Can India have it’s own Instagram? A Perspective on the Numbers game..
Like everyone else on social media, I was fascinated and stunned by the story of Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram. The fact that Instagram had recently launched it’s Android app and which was doing well, and that only about a week ago, Instagram had raised a good $50 mn of funding, made this acquisition look very surprising and sudden!
Be that as it may be, it is an amazing story.
One of the side stories that went around last night was whether India can at all have it’s own Instagram. And this post that I read suggested an emphatic “no”.
I also see the challenge of building an Instagram like idea in India. For various reasons. And I will come to those in a bit.
But one of the most important, relevant and significant reasons is the number story. We need a perspective and a strong drive towards numbers.
Let me share with you three very independent stories, all about “numbers in 24 hours”.
1. The Android app of Instagram clocked 1 million downloads in 24 hours of it’s launch.
2. I met this person whose company sets up Internet kiosks in villages of West Bengal, on a franchising model, and hence, has to create income opportunities for the franchisees, on these kiosks. They have put many paid services on offer. He mentioned that he clocks 20 air tickets in a day – yes, 20 air ticket bookings in 24 hours – via those village kiosks!
3. A personal experience. I spoke at the India Social Summit on April 3. I put up my presentation on slideshare on April 4, and put out exactly one tweet and one Facebook update about this, and in a matter of 24 hours, the presentation got close to 450 views.
Yes, three disparate facts. And a matter of numbers!
I was impressed by all three of these. What it showed me clearly was that:
- we live in a small and connected world
- and hence, we can reach a large, far flung consumer base, for products and services that we can offer
You’d say that these facts are true from the time that the Internet came into being.
True. And I should know. Having been in the space since the time Internet came into India! Since 1997-98.
What impresses me today is the natural, organic viral growth opportunity. And the possibility then, of clocking significant numbers rapidly!
What made the three cases mentioned above, to happen?
1. Instagram was already a hugely popular app, on the iPhone platform. Widely talked about. The Android app was way overdue. It was announced and people had to sign up in advance. With all that pre-release build up, it was not surprising that when they actually released it, Android users were rushing to go and grab it. Quite like the queue you see at an Apple store when they release a new iPhone or an iPad. Yes, it is going to be available the next day too, but one wants to be amongst the earliest ones to get it!
2. The case of the air ticket bookings in the village kiosks is akin to the success of IRCTC for rail bookings. Irrespective of the quality of the website, since it met a dire need, and the alternate way to get that service had a lot more pain, this one was lapped up. What was true of IRCTC for many years was now true for the air ticket purchases in villages!
3. As for my deck on slideshare, I guess it was a series of factors. On April 4 when I uploaded the deck, the event was still on, and many were following it on Twitter. The hashtag #IndiaSocial12 was popular that day. And I tagged my post with the same hashtag. Where other speaker presentations of the event would go up later, post-event, mine was up that day, even as people were following the live proceedings. And it generated interest for people to click and view. And hopefully the content gave it a little organic push, and it hit those 400-odd views that it did.
So in all three cases, there was a reason – be it content or a needed service – which got across to the target audience, and a viral push happened. And numbers followed.
That is the beauty of our times! You could be sitting in any corner of the country, but if you can get this content or service mix right, hit the specific target audience pockets, it CAN fly!
So with that scenario, can India have it’s own Instagram? And if not, what are the challenges?
Note the facts first:
Instagram has run for about two years now. Has almost no serious revenues. Has had a small team of a dozen or so now (for a long time they were even smaller), but they probably work with some outsourced partners too, I reckon. That said, the costs to support are the small team and large servers and bandwidth capacities, mainly.
So first of all, if you have a product of this kind, with a potential upside of this nature, will an Indian VC buy?
I don’t think so. The Indian VC will put his money on the 27th daily deal site and the 45th e-commerce site, because it is the flavor of the day, but rarely if at all, will he bet on a new concept, unproven, something that could potentially be a global winner. So you are stuck if you are dependent on VC financing.
But say, you had inherited wealth or you begged, borrowed or even stole money to support your venture. Where is the next pitfall?
From my experience with startups in India – and I have met several over various interactions at various fora – the one trait that I often see, is that they get excited about the initial numbers and get somewhat complacent.
How often have I heard stories like “we just started few months back, and I have already got 40 orders” or “we get 3-4 email enquiries daily” or things like that. There are ventures that clock up a few thousand subscribers / users and get pumped up. Most of the time, these are free registrations, and so people have not really spent money on the platform. But there is excitement and a feeling of achievement.
