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nomenon. Online picture-sharing site in India, but also rural towns. Even the journey is in continuum as the custom-
Pinterest added a new “good morning” rickshaw-walas, now carry cell phones, er shifts from one device to the other.
quotes section, which saw a nine-fold video chat with family, take payments The rising number of customer interac-
increase in a year’s time in the num- via PayTM. While Indians are now tions generates a stream of intelligence
ber of Indians downloading the snaps. reading newspaper online, ordering that allows brands to make better deci-
WhatsApp itself added a status mes- food through the food delivery services, sions about what their customers want.
sage last year so users could say good video calling their friends and stream- We are now in the fourth industrial
morning to all their contacts at once. lining movies online. At the same time, revolution driven by technology. There
These are examples of companies, Jio is riding the next wave of digital is no one right answer on which of
and others in the ecosystem taking momentum by further strengthening these pathways would work for a com-
advantage of understanding user be- its strong technology foundation by pany. Any and all of these pathways to
havior, taking advantage and adapting launching IoT products and solutions, a digitally enabled transformation are
services quickly to meet demand. An- for both consumers and enterprises. correct, as long as the leadership team
other bolder example is private com- A technology led transformation to has a clear goal and vision of what they
panies changing the entire ecosystem identifying a whitespace, change the are hoping to accomplish from tech-
of services offered. Innovations in the way of doing business and changing nology. Even as CEOs push forward
private sector have enabled internet the industry landscape – some organi- with their digital agendas, it’s worth
services to millions of consumers and zations, large and small, are tapping pausing to clarify vocabulary and
made online usage more accessible. into existing customer pain points and sharpen language.
Reliance Jio adopted tried and tested thinking of new ways to revolutionize Despite these advances, there is
American strategy of bundling virtually that customer experience leverag- plenty of room for India’s digital revo-
free smartphones with mobile-service ing technology. The prime example lution to grow. Digital spend for large
subscriptions to spur competitive pric- of this is the new category of services institutions in developing nations
ing. As a result, mobile data consump- called as Taxi, Bike, Bicycle Aggrega- such as India is still a small percent-
tion per user grew by 152 percent an- tors. What was a non-existent market age of that in developed nation (there
nually and data costs have plummeted at $0 few years ago is now a whop- is atleast 5-10x gap to close). Despite the
by more than 95 percent since 2013. As ping $35B+ market in India alone, with WhatsApp and Facebook success sto-
a result data, mobile, internet are now not just one many different players in ries, still only 40% of the population has
a lot more accessible in not only cities the domain - Lyft, Meru, Ola, Uber to internet subscription. Despite access to
just name a few. These so-called ride- digital banks, online accounts, Fintech
sharing start-ups identified that hail- payments, PayTMs, greater than 80% of
ing (and availability of) a cab through transactions are in still in cash. Online
the traditional channels is quite pain- sales are increasing and growing fast,
ful and there was a better opportunity however still constitute less than 5% of
for technology driven aggregators overall retail sales. Looking ahead, In-
to create a marketplace driver (on dia’s digital consumers are poised for
the demand side) and customers (on robust growth.
the supply side) to order a cab on the Technology is about leveraging the
click of a button, and to take it further lever to unlock growth now. Indian
even make the payment seamless and technology revolution is at an interest-
online. These companies identified ing juxtaposition of technology, busi-
an opportunity, identified a business ness and human behavior response.
model, revenue stream and quickly The scale and potential of expansion is
leveraged technology to create a digi- huge. How companies might interpret
tal platform to test and learn from user or act on it will vary but having a clear
behavior. What started out as a car understanding of how technology will
sharing service leveraging technology transform businesses will allow leaders
has now expanded into motorcycle, to drive progress and value to innovate,
bicycle, auto, food delivery and bigger learn and grow rapidly. The big ques-
forays of logistics now. tion for India remains though, which
Being digital also means being chan- companies and services will emerge as
nel agnostic, in this era where most leaders as the next phase of this trans-
millennials and Gen X own multiple formation shapes up. Also, importantly,
devices. And thus, critical for content what areas are ripe for the next S-curve
and experience to adapt as a customer areas for India’s digital transformation?
shifts from a mobile phone to a laptop Stay tuned for the next update here.
or from evaluating a brand to making
a purchasing decision – the customer letters@tehelka.com

tehelka / 15 June 2019 41 www.tehelka.com