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DTW
During the Week, India celebrated 75 glorious years of Independence on 15th August. It also forces us to take stock of what we have achieved as a nation especially in light of circumstances that we found ourselves on 15th August 1947. We have definitely come far from absolute poverty and hunger and widely held belief that we would combust soon as a fledgling democracy.
Whenever I have to evaluate our progress as a society or nation, I am reminded of a useful framework- Gandhi’s Talisman.
Imagine the scenario on 15th August 1947 and soon after. In an economy that has been transitioning to be more manufacturing and service focussed and was under tremendous strain in agriculture sector , the most basic necessities for large population — food, shelter and health care — are all suddenly at risk and at once. There are questions about the modalities and the eligibility of beneficiaries of the state support even after 75 years of Independence. The biggest financial inclusion platform available to Indian government is of course JAM - the trinity of JanDhan, AADHAR and Mobile. It remains to be seen as to how we can rapidly deploy it to provide monetary relief to millions of poor and unemployed Indians in rural areas.
Of course, platforms have risen to tackle some of the biggest challenges over last decade and half mostly by nibbling at the edges of regulations. I wrote a three part series on Platform and Anti-trust. You may want to read Size does Matter, 800 Pounds Gorilla Unleashed and Taming 800 Pounds Gorilla!
The central thesis of three part series is as follows- Platforms gain extraordinary power through user side network effects and commodification of supplier and use access to cheap capital to execute Predatory Pricing and Vertical Integration. Governments must maintain oversight over platforms by continuously evaluating the threat to Customer Welfare and work towards Preservation of Open Markets.
BigTech specially Facebook and Google which have faced serious anti-trust charges have also not shied away from bolstering their advocacy and PR arsenal. Imagine Facebook hiring former UK deputy prime minister Sir Nick Clegg as head of its global affairs and communications team in 2018 and then using his well-placed expertise to advise Facebook on how to keep the regulators away.
More importantly , the government’s concern should be reducing the threat to Customer Welfare AND Preservation of Open Markets. This would require consolidated action from governments across the world as a splintered internet and/or haphazard approach to BigTech regulation would allow them play governments against each other. They might also use the regulatory arbitrage as it already exists in financial world to create safe havens with no regulatory oversight.
Regulation of Platforms has been a burning issue for last couple of years and multlple government have tried to legislate and govern the platforms. In my previous newsletter, I had discuss about the concerns of various national governments in dealing with platforms who have spread their operation across the world. Relationship between platforms and countries could be seen through a three dimensional framework - first, platforms being supra-national; second, platforms as national identities; and third, platforms as tools of nations.
Tim Wu, one of the foremost thinker on anti-trust wrote The Curse of Bigness where he discusses increasing economic concentration across the world. Monopolies across sectors have amassed tremendous power - economic and market. They have become too big and have been accused of using this scale to suppress competition, squeeze suppliers and possibly over charge customers.
Simultaneously, Protecting Platforms from unfettered state controls remains a priority. Nations have to think out-of-box to deal with platforms as their relationship is going to become ever more complex. We are entering a new world where seemingly unrelated events in far off countries can have damning consequences for millions far away in time and space. Technology and globalisation have increased the potential of platforms acquiring power that they should not have and can not control ! The fact remains that the platforms themselves have been responsible for spread of false and at times malicious content. On the other hand, state has been trying to control the narrative through various measures including controlling the platforms.
Most of the self governing industry bodies representing platforms propose Regulations by Platforms themselves including efforts by various entities to be ahead of regulations and/or influence government policy through advocacy and public relations. It is well acknowledged fact that the regulations lag innovations and it is no more true than for tech platforms. Uber and others have mastered the art of spontaneous deregulation. They seems to believe in the misinterpretation of old age adage twisted as “It's easier to ask forgiveness than it is to get permission”.
OTW
Over the Weekend, I visited the HITEX exhibition grounds along with my B2B Marketing students (IBS Hyderabad MBA2023) to participate in HIMTEX 2022- 6th edition of Engineering Expo - an excellent B2B interface providing an excellent opportunity for untapped markets in the field of machine tools, engineering, automation and other technologically sound innovations.
The pull of trade exhibition for B2B promotion strategy can not be overstated as it allows for the possibility to interact with potential clients directly and simultaneously allows face-to-face contacts. They are important tools to build up confidence and may be used together with other marketing tools including social media , direct marketing and personal selling. In many ways, these Trade fairs must often than not offer exhibitors a chance to promote the company while analysing the competition.
They also end up lowering transaction costs which can arise from search for information, contracting, legal advice, insurance and competition monitoring. This cost reduction is made possible by the concentration of exhibitors and visitors in one place at one time. Both parties find trade exhibitions as neutral sales area which is neither home territory of the exhibitor nor the visitor thus making it easier for the visitor to freely select from a pool of information offers, with no commitment.
Digital Street next stop is Icfai Business School, Kolkata. See you in Kolkata on 28th and 29th August 2022.
I Love You
Shailendra
NMDC Hyderabad Marathon 2022 Update
I will be available at the SportExpo at HITEX on the 27th August between 11am and 1pm. So, if you are running Hyderabad Marathon, let us catch up during the EXPO.
I am also glad to be pacing the 5 hour Full Marathon bus at the NMDC Hyderabad Marathon 2022 powered by IDFC First Bank.