While I have nothing against this excitement, the reality is that a few hundred or a few thousands are NOT GETTING YOU ANYWHERE. If you are looking to do a big one, the world is your market potentially, and you need to think in millions of users.
So the two biggest reasons holding us back, from creating our own Instagrams or what have you, are potentially a lack of funding for such business models, and secondly, a tendency to not see the very large picture. For the latter part, obviously there have been the exceptions and which have succeeded big time, like Naukri, Shaadi, BharatMatrimony, Cleartrip, MakeMyTrip, Carwale, Games2Win, IndiaGames and a handful others.
But the typical startup that I encounter at TiE or at some Startup event, is somehow not seeing the big, big picture. And which is where we don’t have our potential Instagrams!
But I hope to see change. As I am the eternal optimist.. next one, hopefully from India. Happening in some lab somewhere in Mumbai or Gurgaon or Bangalore, even as I am posting this.. 
Wanamo.com – Best Deals for Group Purchases!
I was pleasantly surprised when @sampad shared the link of wanamo.com one day, and I went and checked it out. The concept was so close to my heart that I loved it at first sight. The concept. The site, I still had to go over and see! So this concept that I have loved for long, and which finally sees the day in the form of wanamo.com, made me come out of Gray Hair Wisdom Hibernation, and restart my startup reviews.
Category: B2C -> E-commerce -> Group Buying / Reverse Auction
What is it?
Wanamo.com is an online business that offers great deals, provided large number of people are willing to pick up the deal. In short, it is a group buying concept, and in some ways, a reverse auction also, since more the buyers, the better the deal that can potentially get generated!
What more?
The site does not expect to deliver any products to you. In that sense, there is a “local” factor to it. At this time, Wanamo.com has deals to offer, for major Indian cities. The concept is that many individuals who do not know each other, may be considering making the same purchase around the same time. If they could somehow be got together, and they position themselves as a “group” to the seller, this group now has a buying power to negotiate best deals from the seller. Likewise, if this disparate group of buyers, individually, could have walked into different outlets to make their independent purchases. Now if some dealer offers the best prices, and all those footfalls are diverted to that one dealer, he in turn, is grabbing the market from the other dealers, who did not offer that great deal.
This in a gist, is what Wanamo.com enables.
My Quick Two Cents:
I am totally prejudiced to this business idea. In favor of the business concept, per se. So some of that will show in my thoughts here
Wanamo works for many reasons:
- It brings together people who want to buy the same thing, but did not know each other. And the group translates to discounts!
- The supplier of the product is transparent. The buyer knows what he is buying, from whom (traditional supplier) is he getting. Buyers get the vouchers directly of the brand / supplier.
- Products do not need to be shipped. Takes away the issues of shipping, handling, octroi etc. The costs and the pain! Once deal happens, the buyer prints the voucher, and goes and picks up the product / service from the supplier directly.
- Everyone loves a deal. And deal is what everyone gets. For a simple reason that it’s a quantity purchase each time, and which assures a deal!
All of these reasons are from the point of view of the business model. Then coming to the actual implementation and execution, it looks good, mostly. The concept is not easy to explain. This is the clear make-or-break. I think Wanamo does a reasonably good job of getting the message across. Also the implementation has been kept quite simple and straightforward, and that can play a huge role in the ultimate success.
And now for some Wisdom Nuggets:
There are things that can hasten the path to success.
- The screen, as you can see from the home page snapshot above, is crowded. If the aim is to reach a highly mature Internet user, who can understand the various links and blocks all over the screen, then its fine. However, I suspect, to drive numbers, Wanamo will need to reach a slightly lower common multiple of the user base, and that user may just find the screen too busy.
- Speaking of screen design, it is a fine balance between temptation (to put everything there) and restraint (to put nothing but the very necessary items there). In the day and age of Facebook, Twitter, etc., there are the Facebook Fan boxes, Twitter widgets, besides the feedback link, the subscribe to newsletter link, etc. that seem like good things to have on the screen. Ultimately these will impact transactions. If its your blog, Sampad, you can get away with it. It is not a transaction engine. Where you want people to transact, to remove their wallet and put in the advance payments, there, you want nothing to distract and turn them away. Least of all, a crowded screen. So think about it.
- The one-deal on the home page may be a good way to start, and may also be what is logistically possible to be achieved. But with one deal a day, it will be very very tough to scale. Users have very low attention spans, and very low patience. And very little time. If I get a link of Wanamo.com, and I reach the site. I see a deal. And that is all I see. And I am not interested in that one. Then, thats it. To get me to visit again, out of curiosity, is difficult. Unless there is a lot of money spent, and I keep seeing and reading Wanamo everywhere, there is a tough chance that I will go back on my own. Since I just have too many other things to do in life! Offering many deals across multiple products and categories is a way to interest more number of people.
