Facebook - A Social Network? A Business Model? A New World?

Watched an interesting program last night and that got me thinking about the opportunity out there and reminded me that madness and relentless pursuit can take you places! Mark Zukerberg has in many ways created a new world we could not imagine. He did not sell his idea but nurtured it believing that it can get larger and larger everyday. He stands today at a point where he is competing with Giants who believed they ruled the world - Google/Microsoft and many more.

Think about it:

• Facebook is the first platform that had an audience before it figured what to do with them. They capitalized on the fact that people just wanted to be connected across the globe.
• Facebook started to build a world. It now stands like to pivot, and is rapidly demanding the world to build itself around it. Having an extensible platform, capitalizing on its network and linking every site, every application, every business to itself has really worked. Being open is the key.
• Facebook believes it is changing the culture of the world to becoming open. It is driving the need in us humans to share information. Do we all really want to share information? Have we started to because we can? Do we know who reads what we share? Does each of us understand the defaults of the privacy settings? Will it matter for the new generation? The privacy settings have evolved on Facebook and with each new release the defaults seem to depict that humans are progressing to becoming more open.

I then started to understand and think about the key ways in which facebook now monetizes its asset - the network?  Stating a few:

1. Generate Demand: Advertising on facebook does not work like at google- where you get when you search. Instead it is about creating a demand/driving a demand and finding the target audience. It is an easy and rapid channel to  spread a message - be it of a product/cause/event. Even better the brand is endorsed by a friend and not by SRK or Sachin Tendulkar. Does that really make us buy? Do we really buy/do/want to experience what our friends are buying/doing/experiencing?
2. Games/Collaboration: This facet capitalizes on the fact that when the dimension of a network of friends is added we suddenly look at gaming in a new paradigm. Most games on facebook are community based games. We play with friends/neightbours/strangers who are connected to our friends etc. They are also time based and one is expected to come back and re-visit to keep the game going; People pay to actually buy some of the virtual points/goodies in a game. This market is growing significantly. Again facebook gives the platform and tonnes of  gaming companies build on top of this.
3. Data and Analytics: Everything you do is available to facebook. Status messages/tags/location/information about what we like/information about where we go/what we are interested in etc. It is the daily log  for a lot of people. So many business entities can benefit from this data if they analyze it. Companies are being setup purely to derive insights for businesses via all of this data.
4. Business becomes a person: The new trend is that business becomes a person and the business interacts with you if you express an interest in it. You get to know about the latest things happening in the company, you get to discuss with other people, you can comment on what you liked about it. Even better every time you interact with a business everyone in your friend list, gets to see that and a few might get interested in it too. Is this going to be the way new enterprises launch events/customer service? It is the cheapest and easiest forum for a small business to get its marketing right.

The above are just a few illustrations of what disruption and possibilities this network has created. Will the world soon hover around Facebook or will a new world be created? Are we becoming brands/endorsers/links in a business? Are we culturally evolving into a set of people who believe our importance is critical via our brand value in the virtual world? Are we truly willing to share, are we really becoming less private?

Someone nicely said- Facebook has made me have more friends with weaker links and has caused my strong friendships to become weak.  An average facebook user spends close to 30 minutes a day once logged in, on this network - we get lesser time to focus on our real life relationships.

I want to leave this blog with these questions lingering in your mind. Because these were certainly questions that were lingering in mine.

My Journey from Provision Stores to Reliance and Big Bazaars of today!

I have been living in London for a few months now. News from India has been flashing discussions, protests, anticipation and debates of a retail revolution in India. The government is looking at opening Indian markets for Global Retailers like Walmart, Tesco et al!

When I look back at my childhood, I remember walking to a provision store next to home, standing a midst a crowd, popping my head out to catch the attention of the shop-keeper. When he would look at me, I would rattle a list of things I wanted to buy. One man on the other side would jot down the price on a piece of paper, whilst the other man (with a natraj pencil behind his ears) would  run around a dark dingy store looking for every item. I remember mum even asking samples of some of the grains she would buy  and finally just before we would pay, I would expectantly look at a string of glass jars with rusted iron covers,  holding toffees. On a lucky day I would wriggle out a 'Nutrine' or a 'Parrys' chocolate worth 10 paisa for the trip to the shop. Today, I drive to a neighbourhood super-market, hand pick things I need, walk to a counter, load the purchases and drive right back.

