Platforms "R" US

Reducing the harm from Platforms and leveraging them for social good

Over the Women’s Day weekend, I was part of #Bidar2Hyderabad Spirit of Pinkathon Run celebrating Women who have always made a difference in our lives. It was wonderful to run with Five Wonder Women aptly called #KiraakAidu and of course #Milind Soman and got a signed copy of his book Made in India (I have reviewed it here)

I also read multiple accounts and comments from many of you about International Women’s Day and how such events have the potential to make all of us better human beings.
More Power to all of you. Thanks for being Awesome.

Shout-out to Rachna Ghiya, IBS Hyd MBA2010, for sharing with the world Jaipur Creative Commune which is a collaborative creative community of Jaipur. This platform facilitates meet-ups where creators can share their skills in an informal setting with a bunch of happy learners.

If you’re reading it for the first time, please consider subscribing (it’s free!).

And some interesting feedback on previous newsletter about Women Running Business set me thinking about the impact of Platform Businesses in our day to day lives. So, this edition discusses larger issues of platform and society.

See you on the other side !

DTW
During the Week, we had another outrage over the power of platforms to determine our lives and lot of people are wondering if Tech-Platforms have too much power.
When the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica story broke out , there was uproar and outrage. It also started another round of ridiculous “copyright and privacy notice” prohibiting Facebook from using user data. I remember bringing it up in MBA Marketing class and asking a show of hands about customer harm resulting out of privacy violations. Almost everybody wanted to lambast Facebook but alas, nobody deleted their Facebook accounts. So, what has happened since then ?

Facebook has become even stronger and sometime back it crossed an unnerving milestone of a Billion logins in a single day ! It has become along with Google, Apple, Amazon and Microsoft , the ruling deities of modern day economy and social life with a valuation of over 5 trillion USD between five of them. Though more specific to the US customers but the recent Tech Survey 2020 by Verge brings out fascinating insights about people’s perception of these Tech Giants. Back in 90’s, we had heard stories about Microsoft being the bully and now in 2020 more people trust MS with their personal information than any other tech company. Recent incidents and their flare ups has also thrown the possibility of polarizing impact of social networks. The Black Box Algorithms of search and social media are controlling what we read and watch. Are they bringing us together or pulling us apart? Are we creating Echo Chambers where there is no appreciation of diversity or difference of opinion ? Even if it is not search and social, there is a constant flux of notifications prompting us to “do“ something or “buy” something thereby creating a steady stream of data for the platforms to be exchanged for even more engagement.

In the previous newsletter, I had brought up the consolidation in Indian FoodTech sector leading to loss of choices for food business and users. We have had a long winter of “LogOut“ campaign by restaurants against the FoodTech platforms and skirmishes of hotels with the platforms like MakeMyTrip and Oyo. There have been more instances of anti-competitive behaviour exhibited by the platform towards other platforms and even their own ecosystem partners all in the name of Customer Obsession and that I think is a worrying trend. FOMO has left people hanging out hours on social media and lives have been lost in trying to become the next social media sensation. We have had fear mongering and wrong information posted about COVID-19 over Facebook, Whatsapp and other social media platforms. Facebook has taken some steps to stop the fake claims and non-scientific cure but unfortunately they do not even know what is happening over Whatsapp (Encryption and all). The role of these social platforms in spreading fake news and rumours is still being researched but the harm is there anecdotally for all of us to see. There have been attempts by the platforms and device makers to restrict the time spent on social media platforms and of course moderating its content but unfortunately it is not sufficient. On a personal level, for a short while when I deactivated my Facebook and Instagram accounts last year, I could free up close to an hour !

Platforms have also pushed for the idea of smart devices- Smart TV, Smart Cars, Toothbrush (whatever) which offers convenience and convergence. But it also created a constantly surveilled world. Smart Devices invariably means that user data is being collected along with ambient variables thus scooping more data than user would have shared voluntarily. Feature creep is turning out to be creepy as more and more devices seek more and more data about consumers’ lives either directly or aggregating from multiple sources. And the major issue is that the consumer does not even realise that such a data trove exists for each one of them till it is hacked or unintentionally released on internet.

Idea of platforms to create an economic model of utilising under-utilised assets is useful and certainly pertinent for a developing economy like ours. We have seen tremendous potential of such initiative in Health, Education, Financial Inclusion and Agriculture. The rise of renting and sharing can help us get more assets for lot of users who would not be able to afford them otherwise. It would also help us create a recycle- circular economy which might be less harmful to Mother Earth.

OTW
Over the weekend, I tried Botnet.
And if you want to get a high from being a social media celebrity, try botnet and get applause from thousands of user accounts though all of them are bots ! Do let me know if you would try it or even pay extra to get special attention from ,guess what, even more bots (some of them trolling you) !
Here is what my timeline looks like on botnet !

If you looking for clarity as to the purpose of business, let me recommend this passage about “Buying and Selling“ from one of favourite book (My go-to-book whenever I need clarity on most important issues in life) - “The Prophet“ by Kahlil Gibran.

When in the market place you toilers of the sea and fields and vineyards meet the weavers and the potters and the gatherers of spices, -

Invoke then the master spirit of the earth, to come into your midst and sanctify the scales and the reckoning that weighs value against value.

And before you leave the marketplace, see that no one has gone his way with empty hands.

For the master spirit of the earth shall not sleep peacefully upon the wind till the needs of the least of you are satisfied.

Stay Safe. Wash your hands. Would see you soon.
I Love You.
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