remember everyone is unique? :) ) background of Anthropologist father, Zoologist mother, Bachelors in Engineering and MsBA in Technology Management.  So I tend to have diff perspectives (which more often than not, confuse me more than anyone else) on issues close to my heart. This one sure is: after all, it is things like these that make India look technologically inferior, and not up with the rest of the world etc etc.

So back to the question. I will try and put out my reasons for the question in separate posts: to save you from information (read opinion) overload, but I hope it makes an interesting read.

Lets begin with an example.

Any person who grew up in South Delhi would know of Lodhi Sports. This is a shop we respected as one of the few 'up market' sports showrooms in Delhi. In the early 90's it was rare to see exercise equipment in many shuttered shops. This one was all glass and had a wide range of exercise equipment. 20 years later, Lodhi Sports has expanded to many shops around Delhi, in big shopping malls etc. Now look at their current site: http://www.lodhisports.in . It doesn't even open currently.

Now, its target market very much overlaps the active internet users category in Delhi, so I think it does make sense to at least have a functioning site! That leaves us with two options, either the provider is off the track of the consumer doesn't want it. As in most cases, I think its the chicken and egg problem.

Generally this is what I think other people call as maturing of a market, and I agree. Indian consumers have only recently begun taking a computer for granted in their living rooms, and fewer of them, between 3-8 crores have begun accessing the net actively. The definition of active here is using the internet at least once a month. It is pointless to say that if a person is only 'accessing' the net once in a month, he/she is definitely not comfortable looking at it as a utility. It seems more like a picnic; once a month, to try out something 'new'.  Hence, it seems, that an average Indian internet user is still not getting on to the net to use it for transactions, and information gathering for purchases. That, will take time. Maybe something similar to plastic money and time taken for its traction in India.

But then I think internet and cell phones came up almost at the same time in India. And there is no points guessing who won the race. So whats the deal there? The utility of cell phones, and initial investment for cell phones is much clearer to people. And hence, the reception to cell phones is like a raging forest fire. And people indeed are benefiting from it! Whether Internet provides the same amount of value to Indian people is something I cannot comment on. I think it does, given the kind of stuff people in other parts of the world have done from it, but then one can disagree very well on this.

So then why nature chose cell phones over Internet? I think first because every thing about cell phone was very well modularized and tangibly managed. prepaid cards made it easy, compact, hassle free, and decoupled from any kind of red tape, for people to start making calls cheap. Internet revenues on the other hand still depend on credit card swiping. The infrastructure needed for cell phone companies to work on was revolutionized into the 'Indian model' now so widely studied across the globe. Internet however, could not come up with its own India strategy. Maybe all the smart brains were still busy making money from the cell phone market. Then the content delivered on cell phones was inherently local, unless of course you call an international 'talk to me' lines. Here too, Internet lagged much farther behind, because of its 'broadcasting' model vs. the peer to peer nature of phone calls.

2 technologies, equally promising, but ultimately having very different paths...

Ultimately, while cell phones transformed themselves into the Indian context very well by providing cheap calls to lower costs, lightening speed information on prices for farmers, cheap way of keeping in touch for long distance relationship lovers, for moms to check up on their 'in school and not bunking' kids, and free sms etc etc, Internet couldn't really strike the same chord in the daily lives of Indians. It could not go much beyond educated, and computer literate people to the non english speaking housewives, moms, lalajis, and Gangu Bai for the betterment of their daily lives.

Does it mean Internet is irrelevant to India? Absolutely not; it just needs to wear colors of India over it, and ultimately go beyond rediff and naukri. The sites like Saleraja.com, mouthshut.com are getting into different spheres of our lives, beyond the traditional demographic which was being served...


To be continued :)

Would you like to pay for your surf?

A normal professional's work day today begins in the morning clamoring to get to work. Once there, there is this cooling off period, although varying, but there for sure to begin to look at news, sports, email etc. A lot of websites are 'favorites' and browsers like chrome do put them up for your easy retrieval on a new tab. 

A basic assumption there is that most of this material is free. Yes there are those ads, but either we don't care about them, or we just install a browser plugin to remove all the ads from a page. And of course Google makes its billions from all the ad revenue you can think of.

And then recently New York Times announced that it will begin charging for its online content. Wall Street already has a subscription model around its online content, and we've been hearing all the stuff about  SaaS business models where everyone charges for everything they sell.

So is this the beginning of the end of free stuff? Is the advertising model kinda running out of steam? 

I think this is the next wave of evolution on the internet. This appears to be the common ground that the e-world would have to come to with the traditional world. A world where you get what you pay for. A world where money has to be earned. 

I don't have anything against the advertising model. I think it is great for a certain types of the websites, where the content is pretty much commoditized, and a subset of the internet population comes there.  But if a service is differentiated and there is a demand for it, the company now seems to be in a position to charge premium for it. 

