Gmail to Transition to Inbox?

Google has started the process of migrating users from Gmail to Inbox.  Inbox users now get a pop up message saying “Thanks for trying Inbox! To make it easier we’ve updated Gmail to redirect you here.” Google started this migration a few months back with a limited number of Inbox users and is now seemingly looking to expand the migration. Inbox users right now do have the option of turning off the migration of Inbox to Gmail and returning to both the sites in their original forms. Migration of users from Gmail to Inbox indicates that Google is viewing Inbox as a replacement to Gmail rather than an independent service. Inbox might be the platform where Google offers its users more intelligent e-mail services, with automated features such as smart recognition of images, tickets, reminders and more. Experts believe this can explain why such features have not been launched within Gmail.    

With over 900 million Gmail users, complete migration will be a mammoth task. It will also be interesting to see how quickly Google rolls out new, automated features in Inbox that will not be available to Gmail users till they migrate. This is likely to be a big transition for all Gmail users.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2015/12/05/google-ending-gmail/

Exponential Growth in India’s M-Commerce Market

According to a report released in April by market research firm Zinnov, India's mobile commerce market could grow to $19 billion by 2019, up 850 percent from its current size of $2 billion. Surging smartphone sales (driven by cheaper handsets) is the biggest driver for this boom.  For Flipkart, one of India’s biggest e-commerce companies, 70% of their sales are now coming from mobile (up from 15% just one year ago).

In addition to traditional e-commerce, India is seeing innovative e-commerce businesses (moving beyond the retail realm into services) crop up, focused solely on the mobile consumer. One of such businesses is UrbanClap that offers hiring services across categories such as health, home and events via its smartphone app. Similarly, Amber, a mobile marketplace player taps on a pool of freelance make-up artists, hair stylists and henna artists to provide on-demand beauty services. Such businesses are likely to be successful in Indian cities given the high population densities.

As discussed in my previous post, data costs and connectivity is an issue in India and companies have to think about launching ‘lighter’ versions of their products that consume less data and can be loaded quickly on a mobile device. Indian e-commerce firms are heavily investing in designing lighter apps and mobile sites that can load up within seconds and work on a 2G network.

http://www.cnbc.com/2015/11/26/forget-e-commerce-m-commerce-is-where-indias-potential-lies.html

Race for Becoming the Mobile Browser of Choice in India

Within millions of new internet users coming online in India (mobile first), there is big competition to be the platform of choice for users to take their first steps on the internet. India is very big market for Google and Facebook, two major players who are competing to be the first for new Indian internet users.  Some numbers released recently show that Facebook dominates in India. Indians love the social site and really love Facebook’s WhatsApp, which has 55 million monthly hours spent.  Google so far has a solid lead in utilities and video apps, owing mostly to YouTube.

The space where Google is not in the lead is the mobile browser space. The UC browser, which Alibaba acquired last year, is beating Google’s Chrome in India, with over five million more monthly hours of use. Alibaba’s stripped-down browser takes fourth place. Google’s big advantage over Facebook is its mobile browser and Google can leverage that advantage to capture internet users in India first. However, with competition from Alibaba, Google needs to define its competitive advantage to score in the Indian market.

Mobile data costs are high in India and are often the prohibitive factor when it comes to getting more users on a web browser or a social network. Google has been pushing to come out with lighter, even off-line versions of its products. The company has recently unveiled an update to the data-saving mode for mobile Chrome that will roll out first in Indonesia and India.

Given that challenges in India are more centered on data costs, companies have to focus on lighter versions of their products that are easy to load and consume significantly less data. Google is already pushing in that direction and it will be interesting to see how Facebook and other players design an India-focused strategy that relies on modified mobile versions of their products.

http://recode.net/2015/12/01/forget-china-google-has-to-fight-off-alibaba-on-mobile-in-india/

Facebook Test Launches Live Videos

Facebook has announced this week that it is testing out live video feed feature that will allow users to broadcast a live video, similar to how users make a written status update now. The live video feed will become an alternative way to update a status. Friends will have the option to like and comment on the video as it is being aired. Friends will also be notified when you go live so that they can tune in. Once the video is streamed live, it will be added to the user’s timeline similar to other status updates.

This move brings Facebook squarely into the live streaming space. This is being viewed as an important move for Facebook as videos is touted to be the future of Facebook. We already have most video views on Facebook and now Facebook is moving toward having users upload live videos directly versus getting videos posted from other sites.