- Finally, this is a great B2C e-commerce model. But the only way it will succeed, and succeed really really well, is if it gets scale. If there is even the slightest of satisfaction or relaxation perceived, with a few hundred participants or transactions, that is doomsday. One only needs to look at Ebay or Amazon, and see what kind of engines have been set up. In fact, Ebay should be the model to ape. And what is it about Ebay that should be aped? That you put up a great engine, keep investing in software and features, but then let vendors and customers go out there and help themselves. And you count the pennies that they keep leaving behind. And since these will be pennies that are left behind, you need a lot of transactions for these to count up to a lot of dollars. THAT is the only serious way to make this a business of massive proportion. If there is a large manual component in the transactions, or in pushing each vendor or customer, then I am afraid, it will grossly under-deliver to its potential. I mean, the founders will move from a small to a mid-size car or even a big car, but if they can set up their own VC fund in a few years or not, depends on whether Wanamo can look to be the Ebay of group buying-reverse auction, and churn out millions of transactions, or not!
All in all, a great business model. One of the best e-commerce plays that I have seen in recent days, and if all goes well, this is the one that we will hear a LOT about. Knowing what I do about at least one of the founders, Sampad, I know that he has huge determination and an excellent sense of the medium, and he and his team just need to stay on track, and deliver this well. Wishing them the very best!!
GRAY SCALE RATING: 4.0 / 5.0 (only because its early days and it can go up, as we see good execution too!)
ADDENDUM: By coincidence, noticed this Tech Crunch article just the same day that I wrote this review of Wanamo.com. And it is quite disturbing. I await the founders’ clarification, since Abhishek had already commented here. Where lies the mystery? If Wanamo is a copy-paste copy of Groupon, then its bad. If there is a legitimate tie up, same needs to be mentioned clearly!!
DeskAway.com – collaborative SaaS project tracking tool
Priyanka Dalal asked me to review their business at DeskAway.com.
DeskAway.com
Category: B2B -> SaaS -> Collaborative Poject Tracking
What is it?
DeskAway.com is an online, collaboration software to track a project between team members, potentially located anywere globally.
What more?
DeskAway is a very easy to get interface with simple, step by step instructions on what all it offers, and how it can be used. The features packed application can be delight for any colloborative activity, which can be defined as a “project” form. Offered in a SaaS structure, the use of the application is easy on the pocket for users, and yet, it should earn DeskAway good money, for large scale adaption.
My Quick Two Cents:
My quick two cents are all positive! The site is done very well, with a lot of thought, and addresses a large scale requirement in terms of collaborative project work. I would believe that DeskAway wil get excellent response and is poised to be a winner.
More Wisdom Nuggets:
1. Like I have mentioned in 1 or 2 reviews earlier, my first nugget would simply be to keep up the good stuff. I think DeskAway has been built very well, and also positioned very well, so I would recommend strongly that it is kept that way, and the rewards will come.
2. I am not familiar with the competitive landscape for the business. So of course, from a feature comparison point of view, or pricing point of view, if there are any reasons for customers to consider other options, those need to be addressed by DeskAway.
3. My nuggets this time around, rather than for DeskAway, may be for other entrepreneurs, who could look at various specific elements of DeskAway and learn from the same:
a. The home page: is very focused. Drives home the key communication at the outset. In few quick bullets – not long, drawn paragraphs. As you scroll down, there are specific horizontal sections (although not separated by any kind of separators) each of which drive home one key point, that could be critical for customers to move ahead. The identification of the key points and then, the presentation in this manner, is very impressive.
b. The overall colors and fonts used on the site are very refreshing. Easy on the eye, soothing colors, yet eye catching, enough white space there, absolutely no problem in reading the content!
c. The individual links on the home page are again, simple, straightforward and exactly what prospects may look for. A tour of the product, FAQs, comparison with other options, pricing details… nothing left to the imagination. Quick and simple links to get you the information.
All in all, I have been very impressed with the website. I have not tried the product, but assuming the same diligent effort in the product as well (and do note this reaction – looking at a good clean site, I am giving them the benefit of doubt, without knowing, that the product will also be good; likewise if you have a great product, but the site is poorly done, a prospect may have already formed an opinion about the company, before he moves into the product area!), I have all the reasons to believe that DeskAway is going to be a brilliant success! I urge other entrepreneurs to make DeskAway a model to learn from!