A major reason for this is the huge growth in internet users from across the globe, and their increasingly varying needs from the internet. Going forward, Internet will begin to resemble our own real world. where some things are free, and some you gotta pay for. 

So I think its time for us to get ready to make that choice. Do you want to pay for your surf or get what you don't want to pay for? I'd say, brace yourself. The internet is evolving into a new more self aware beast, and there is no more free lunch...

Nice guys finish last

That's not true. Its not the nice guys, but the guys who thought they were nice, but realized mid way that they kinda caught the wrong train.

Now, catching train is something entirely dependent on you. You bought the tickets, you looked up the train name on the display, you misread the platform number, and you didn't check if it was finally the right train to have caught.

Now all this while you thought you could never catch the wrong train, and you were soo damn proud of it. Call it the law of mortality catching up with you. So now, even when you never had the intention of catching the wrong train, you pretty much laid your own trap. by doing the things you did.

Like Monica says in friends: "What were you thinking!!!" and I agree. What was the nice-guy-who-never-caught-the-wrong-train thinking when he actually himself caught the wrong train!?? There is no answer I think. I guess, he should have known better.

So even if he didn't want to, even if he never thought all along the way that this is what he is doing, he still did it! and the only person responsible for him landing up in the wrong train is him!!!

So whats the end result? he had to catch another train back, buy a new ticket, and return to the platform, and this time, at least try to catch the right train. And in the process, he finishes last.

Q.E.D.

Saamna: Another loong back written poem

पिछले कुछ दिनों से, नाजाने मुझे कुछ होने लगा है...

जब से पतझड़ का नाग मेरे सूखे पत्तों को डसने लगा है

तब से शायद मुझे कुछ होने लगा है...

यह शीश मेरा, जो पहले नादानी में सदा ही ऊंचा रहता था,

अब ना जाने क्यों उसके सामने झुकने लगा है..

हाँ... शायद मुझे कुछ होने लगा है..

वो सुबह के सूरज की लाली

वो रात के चाँद की चांदनी 

वो सागर के गहरे, नीले, विशाल रंग के बजाय

अब धरती का फीका भूरा रंग मुझको दिखने लगा है...

ज़रूर मुझे कुछ होने लगा है...

वो कागज़, जिसपर पहले सपनों के महल बना करते थे,

अब उसी कागज़ पे - कभी लाल, तो कभी पीली स्याही से

मेरे दिल का हाल बयान होने लगा है..

क्यूँ ऐसा मुझे होने लगा है?

लेकिन जब खेलने लगता हूँ इन्ही ख्यालों को गोद में लेकर,

तब समझ में आता है कि और कुछ नहीं, 

बस ज़िन्दगी से मेरा सामना होने लगा है...

हाँ... बस यही तो मुझे होने लगा है. 

Photo Album

This is a poem I wrote sometime back. I was inspired by the way Gulzar writes, and was trying his style. Ofcourse there is no comparison, but listen to it on its own merit :)

Vacuuming the house

Finally the weekend came when I thought I should get around vacuuming the house. Mine is a carpeted apartment. Grey colored... And you know what they say about grey right? That there are many shades of it. And every shade says something, shows something and hides something...

In fact, if you vacuum long enough, it will take you to forgotten stains and patches. Patches that you had at some time so painstakingly put into place. Just so that the carpet remains intact. Coz you see, replacing the carpet is a very difficult job, and usually it happens only when you move out of the apartment. Long after you are gone, and before the next incumbent steps in, the realtor takes care of that...

Back to the vacuuming. I began with my living room. This is the room I use the most, and naturally had a lot of dust around. As the vacuum moved around, sucking up the dust, the original color of carpet came out. And with it came a nice smell of the fragrance that I has sprayed on it long time back, but it had been suppressed by the dust that kept all the fragrance somewhere deep inside. And overtime I had pretty much forgotten about it too. within a few minutes, all the dust was gone and I had a neat smile on my face. As if I had regained my lost glory...

Excited now, I moved to my bedroom. I don't let many people in there, so its much more of a private place. The room itself is an absolute replica of what I am. Sort of untidy, but very functional. You will find anything you need on a daily basis. Not luxurious though; my bed is a very modest attempt at keeping me at 3 ft height from the ground, but there is a coffee machine, an over-the-bed table lamp, a study table, extension chord for power supply, wireless headphones, a small home exercise machine which can be tucked under the bed, full size mirror behind the door, etc etc. Basically everything to make you feel equipped.

I begin vacuuming there, and slowly slowly some stains begin to show up. These were not normal living room stains. They had some very special characteristics. Firstly, they were not normal dust colored. Some were slight transparent yellowish, some were sort of red, and some looked as if I had at some time tried very very hard to remove, but never succeeded, despite my sincerest efforts. Even the carpet showed signs of wearing off with my relentless rubbing, but the stain had stuck on... The dust had kinda hidden it from my daily notice. But now, here it was right there staring right back at me.