Live videos also ties in well with Facebook’s strategy of being a channel where people are engaging more in real time versus something that they use at their leisure. Last week I posted about Facebook Work, a platform Facebook is providing to get people to communicate and collaborate at work. The live video feed, while completely different from Facebook Work is yet another channel that allows Facebook users to engage in real time. This is a move toward allowing users to be ‘active users’ who are live streaming and engaging with an audience. It allows Facebook to achieve its goal of being live, more immediate (similar to Twitter and Snapchat).

It will be interesting to see how the competition unfolds in the live streaming market with Facebook’s entry. Facebook’s sheer scale and a billion + user base seems to give it immediate advantage. YouTube is probably the biggest competitor Facebook will have in this space. Competitors like Meerkat (still new in the space and more focused) will have to define a strategy to compete with Facebook’s scale.

http://www.wired.com/2015/12/facebook-live-video-is-facebook-at-its-most-facebook/

Facebook Starts Selling Events Tickets

Facebook has now started selling event tickets directly through event pages. The service is available only in the Bay area for now but would be expected to open up in other locations soon. Tickets are available to be picked up at Will Call for now but this is another feature that is expected to change as Facebook refines this service further, allowing customers to print tickets or keep online tickets. This move is seen as another way that Facebook is trying to increase commercialization. Facebook is not charging any cut right now but it would make sense for Facebook to use this as a revenue generating service soon.  

I see this as a natural move for Facebook with almost all public and private events having a Facebook events page now. It makes it easy for the attendees to purchase tickets on the events page and have a one-stop-shop for all information related to the event. Depending on what percentage of the cut Facebook decided to take from event organizers, it may be a more economical option for organizers than using paid services like Eventbrite

http://www.buzzfeed.com/alexkantrowitz/in-latest-commerce-move-facebook-brings-concert-ticketing-to?utm_term=.ghKn5ZWd#.fg4N7Omv . 

Indian E-commerce Companies Use Native Advertising as Monetization Option

Flipkart (India’s biggest e-commerce platform) has introduced native advertising for companies to engage better with customers on its mobile platform, including for brands that do not sell through it.  Through Flipkart's new 'brand story ad format', companies will be able to target specific customers browsing through products related to their own on the online marketplace. Companies will also be able to use data from Flipkart for generating sales leads or run pre-product launch surveys. Other Indian e-commerce companies, including Snapdeal are opening up online advertising options as a high-margin revenue channel. The ecommerce firms are looking to shift from a commission-based model for their merchants to a model that allows merchants to advertise for a fee.

The value proposition that the e-commerce firms are offering their brands is that they will get a holistic view on their return on investments on the marketing spends (and) about a user's awareness of the product, intent to buy, to the final purchase.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/49989971.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Can Facebook at Work Succeed?

Facebook has recently launched 'Work Chat', a messenger chat version of Facebook at Work. Facebook at Work is the enterprise version of Facebook rolled out in a testing mode to about 300 organizations. Work chat allows its users to communicate in one-on-one and group chats with colleagues, share documents and do voice calls. Facebook at Work is going to compete in the work place collaboration and communication space, currently dominated by players such as Slack and Microsoft's Yammer.

Facebook has the advantage of being very familiar to all users already and that could drive the uptake in using Facebook at Work and Work Chat as preferred workplace communication tools. However, on the flip side Facebook is entrenched as part of peoples' personal lives and it could be difficult for people to switch between their personal and professional Facebook accounts. The association of Facebook as a tool to take time off from work could also be a hindrance to get people to use Facebook for work.

With Facebook's plans of launching Facebook at work full scale soon, it would be interesting to see how the competition plays out and how established players including Microsoft fare. Eventually, this service can be a replacement for workplace e-mail too.

Source:  http://www.forbes.com/sites/theopriestley/2015/11/24/killing-email-can-facebook-at-work-succeed-where-others-have-failed/
http://androidcommunity.com/facebook-at-work-debuts-work-chat-in-its-private-testing-mode-20151123/
http://www.networksasia.net/article/facebook-starts-testing-long-awaited-work-chat-app-businesses.1448329266

Growth of Digital in Asia

Recent PWC Digital IQ survey results show that Asian businesses have a more cohesive digital roadmap for their organizations compared to organizations in others regions. 57% of survey respondents in Asia agree that they have a single, multi-year enterprise roadmap, compared to 50% respondents in Western Europe and 57% respondents in North America. Further ad spend in Asian markets is expected to grow in double digits in several countries (India: 11.0% in 2015 and +12.0% in 2016; Philippines: +10.2% in 2015 and +12.3% in 2016; Vietnam: +11.3% in 2015 and +13.5% in 2016).

