Hope to See You Soon!
Looking forward to 2021
Thanks for your New Year 2021 wishes. Let me also express my gratitude for all of you who have read and shared their opinion/comment. Few of the generous souls have even shared this newsletter with friends and family.
I hope the new year 2021 is a better for each one of us. We have taken the first step by making it to 2021. Stay safe and be kind to everybody around us.
And, if a friend forwarded this newsletter to you, please sign up for an awesome, dis-intermediated and fruitful relationship by clicking on following link and subscribing to the newsletter.
If you would like to read a summary of the 45 posts in 2020, please do read the last week’s newsletter.
DTW
During the Week, Zomato touched new milestone with peak orders per minute (OPM) rate of over four thousand on NYE. It is an incredible feat and points to a bright future of Indian Tech Platforms. One of the lingering doubts about Indian Tech Start-ups has been the resilience systems and scalability of operations to cater to surge of demand. This episode should answer the cynicism of incumbents towards a platform led business future. It goes to the incredible talent and perseverance of Zomato’s Tech and business development Team and also to the enterprise of thousands of delivery partners.
2021 would be the year of resurgence of platform but still a significant resistance from incumbents is expected as well as regulators stepping up their game. Relationship between Platforms and Regulators can at best be described as ambiguous while incumbents have an obvious advantage because of their long standing relationship with regulators. Let me take examples from three industries to explain this further- Payments, E-commerce and Entertainment.
Payments space is seeing a huge interest from all three- Payment Platforms, Banks and RBI. Between themselves Google Pay and PhonePe process 86% of all UPI transactions. Banks who actually own the customers are not very happy about ceding this ground. Now RBI has allowed New Umbrella Entities which could be financial institutions or even FinTech companies. They might end up creating multiple rivals for Unified Payment Interface run by National Payments Corporation of India.
Of course, this complicates the competitive scape which is already muddled by payment gateways like Visa and Mastercard. Please remember that first love of RBI(regulator) is still Banks and more specifically Scheduled Commercial Banks.
E-Commerce has seen renewed interest and litigation from incumbents like Confederation Of All India Traders (CAIT). They have used all possible tools including plans to launch their platform against the Amazon/Flipkart duopoly in online e-commerce. Their latest pressure tactics seems to be forcing the government to use the tax authorities to curtail e-commerce’s growth.
There have been earlier attempts to block the e-commerce giants from offering deep-discounts, exclusive launches which, the incumbents (Trade Associations of MSME) alleges, goes against competition regulations and a level playing field in the space. Traditional retailers have also approached courts and complained against platform’s preferential treatment to sellers affiliated with, or controlled by, them, predatory pricing and exclusive arrangements with brands. Sadly for traditional retailer, the customer is still enamoured with the deals and range offered by the e-commerce platforms as evident by extraordinary growth in GMV in the last festive season.
Entertainment is the fiercest battleground where the incumbents are fighting a loosing battle. Pandemic has forced a split in the incumbents where producers/creative class in the industry has shifted its allegiance to streaming platforms whereas exhibitors/distributors have been left fighting for their survival.
Here the regulator’s role has been ambiguous but recent efforts to bring OTT platforms under Ministry of Information and Broadcasting seems to be step to move from self-regulation to ‘censorship’. This would bring the OTTs/streaming platforms under some sort of control like the regular TV content creators. Of course, #Ban_Something can always act as an ultimate censorship tool.
Online Tech Platforms have been saviours for many of us during covid19 and more specifically in #LockDowns. These battles are going to create more value for customers as investors would pour in money to capture marketshare/mindshare in the respective markets. Perhaps the customers should align with regulators and keep an eye on them to encourage a level playing field for both platforms and incumbents.
OTW
Over the Weekend, I watched parts of the movie “The Japanese Wife”. It is a gem from Aparna Sen with an impressive cast including Rahul Bose and Moushumi Chatterjee amongst others.
Few of my generation were encouraged to have penpals with a simple motivation to improve writing skills and of course to learn about diverse cultures. I had few from South India and would eagerly wait for their replies. Anyways, last six months of teaching/interacting online has been a similar experience of being with people that I have never met in person but I still feel a bond with them.
कहीं तो ये, दिल कभी, मिल नहीं पाते
कहीं से निकल आए, जनमों के नाते
-Anand (1971)
In fact, during schooling when I shifted to Belgaum I started writing long letters to my Delhi based friends and continued doing it for my Belgaum based friends when I moved to Ludhiana. I used to eagerly wait for the postman and would be slightly disappointed if nothing turned up for the day. Last time, I did something similar was during my first independent travel in Garhwal Himalayas with Alok in 1997. I used to drop post cards describing my adventures for my sister Shalini from different towns/villages. Now, I just WhatsApp them when I am back in network !
Let's oxygenate our relationships by calling/texting our friends and family. Over last few months, I have been using calendly to set up formal/informal calls with friends and family. You could use the link at https://calendly.com/shailendrabisht/catchup to set up an interaction.
Of course, the easier way is to just pick up phone and call !
I Love You
Shailendra
An interesting read as always.
Thanks for bringing me down the memory lane of waiting for postcards with your anecdotal wisdom about Garwhal n our ancestoral roots.
Oh my God, I still remember when you came back with half of your weight n pain settled in your bones for weeks ;) . It was inspirational!
Likewise, I wait for your weekly articles to hit my inbox now so I can stay connected with the current relevant global topics affecting our society n economy .
Way you write is so positive n explained in such layman's terms for us novices. Definitely keep up the dry sense of Irish humour;).
Thanks for being You n inspiration to us all !
Love - Shalini
Once again sir, a marvellous piece of work. You have always highlighted that mediating and regulating these platforms have always been a challenge for the governments worldwide.... won’t you think the the government is doing right by reining them. As many of the content is unwatchable in family..... of course as per Indian Tradition..... while others are just phenomenal masterpieces.... which would have lost in mainstream cinema.
And, thanks for suggesting - “The Japanese Wife” to watch..... I’ll try to watch it during these Sankaranti holidays.
However, won’t leave you empty handed, a small suggestion from my side is my favourite, “Cinema Paradiso”...... if you believe in destiny and believe that events are aligned for a purpose .... then do watch it you will love........
At last, my favourite from Bollywood Cinema is “Pakeezah”,..... I’m pretty sure you have watched it..... however you can go and refresh you memories as well.