So what has changed in all these years? Lots has:

• I can store, I buy more! Somehow when I walk into a super market, I end up always picking up things because I suddenly want them after I catch a glimpse. I want them even more after I see that there is an offer bundled in. I want it even more if loads of others seem to be picking the item up!
• Not every day anymore, Its only on weekends I visit the store! I used to pay a visit to the provision store on a daily basis for everyday needs. The only things we would hoard is wheat and rice which was consumed in large quantities and needed to be sourced from special stores. These days I probably visit the super market once a week, pick up all things for the week and walk away. Perhaps it is because I don't have as much time. Perhaps its a much longer and time consuming experience shopping in a super market or perhaps I can store much more at home with a larger refrigerator.
• That or this This or that! Choosing is what I am good at! I can pick from more than one brand! The best and the worst thing about a super market is the choice! I can even buy things that were never manufactured in India.Swiss smoked cheese, Pak- choy, and not so fresh lettuce!
• Shop around just in one. Walk in here and you are done!. Earlier my mum would walk around town and visit most of the provision stores around, looking for cheaper or better options and testing if they were consistent. Today I would typically go to one super market and not even bother to check another one out.
• No Gain- No Bargain! - Gone are the days and joys of haggling, bargaining, convincing the shop keeper to mark down his cost a little more. Now the retailers just do it for us - Offers, Bargains are all pre-packaged. We either take it or leave it.
• What do you want the Genie told? Imagine it and it shall be sold! - With hyper marts - Grocery, Vegetables, Shoes, Electronics and what not! All in once place. One would spend an entire Sunday just snooping around usually.

These are just a few differences from a consumers perspective. However, I do strongly believe that Big Bazaar was a trend setter in making retail offerings competitive for an average Indian urban consumer. Reliance, in their own ways have done somethings better for the farmers by eliminating the middle men! However, changes of this nature are never easy to understand and comprehend until we let a decade or a generation past. Of course with the big chains, the consumer gets better standard stores, experiences, competitive prices and possibly crappier quality at times. However, the consumerism present in the 'US' has led to issues today that are beyond correction via a short term fix. I am undecided about how this change will unfold. However I do hope that with Privatization and Commodotization a certain maturity emerges in sectors where we have not done much to fix  and innovate ourselves. At the same time, I do know that bringing a big fish implies all the small ones get eaten and beaten! All I can say is that 'Retail therapy' has picked up even in a saving-centric country like ours. Indian consumers have been exposed to lives outside of India. They have experienced the 'Walmarts' and 'Tescos' and certainly crave for a similar experience back home. We are hungry! However, I just wish it was not a Walmart or a Tesco like standard global experience I got in retort to my hunger! But a more localized, customized and innovative completely new business idea that would have emerged from 'Apna Desh' instead!

Does the Physical Being matter anymore?

I would like to start with a Haiku Quote which in my mind captures imagination/perception and being in just 3 simple lines

A tree in the wind
The wind in a tree
All in me.

In this world of virtual interactions, I have suddenly started to believe that we are evolving into a species whose physical state and body will slowly stop holding any meaning and all that will matter is the 'Mind'.

Today we value meeting people/having coffee with a bunch of friends/walking and running around parks.
Tomorrow we will meet people over a video camera/walk and run around simulated spaces of a play station and maybe experience a reality created by ourselves.

So in all of this, I wonder if the physical being matters anymore? Does it matter that I was born to be of a certain shape and size, with a specific hair colour, with blue or brown eyes? Does touch of another being matter or will I soon be content in experiencing the touch via simulation or evolve and not need it at all? Will I feel good conversing with a piece of software which is random too and that can perceive?

These questions have been lingering around for years in various forms of spirituality. Funnily its mass connotation almost seems real today with technology bringing virtual reality closer to each of us everyday.

