Devina Joshi
Digital

IAMAI seminar: An enigma called Web 2.0

At a conference on Web 2.0 organised recently in Mumbai, eminent industry experts such as Ashish Kashyap, Avnish Bajaj, Vivek Pahwa, Ravi Datanwala, Navin Mittal and Rehan yar Khan discussed the buzzword that is on every marketer’s lips today

In the Indian context, Web 2.0 can best be described as a volcano ready to erupt. And if the growing popularity of the Orkuts and Froppers of the world are anything to go by, the eruption will, in all likelihood, happen sooner rather than later.

At the IAMAI conference on Web 2.0 held recently in Mumbai, a panel of experts struggled to put a leash on this growing viral phenomenon in an effort to come to terms with what this spells for the way media is consumed in India. Vivek Pahwa, founder, Desimartini.com, made the first point by highlighting the two models of Web 2.0; the first involves community building (blogging and social networking), while the second is more of user generated content (UGC), involving sharing and building content with other users (the YouTube type). And, of course, there are some sites that combine the two, including Desimartini.com. “The fact that users upload content, without any incentive, is an encouraging sign of how this trend is picking up in India,” said Pahwa.

Ravi Datanwala, online business strategy manager, Microsoft India, took the case of Web 2.0 further, saying that this phenomenon isn’t restricted to computers alone; mobile phone content, too, is headed in that direction. “Fragmented broadband connections and their low penetration are a challenge in India, which deters people from sharing heavy files and videos,” he said. “We have 170 million mobile subscribers today, so why limit the scope of Web 2.0 to PCs?”

IAMAI seminar: An enigma called Web 2.0
Avnish Bajaj
Moderator Avnish Bajaj, founding managing partner, Matrix Partners, interjected at this juncture, asserting that GPRS-enabled handset users are limited to four million in the country, so that might not be so feasible just yet. Further, it was inferred that the concept of Web 2.0 hasn’t been marketed too well in India, let alone leveraged on other platforms.

Rehan yar Khan, director, CEO, Orios, said that for entrepreneurs in this space, things need to go beyond the traditional mailers and banners, which are not only expensive and unprofitable for start-ups, but also tend to “kill the product”. For low cost options, he said, one could try viral marketing on platforms such as Yahoo and MSN messengers, which, by their very nature, have one user drawing another into the game. Khan perhaps got a bit carried away when he spoke of Web 3.0 being around the corner – a phenomenon which will go beyond UGC; it will merge UGC with syndicated content in an exciting way, he said.

IAMAI seminar: An enigma called Web 2.0
Ashish Kashyap
Also present was Ashish Kashyap, CEO, MIH Web, who steered the discussion back to Web 2.0, observing that experiences on Web 2.0 applications seem to be more emotion-led as opposed to function-driven. Perhaps there’s some food for thought for marketers/entrepreneurs.

Bajaj of Matrix Partners then brought forth another important point: Web 1.0 companies such as Amazon.com and eBay used to be full of UGC, and even viral marketing isn’t really a new concept. That raises the questions why Web 2.0 is being talked about only now, and whether technology has really changed at all in the past seven years.

IAMAI seminar: An enigma called Web 2.0
Navin Mittal
Navin Mittal, business head, Fropper.com, said that technology has always been there, but companies are using and packaging it in a better way now. “Take Gmail for instance,” he offered. “It has been around for some time, but it leveraged its large storage capacity only recently, with the help of the AJAX technology.” He grew philosophical and said that Web 2.0 is all about looking at the same things through a different lens; in Gmail’s case, technology proved to be the lens.

Khan of Orios summed up the shift in a few words: “Earlier, UGC was confined to geeks; now everyone is on to it.” On a more serious note, Kashyap of MIH Internet commented that now, Web 2.0 is about involving users as participants, even stakeholders, if it comes to that.

IAMAI seminar: An enigma called Web 2.0
Vivek Pahwa
Vivek Pahwa of Desimartini, who had been listening silently all along, said that the hype around Web 2.0 was unjustified. “Technology hasn’t changed; with the effortless monetization of content; it’s just easier for players to enter the game now, that’s all,” he said. Taking a more realistic view, Pahwa was also of the opinion that the way the web is consumed abroad is much different from that in India; cultural barriers and broadband difficulties restrict content sharing.

Mittal disagreed strongly: “According to some statistics, YouTube is the eighth-most viewed site in India. This proves there is hunger for online videos in the country.”

Kashyap agreed, giving the example of people uploading caricatures/videos of friends and loved ones on sites, even in small towns such as Vadodara. “Be it Web 1.0, 2.0 or 3.0, the new Indian youth is ready for it culturally,” he asserted.

Pahwa wasn’t satisfied. He cautioned Indian companies not to ape the West; perhaps sites in regional languages, with local nuances, could make things easier for the user, he said. Khan of Orios disagreed with this. “Localisation can only help to an extent,” he remarked. “Unless one can come up with a product that is really Indian in character, such as Shaadi.com, I’d be scared to take on the Orkuts and the Facebooks, just for the sake of it.”

Kashyap settled for the middle path, saying there was room for both global and local Web 2.0 sites to coexist in India.

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