|
Aftermath
of the e-commerce revolution
Indians
who came to the US as ‘producers’ of e-commerce technologies
realised that they could also be sophisticated users of these
technologies. Many ended up becoming voracious consumers of
these slick e-commerce applications that made life simpler,
says Mohan Babu
Tech
sector is known to spew buzzwords that fade into oblivion
faster than one can say Data Warehouse. There are, however,
a few technical innovations that catch the fancy of a whole
generation. E-commerce, as a buzzword and a serious area of
Information Technology, burst into the mainstream during the
latter half of the nineties and is as already stale as yesterday’s
pizza. However, in the wake of its revolution and growth and
as some might say, its premature death, it left behind technologies,
applications and ideas that are going to stay with us for
a long time.
There
have been innumerable books and articles written about the
dotcom burst and how it helped propel the economic slowdown
that we are seeing now. I am not going to go over those “horror
stories” or even talk about the boom-burst cycle. However,
there is little doubt that a lot of good came out of the e-commerce
revolution that we experienced. Many Indians, especially tech-savvy
youngsters got a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to launch
a career and set sail to distant shores of Boston, Liverpool
and Santa Clara. They got an opportunity to partake in, what
some call, the largest creation of wealth in human history.
Sabeer Bhatia, who was shrewd (and lucky) enough to walk away
at the right time after selling Hotmail.com to the software
giant Microsoft, became an Icon of Indian entrepreneurship
and success. Indians who came to the US as ‘producers’ of
e-commerce technologies realised that they could also be sophisticated
users of these technologies. Many ended up becoming voracious
consumers of these slick e-commerce applications that made
life simpler.
Way
back in 1997, on discovering the joys of Internet surfing,
I bumped into (then) little-known online bookseller who was
willing to take credit card details over the Web and ship
the orders I placed ‘online’. Before coming to the US, I hadn’t
even done any shopping through catalogue retailers and here
I was, giving my credit card details to an online retailer.
It was a leap of faith for me. Doing this, I knew I wasn’t
alone. Of course, it helped that I knew a couple of Indian
friends who worked for that bookseller Amazon.com who would
wax eloquent over the dream that their company was out to
capture the world of book retailing. If only my leap of faith
had been strong enough to motivate me to put my money where
my mind was...I would have bought a few hundred shares of
Amazon.com. Well, we’ll not even venture down that path...
Of
course, my friends, colleagues and I gradually started trusting
most of the large online retailers and took to buying goods
and services over the Web. When my bank offered me the chance
to pay all my bills online, I jumped at the opportunity. Eventually
I got sucked in, doing every conceivable thing over the Web
trading stocks, managing my portfolio, planning a vacation...the
whole nine yards. Needless to say, the dotcom burst has done
little to dampen the enthusiasm of my fellow Indians, especially
as consumers of e-commerce technologies that have become a
way of life.
Indians
in the US are perhaps among the top ten percentile when it
comes to using online tools and technologies. Case in point,
Net meetings, which started off as a means for geeks to exchange
instant messages over the Internet has become as ubiquitous
as telephone, services and e-mail. No wonder Microsoft and
AOL are fighting a bitter war to capture our eyeballs. Instant
message sessions are a convenient and cheap (actually free)
means of communicating with parents, relatives and friends
in India. Voice chat is really giving a run for the money
to all the long distance telecommunication giants.
Realising
the potential of Indians in the US, a number of entrepreneurs
jumped in to build “portals” targeting this community. Even
a year ago, there were over a dozen portals offering services
ranging from directory listings to chat and bulletin board
services along with news and information. The dotcom burst
didn’t spare them. Giants like ChaiTime.com and GoYogi.com
that were started with a lot of fanfare and pizzazz are nowhere
to be seen. Of course a handful of them are still surviving,
Rediff.com and SatyamOnline.com had the good fortune of cashing
in on their IPO and are not too concerned about burning through
their cash. A few small directories like GaramChai.com have
survived, probably because they were not overly ambitious
and didn’t expend too much on buying hype. Of course, as the
Indian community in the US continues to grow, we are going
to see a lot of consolidation in this sector too.
A
number of online grocers have also jumped in to capture the
Indian audience. Namaste.com, flush with venture capital funding
seems to be going strong, so is IndiaPlaza.com. The business
model of these retailers is simple Indians in the US still
love to eat ‘dal chawaal’ or ‘sabzi roti’ and they aim to
cater to our tastes. There are Indian grocery shops all over
the country, which manage to charge exorbitant prices for
the most mundane items. The online bazaars are trying to bypass
these retailers and sell directly to us, the consumers.
The
flip side of all the dot.com services being offered online
is the blind faith that it instils in us. A few months ago,
there was a glowing review of an online retailer, CyberRebates.com,
in the revered business journal - Wall Street Journal. After
reading the article, I was enthused and went ahead and order
a few knick-knacks from them, which were priced at three times
the normal price. In theory, they were supposed to send me
a rebate check for the items that I bought. In the physical
retailing world in the US, coupons and rebates are the norm
and people try to grab a bargain when they can, hence this
offer didn’t sound that ludicrous. A few weeks before I was
supposed to receive my rebate-check, the company declared
a chapter 11 bankruptcy. Just goes to prove that if it is
too good to be true, it probably is.
E-commerce
as a revolutionary way to do business may be dead but the
mundane applications and business models that the e-commerce
technologies are trying to support are here to stay. Even
after the so-called ‘meltdown’, we are seeing a growth in
the use of technology as a means to connect the ever-growing
Indian populace in the US with life and things back home.
|