All of this will depend on being able to accurately replicate the human mind, its desires, behavior and perceptions into a piece of program that can then create. As far as the human body is concerned, it will evolve. We got rid of the tail when we saw no use of it. I am sure, we shall soon get rid of limbs if we don't see use of it. It is an interesting thought and sometimes a scary one too. However, we got to remember - as much as we forget, evolution continues, and no one really knows! Cheers to Microsoft/Google/Apple/Sony and many others who are contributing to create a whole new world based on a new reality - a virtual one!

'I create, I experience and I destroy!'  In all this,I wonder who is 'God'?

Gen 20XX a new tribe!

I was born in the late 70's (India) - An era where television was a novelty, scented erasers in school were for the rich and I had 3 hours a day to spend out doors playing on the streets.

I have lived 3 decades and lots has changed. A few things happened along the way:

• The world wide web took over and connected the world
• India became an outsourcing 'mecca'
• We embarked into a new century - 20XX

When I interact with the youth of today (Gen 20XX), I do realize that they see life from a completely new perspective. Their fundamental philosophies are based on the following:

I need to be connected virtually - Anytime, Anywhere, Anyhow for Anything!!!

This is a generation that wants to publish- Publish their whereabouts, their interests, their routines, their expressions. They show interest in just about anything ranging from

• Where someone checked in 
• What someone is doing at the very instance
• Sighs of a stranger whose baby burped!
• Angst of someone who wants to blow up the world 

Social success is measured by number of friends on Facebook/Number of text messages received/ Number of Virtual Hangout requests you get and how many farmville neighbors helped out at your farm!

I need not remember- I can Google! Hang on- don't tell me now- I will call!

Information consumption, attention to detail  seem like pointless characteristics in today's world. We remembered everything from maps/telephone numbers/birthdays/bus routes even poetry! Today- every kid in the world hits Google to find, points to Wikipedia when in an argument and uses Google Maps when lost. Interestingly I can guarantee that when someone leaves to the super market, despite the fact that the Mom or the Wife would have given instructions, one will call from the supermarket! In my younger times, I would write down a list and ensure I got to every detail when I left home to buy stuff for mum. However, today there is a phone which always comes to the rescue and one does not want to remember. People want to listen to information and detail only when it is applicable and do not want to retain it for periods longer than that.

I need change I have a short attention Span
The mind of a youth today seeks change/something different every few minutes. Sit for 15 minutes and TV channels will be flipped a few 100 times. Get a girlfriend and gosh I am bored after 2 days! Get into a routine and one feels like a cabbage! Everything has a short shelf life. Anything long and static can truly tire and exhaust folks. Gone are the days when  we would find contentment in watching 'Chitrahar' ¹ despite the same songs, despite its brevity.  I still cannot forget the joy and the yearning for  'Nanna Munna Rahi Hoon'  ² every independence day- year on year!

I have an Avatar - the virtual me!
Everybody dawns a new Avatar in the world behind a computer/ipad/mobile. They express views, update status messages, chat textually and become complete new characters on the net. The real them is almost getting inconsequential with time. Human dichotomy and split personality syndrome has taken over the world at mass!

The above are a few illustrations of the Gen 20XX - The new tribe that has arrvived! Maybe we need to progress and teach our kids how to use a calculator instead of teaching them addition. Maybe we need to accept that the physical being of an individual is going to be immaterial in the new world. Perhaps this is evolution, perhaps it is the dawn of a new era. I did love the 19XX's and I am fascinated by the 20XX. However I know, If I had to, I can relive my childhood only as I know it best - with time on hand, spending time outdoors, with real social interaction and a fascination for the future.  I do however believe the Gen 20XX has arrived and its time we stepped back and let them lead lives the way they know best.

1: A Television Program broadcast-ed once a week on Indian National Channel (Doordarshan) in the 80's. This was the platform to showcase songs from Indian Hindi Movies. 3-4 songs would be played in the span of 30 minutes with few new and several old ones that were popular in their times.

2: A patriotic song from an Indian Movie which reflected a child's patriotism and desire to be a soldier. This song was the anthem of a lot of young children in the 80's.