“Hai koi Hindustani naam jisme koi dum ho…Kuch wazan ho…Kuchch baat hoIJ”
Remember this advertisement** of a young Amitabh Bachchan emerging from the escalator of Piccadilly Circus Tube Station, fumbling for an Indian name, a signage with BPl right behind himIJ
Well, even if 1996 when this ad was created was too far back in time, Mr Bachchan’s point on our self image [“Kehte hain ki international naam ho to sab kuchch chalta hai. Hum-me wot baat kahan!”] remains relevant in the world of new media.
Which is why, earlier this month, an S-1 filing by Twitter depressed the Indian in me. In the 234 pages of text that the world’s most happening new-media company had filed, India didn’t seem to exist as a market place of ideas or even revenue streams.
Our celebrities didn’t seem to have tweeted anything worth a single screen shot in the filing.
And for all our hype about innovation, not one of our new media companies was deemed smart enough even to be mentioned as potential spoiler in where Twitter, Inc. wishes to be.
“We face competition from well established competitors in certain international markets, including Kakao in South Korea and lINE in Japan,” Twitter had stated.
Ditto from Sina Weibo, which like the South Korean and Japanese new media services, was repeatedly mentioned as a threat “in local markets, mobile applications and services which have expanded and may continue to expand in their geographic context.”
But as a mirror to how two million of us mistake tweeting to new-media innovation, not one Indian company was seen as a threat.
Readers of the filing were promised enhanced sales and marketing efforts in Australia, Britain, Ireland and The Netherlands. And bets on “user growth rate” were taken on Argentina, France, Japan, Russia, South Africa, and…hold your breath…even Saudi Arabia!
Sorry, no India here either.
Ditto for companies and creatives promoting a product or service worthy of a mention or screenshot.
All that Indian companies had was a passing mention for The Times of India - tucked in with CNN and the BBC as the three media brands that use Twitter.
I had hoped all this will get some Indian really angry: Aren’t we too smart to be minnows in the social and political media landscape of the New WorldIJ
So, here’s an early bet on wonobo, a new service from Geospatial technology company, Genesys. This mid-sized Indian company is treading where even mighty Google has failed. And the good news is that their street views could bring an “AliBaba on the Wheels” for nearly four million local businesses in 54 cities of India. The company expects to monetize its investments from local stores, restaurants, guided tour operators and hotels.
With 10 million geotags, ie, complete overviews of the location, and some 180 million panoramic views, Sajid Malik, managing director, Genesys, has promised to businesses and tourists in India what larry Page and Sergey Brin would have loved to do first.
With this and $35 million and two years of development, he hopes to make www.wonobo.com one of the largest Indian platform development effort yet.
For the tourist dollar, it’s good to see Parvez Dewan, Union Tourism Secretary, co-promote and leverage the government’s flagship branding campaign, Incredible India, with wonobo.
It was time an Indian company offered the world theme-based walks and panoramic views into our history, beyond obvious wonders like the Taj Mahal; bigger than Google, even if for our national market.
It’s instructive, of course, that Malik has picked a name like “wonobo,” one which defies nationality or form, or even the shape his offering may take in the new world that beckons.
(The columnist is CEO & Co-Founder, India Strategy Group, Hammurabi & Solomon Consulting. Tweets @therohitbansal).