Further, Asian brands are investing in responding to customers / potential customers on social media. Brands in the APAC region answered on average 67% of all questions posed to them on social media in Q2 2014. That number has now increased to 82% according to Socialbakers latest analysis of its brand data.

The rapidly growing mobile penetration in Asian markets explains the emphasis on digital and social media. For most consumers in Asian markets such as India, it is largely becoming a mobile first market where they access internet and social media on mobile devices. Smartphone penetration is expected to grow tremendous with 40.8% of the mobile population in Asia-Pacific expected to use a smartphone in 2015, equating to just over 1bn this year. China currently accounts for 28.3% of all smartphone users on the planet.

The mobile and social media usage of Asian consumers is different from their American or European counterparts. Most smart phone users are android users. Further, consumers are more likely to use Whatsapp and other local apps for video and other content sharing. For e.g., in India Whatsapp beats Facebook as preferred medium for video sharing. 51% of respondents shared videos via Whatsapp, 45% on Facebook. Malaysia, like India, is seeing the growing use of Whatsapp (46%) as a video sharing medium. In the Philippines, G+ and Instagram are more popular platforms for mobile video sharing than Whatsapp and Twitter.

https://econsultancy.com/blog/67003-digital-marketing-in-apac-the-september-2015-stats-roundup/

Competition in Instant Articles

There is news today of Google coming out with its version of ‘Instant Articles’, similar to the initiative launched by Facebook in May this year. Given that very high volume of news and articles is now consumed through Facebook on mobile devices, Facebook’s instant articles initiative provides improved user experience with reading news articles from partnering websites on a mobile device.  Articles on instant articles load much more quickly (ten times faster) compared to standard mobile web articles and are also more interactive with features such as zooming in on pictures within the article.  Facebook has right now partnered with nine news websites for the instant article initiative, including the New York Times, The Guardian, Buzz feed, among others.  This initiative has been rolled out to a small set of iOS users in the test phase and is expected to be rolled out to a larger population later this year.

The latest news is about Google coming out with a similar solution but keeping it open source.  This will mean that all publishers, from the big ones to small bloggers will have the ability to provide their content over Google’s new solution. The bigger difference seems to be in the level of ownership the publishers will have over their content. While working with Facebook, publishers are essentially handing over their content to the social network and it is up to Facebook to feature the content as it wants (with the implication that partnering websites will be featured more prominently than other publishers). With Google there is no Google-owned platform as such where publishers can host their content and Google will not control where and when the content can feature.

Another key difference between Facebook’s offering and Google’s proposed offering is revenue generation and sharing. Facebook shares 70% of ad revenue generated through ads featured on the instant articles with the publishers if the revenue is generated through Facebook selling the ads (publishers keep 100% of the revenue if they sell the ads). The news as of now does not indicate any revenue sharing arrangement for the Google solution, with the publishers having complete control and ownership over ads sold and revenue generated. This means however that the publishers get no support from Google in selling ads.

It will be interesting to see how the two different solutions are received by both publishers and end consumers. Facebook seems to have an advantage with its billion users who are already using the social network for consuming news. The revenue sharing arrangement Facebook offers also seems appealing to users. The solution is likely to be desirable for both publishers and end consumers, with publishers getting all the support they need to feature their content in the most consumable ways and consumers getting improved user experience.

http://media.fb.com/2015/05/12/instantarticles/

http://fortune.com/2015/09/14/google-instant-facebook/

http://fortune.com/2015/09/11/google-instant-articles/

Taj Mahal on Twitter

Last month the Taj Mahal in India joined twitter with its handle @TajMahal, becoming the first historical monument to join twitter. The handle now has over 180k followers, less than one month since its start. The twitter handle posts tweets from the Taj about visiting the monument. The handle also asks its followers to regularly post their memories of visiting Taj and this has seen Indian as well as international tourists post hundreds of pictures and experiences. The handle keeps coming up with other questions for its followers such as asking for books written on Taj or asking people to spell Taj in their language.

I found this initiative to be an innovative way to market Indian tourism within India and abroad (although I do think that the initiative is more targeted toward driving domestic tourism). While there are multiple platforms online about the Taj, it’s very own twitter handle generated a lot of buzz and interest. The twitter launch was done on Indian Independence day and received much media attention. It was a well-crafted marketing initiative.

With significantly high mobile penetration in India and rising disposable incomes that allow more people to travel within the country, I think it is an excellent marketing strategy to create higher recognition for a monument / place / city on digital media to drive tourism. Involving people in the dialogue makes it more interesting for all to follow.