Web 2.0: New Challenges, New Business Models at the India Brand Summit.
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Web 2.0 has caught the fancy of Indian’s and a good indication is when the recently held India Brand Summit had a session exclusively called web 2.0 and which had the who’s who of the Internet world sharing their opinions on what we can expect in the Indian Online space in the near future more importantly in the web 2.0 arena.
Here’s a list of those who particpated and who spoke Yahoo India MD George Zacharias, Hungama.com CEO Neeraj Roy, Star executive VP marketing Ajay Vidyasagar, Google director, online sales and operations Roy Gilbert, Computer Associates director marketing India and SAARC Sunanda Ambardar Chak, Sun Microsystems director marketing KP Unnikrishnan, Onmobile CEO Arvind Rao, Makemytrip.com co-founder Sachin Bhatia, Matrix Partners MD Avnish Bajaj and Bharatmatrimony.com founder and CEO Janakiraman Murugavel.
Here is what a few of them had to say
Sachin Bhatia Makemytrip.com co-founder soke about the rise in social networks and Search engine marketing. He also spoke about Blogging becoming a cultural phenomenon along with social networks. According to him Smart tagging technology is one of the new technologies that allows for sharing of content. He felt that if in India good broadband is available in enough homes there is an opportunity for web 2.0.
He also spoke about community building giving example of Oktatabyebye (A travel community suported by makemytrip) and the blogging contest that was carried out recently and also about the tie up that makemytrip has with Google for its online advertising efforts.
Avnish Bajaj who founded Bazee.com is now part of a Matrix Partners a Venture Capital firm said that as an investor he wonders about the relevance of web 2.0 in India. He felt that internet in india is still at the web 1.0 stage to a large extent. He mentioned that in India there are already 20 social networking sites that have started up and many have approached him for funding. One site has in fact translated the name youtube into Hindi (I guess he was referring to Apnatube.com ). But still he felt there is a cultural issue and is not sure whether Indians will share their private home videos to begin with? he questioned as to How many Indians have broadband and will sit for five hours a day on it like what their American counterparts on social sites do? Are they willing to be part of a network that has shared usage computers? If they even put their family photos will there be a viral effect? Are they willing to change their personalities online?
He emphasized that Social networks in the US came about as a result to fulfill a need but questioned whether Does web 2.0 solve a need in India?
He felt that web 2.0 or web 1.0 the Companies should try to solve a need rather than get a solution and then search for a problem. Also Cultural factors come into play as well. For instance according to him dating sites will not work in India, as 83 per cent of web surfers in India are men which is a huge mismatch. Internet in the US has around 54 per cent women users.
Google’s Roy Gilbert felt that traditional modes of media consumption are changing and today’s users have more choice and control. He said that Google’s aim is to get the right message to the right person at the right price and According to him search provided the same along with brand visibilty in a relevant context.
To emphasize the relevant factor he gave an example of how google ad programme adwords throws up relevant results once some one searches a particular keywords. He said that while Web 1.0 is was about basic facilities like chat, email Web 2.0 is about user generated content that can be shared to bring about a collective intelligence. To emphasize this he gave examples of Google Video, which can be used by media owners, Orkut Google’s social networking place where millions of people find new and old friends. Social networks he noted could span countries, cultures and languages. He felt that in the future internet acces through mobile could rise exponentially which could be very true for india as India’s mobile penetration is far greater than PC penetration.
Murugavel of Bharatmatrimony.com felt that it is participation which is cricial for web 2.0. He said that web 2.0 is a combination of new technologies and business models by giving an example of online site Wikipedia which relies on definitions and information provided by users on a variety of topics and people.
Another interesting definition of Web 2.0 came from Yahoo India’s Zacharias, who said that in the 2.0 version, the game was all about a closer connect with the consumer and many a times by consumer generated content. He spoke of blogs and drove the discussion back to why users went back to the Net.
As far as i am concerned i have to agree with Mr.Avnish Bajaja as I feel that without satisfying a strong need no company can survive in the market whether its 1.0 or 2.0. Now such a need has to exist and may not be yet discovered as web itself is a new medium of communication which is growing at a rapid pace and transforming the lives of those who are using it. All in all the web 2.0 start ups in India can look forward to a brighter future if they focus on user centric technology that adds value and makes a difference rather than just replicating what the west is doing.
There were other who spoke as well and the entire review can be read here
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