A little to the right of this stain was another thing. I didn't quite figure out what that was, but as the vacuum sucked away the covering on it, it too came out clear. It was a patch work. It had happened some time back when I had accidentally spilled coffee on it. And knowing that my mom would yell at me, I had tried beyond measure to remove that stain. But what a branded coffee that was! Not only the after taste remained on my taste buds for a while, but the stain it had caused never budged from its place.

And it was then that I decided to cut that piece of carpet off, and throw it away. Sad moment though, It was my bedroom's carpet! And I do like my bedroom! But be that as it may, I cut that piece off, and got another, rather unmatched piece of cloth to replace that. The carpet didn't quite look the same after that, but I guess it was worth it. I hated the patchwork. It looked ugly! it looked like some forced insertion of stuff that kinda didn't belong there. But as time passed, dust settled in, and gradually made the whole carpet look the same.

But that changed today. Vacuum cleaner made sure that all the stains and all the patchwork that had sort of faded away in my carpet, come back to life. And I was jolted back to the times when I had felt awful about putting those stains, and then tried to remove them from there.

And then I kinda thought, maybe it isn't the best thing to vacuum. Maybe I should have just let it be...

She

A naughty smile and pursed lips

in between the nibbles and the tiny sips

One white hair that clearly shows

A little out of shape, and this she knows

Forever wanting me to be there

and then plundering me with no stone to spare

Gifts costing her a fortune, or her priceless looks

or even when she is lost in between her books

Where ever I go where ever I roam

When I get back, she feels like home...

911 vs 100

Yes. I plan to compare the two numbers. There are many factors to look at, and I will try to sum them up as precisely as possible...

Ask any American, or watch enough Hollywood movies and you will see that 911 is something that Americans use very frequently, for things as small as sticking your hand to something very embarrassing (in American Pie) to something much bigger as in Die Hard... But you get the picture... as soon as there is any situation of any kind and severity, 911 is one of the first things they will think of. Efficiency of this system is so good that you are almost assured a response in minutes wherever you are in the country. There is proper research done while making roads, to ensure that any part of a city is reachable in 2-10 minutes from the nearest Police patrol ( my ex roommate was working for a firm that did this research)

100 on the other hand usually has a fleeting reference in the heads of Indians. Should something go wrong, the first set of people we think about are our neighbors, or friends. In some cases, we probably don't even want to get involved with the police. Like Hollywood in previous case, if you watch enough Bollywood movies, you will see that people do not usually want the police to get involved, or the police any how comes only when the hero has beaten the crap out of the villain, despite the absence of police. what I imply from this is that police is at least considered inept, or inconsiderate, or untrustworthy.

But if I think deeper about this, the differences don't just stay as mere facts and jokes as above... They begin to show the vast difference that exists between the two countries.

To implement a system like 911, a few basic things are needed. First it needs to be such a dependable system, that time and again, anywhere, anyhow, should there be an emergency, some help should be able to reach the victim. It is only then that a person will trust this 3 digit number so much to remember, and call, this number when their life is in danger. In addition, this number should be able to give you the warmth that you would have no inhibitions in trusting them for any situation of any sort. Third, the versatility of this number should be such that any kind and severity of situation can be handled by this number.

These are just a few components that go into making this system work. Any person in Process Management would tell you that this calls for operational efficiency, and that too of a very very high standard. Coz it deals with lives of people. Implementing this, even in a small society of 200 apartments is such a huge pain. I can tell you this by my experience in getting an electrician to fix a power cut in my apartment in Delhi.

Now imagine implementing this at the level of a nation. One of the world's biggest nations by land size and population. But this has been implemented here in the US. And everytime I think of this system, and dare to compare it to 100, I first get awestruck, and then get upset.

Why can't India implement a system like that? What's stopping us? Don't we deserve to have such a system to help us lead a better life? Must our loved ones die waiting for help to arrive? Or worse still. die waiting coz the PM is visiting the Hospital?

It needs will. Easy to say, much much more difficult to implement. Political, bureaucratic or whatever. Will. But all these are dependent on how strongly people ask for this, and make this (instead of speaking marathi in maharashtra) a political issue. And that comes from social awareness. That is VERY different from education, which is again VERY different from literacy... A nation of 1 billion, with most people not even knowing the significance/value of such a system. And I think the most critical role here is to be played by the middle class in India. I belong to it, and by having studied in US now, I know what we lack. There are many more middle class students who have been lucky enough to see and understand the difference between the two systems. Now that we are 'aware' we must pass this on, and strive to make everyone aware of this.

It is only when people are aware of this that leaders will rise, and take this issue further, and even take it on to them to implement this. And then we will have someone to vote for. Then we could also look at appointment of competent officers in implementing this system, and much more importantly, sustaining it.

The best way to resolve our issues is to move bottom up. And for that we need to be aware...