GRAY SCALE RATING: 4.5 / 5.0
NoJobJitters.com – to manage your career
Val Cummins asked me to take a look at his site, NoJobJitters.com.
NoJobJitters.com
Category: B2C -> Recruitment
What does it do?
NoJobJitters.com intends to be a one-stop destination for job seekers, or for anyone who desires to manage his career.
What more?
The site offers several direct resources for job seekers like interview tips, job fair information, job searches, resume guidelines, etc. Additionally there are also a host of other support services covering topics like Emotional Intelligence, Work / Life Balance, Overcoming Obstacles, etc.
In other words, the site is indeed an extensive resource for job seekers, as a one stop source.
My Quick Two Cents:
While the site does appear to be an exhaustive resource for job seekers, there is much to be desired in the design and layout, to make it more compelling and attractive to users. Also like I have asked many others on this blog, “where is the money”??
Wisdom Nuggets in more detail:
1. The first thing that hit me when I opened the site was, “where am I?” There was a lot of content all over the place, and I did not know where to begin. And yet, there was no one place where I could find a quick note about what this site was about, and where all do I go from here. There is a definite need to cut the content by a whole lot on the home page.
2. There is temptation for any site owner to put a lot of information out there on the home page. After all, one never knows what specific item a particular visitor would need?! You know what, you can carry this thought to an extreme.. what if you put your entire site on the home page?? You can’t do that, can you? Likewise, you can’t put so many links on the home page.
3. What you need to do is to figure out your best bets. For the rest, perhaps just put titles. And of course, there is Ajax to the rescue. An interested reader could mouseover or click the particular link of interest and see the details right there and then. That is highly recommended here.
4. Also the color combination needs to be rethought. A dark blue background and a lighter blue text on top of it, is not the most easy on the eyes. While there is merit in trying to be “different” so that people will remember your site, it cannot be done at the cost of making it harder to read content on your site. There is indeed a lot of merit in using a lighter background and a darker color text. Just stay safe on some of these basics of website design!
5. “Where is the money??”! Really.. where IS the money? If there are chargeable services, they are hidden away deep inside. Most everything seems to be free. Yes, we all know Google did it that way. But really they had invested heavily into a technology that would be so compelling that people will throng there in the millions, and ulimately, there will be ways to monetize those. If there is a recruitment site, with a good compilation, but with otherwise, not a whole lot of differentiation, and at least not something which is a serious entry barrier for others to replicate.. now, that is not a fomula to invest a lot of money in giving a free service. You are clearly incurring cost in making and managing this site. How long will you do it free of cost? How are you expecting to make money, even later? Don’t lose the focus on that critical piece of the puzzle. If there IS a strategy, well and good. If you hope that things will figure themselves out, well, they don’t. You figure them out!!
In summary, I can say that NoJobJitters.com has a good effort in compiling a large number of resources and creating community, and also offering new and fresh news and information, for job seekers. So its a great service. They do need to figure out a way to serve their own selves. Like make some money out of it. Good luck!
GRAY SCALE RATING: 2.5 / 5.0
Been busy working on my own business.. !
I have not been able to do reviews on startups in recent days. The reason for this is that I have been busy working on my own business! And that takes priority over reviewing others’ businesses
But no, I love doing these reviews, and I hope to restart soon, and carry on doing a few reviews regularly.
Please bear with me, folks!!
Inspiration
Sanjay Mehta
Attending a Bar Camp, Startup Saturday and the Entrepreneurship Summit, in the last 3 weeks, took me back to 1997-98 days when we were starting up for the first time, with Homeindia.com, along with few other first-generation dot com entrepreneurs in India.
I can see the same energy now, perhaps only magnified by the changes in the economy over these years, the emergence of India as a country to reckon with, the maturity of the ICT businesses, the far larger familiarity of the technologies for students climbing out of their campuses, and of course, the awareness now, about an ecosystem that can encourage entrepreneurship.
There is another change. Me. With 11 years of hands-on Internet experience, there is a larger “intuitive” feel on the industry, there is beyond the romanticism of the business, a better understanding of business realities, of markets, of revenues and results. As one young participant respectfully pointed out, there is the “gray hair” difference.
This has inspired me to start this new blog. To share my 2 cents worth, on new startups that I see coming up. Based only on information that is in the public domain (or shared by the company in public forums), and not based on any private information that entrepreneurs share with me. With an idea to give some new perspectives. Ultimately the business succeeds because of the entrepreneurs and they need to trust their gut. But “outside” views help sometime. And which is what I strive to provide here. With only one goal in mind: to enable the entrepreneur to SUCCEED!!
