Earlier this week, it was reported that India’s largest e-tailer Flipkart was looking to become an “everything app,” using which customers can order food, avail on-demand services, hail a cab or even buy daily essentials. The question is: Can Flipkart replicate the WeChat magic in India?
Different markets
Sanchit Vir Gogia, Chief Analyst & CEO of Greyhound Research feels that India, as an open economy, is more inclined towards adoption of global trends.
“Other global players like Google, Facebook have a thriving business here as opposed to China. Aping WeChat is a very wrong example to take here. There is a lot of trial and error involved as part of just developing this app and understanding service and delivery issues, which alone could be a 2-3 year journey,” he says.
Tech challenges
“A multi-service app modelled on WeChat has a basic requirement of brilliant bandwidth. We are still at least five years away from achieving self-sufficiency in bandwidth,” says Gogia, adding that consumers might also be wary of sharing so much data with just one provider.
Value-proposition for vendors
“If an app-in-app strategy was so successful, Amazon ideally should not have created Amazon Prime Video as a separate offering,” Gogia says.
Bright spots
Gogia feels the super-app could become an exclusive, go-to point for frequent and aggressive buyers, even if it doesn’t appeal to the entire spectrum of consumers.
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Analyst:
Sanchit Vir Gogia: Sanchit is the Chief Futurist, Founder & CEO of Greyhound Knowledge Group, a Global Strategy & Transformation Research, Advisory & Consulting Group. He also serves as Chief Analyst & CEO of Greyhound Research, a Global, Award-Winning, Independent Technology & Innovation Research, Advisory & Consulting firm. To read more about him, click here.
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