Experts believe that every challenger that has been able to make a difference, irrespective of whether it dethrones the leader, or has a value proposition that feeds a need gap in the industry. (Representative image/iStock)
In the recent past, India has seen a spate of apps crowd the marketplace. Most notable among these is Koo, the Twitter-like app which provides a more local interface with Indian language keyboard etc. Another example is FAU-G, India’s answer to the since banned PUBG (now relaunched as a rebranded game Battlegrounds Mobile India). Then, of course, there are Zee5 and MX Player in the OTT space that intend to challenge global players like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. New apps can be put in three categories according to Harikrishnan Pillai, CEO & co-founder, TheSmallBigIdea. The ones eyeing a share of the existing market, the ones chasing a new segment of consumers within an established market, and those focussing on new areas altogether. “For the ones trying to take a small pie of an already crowded market, the classic Red Ocean Strategy is going to be a battle of fighting the demons of the existing offering. The second is one chasing the new India, the regional India, the ones who have just about begun to explore the power of the Internet are taking what worked for the early adopters and adapting it for work for the laggards. Here one has to understand the power of contextualising to their needs and pivot around functionality.
The third is riding on the new waves. Like audio or NFT.
These are classic blue ocean candidates, creating a mark through differentiation.It’s no longer a battle of technology, it’s a battle of context. Technology now is a base requirement,” he elaborates. Abhishek Mehta, strategic sales manager, Onnivation says, “The year 2021 has seen the birth of 10 unicorns in India, this is not just a massive validation, but also an enormous responsibility on these companies to continuously keep raising the bar.” He adds, “There will always be some teeter-tottering, if you look at the top 10 digital companies in India today, it's easy to say that you wouldn't have heard about most of them say 5-6 years ago. As consumption patterns evolve, change will be the only constant.” The emergence of Indian apps is due to a combination of globalisation and localisation. As more Indians consume global apps, the need for localisation within the app space gets even more stronger. “There is big whitespace, if you look at the global app ecosystem, it shows that Indians are among the top users of apps in the world, but none of the Indian companies or app developers figure in the top list of 'most downloaded apps'. Here is where a global outlook can help, we can already see this transformation happening in sectors like OTT and Gaming,” he says.
Initiatives like #MakeInIndia are giving Indian apps that extra thrust to ring fence their territory as well. Ahmed Aftab Naqvi, CEO and founder, Gozoop, says that after black swan events innovations have thrived, not only in the digital space, but in the physical world as well.” Most larger shifts in the pecking order happen during and just after black swan events -- unpredictable events that are beyond what is normally expected of a situation and has potentially severe consequences such as the World Wars, Dot-Com-Bubble, the Sub-Prime Crisis or the current Covid-19 pandemic. “We only have to look back at history to see that great innovation happened during and just after these events like the invention of the wrist watch, the helicopter, the Facebooks, Uber or Airbnb’s of the world. So in terms of timing, this is the time for peak innovation and it will give rise to new industry leaders,” says Naqvi. But what does it take for a newcomer to make a mark when incumbents have more or less cemented their positions? Experts believe that every challenger that has been able to make a difference, irrespective of whether it
dethrones the leader, or has a value proposition that feeds a need gap in the industry. “User experience is one of the key factors. Older apps fall by the wayside when they start to feel clunky, or as soon as there is a better version out there. A design thinking approach centered around making things easier, fun or better for the consumer should always be given high priority,” Naqvi says.Kavita Shenoy, founder and CEO, Voiro adds that newcomers also have the advantage of advanced tech and deeper perspective. “There is a huge advantage of being first in the market, and therefore, you occupy a lot of space. And there's also an advantage of being newest. You're able to give people something more that an incumbent, or what a current favorite may not be able to provide.” She gives the example of Clubhouse, the social audio app that took the digital world by storm recently. Given the increasing popularity of podcasts and the omnipresence of social media in consumers’ life, the app has been able to create a differentiated niche for itself. But newness has not always guaranteed success. A prime example would be Uber Eats that entered the market much later than Zomato, and Swiggy. It had the backing of an already established company, and was trying to penetrate a fairly new market of food delivery apps, but could not sustain momentum and ended up being acquired by Zomato. Not all first movers have made it big either. Local Banya was one of the first apps to cater to local grocery needs, trying to break into the kirana market which is well entrenched in the Indian consumers’ life. After initial success, the app shut shop. However, players like Big Basket, Grofers, and Supr Daily have managed to stay afloat, and thrived even.Given the current scenario then, do these neo social apps apps have what it takes to dethrone the numero uno? Or are we headed towards a tectonic shift in the digital apps space?Pillai believes the answer is more nuanced than a simple yes or no. “It’s unfair to compare the success of digital apps five years back and the future of apps today. The growth of challenger apps a few years back is all thanks to early adopters, the digital-first, tech-savvy audience. They have found their loyalties in most categories and have high expectations from the new ones. Any new app trying to break into the elite will need to do it through solving specific problems. The only way to break into this market is to significantly change the offering, give a sense of exclusivity or find a new need for this market,” he says.“The ones becoming big by sheer volume, will be the one’s speaking to the new India (Bharat). If the neo-apps are looking at the digital laggards to drive their growth, then the narrative has to be easy & contextual with strong functional & cultural pivots,” Pillai adds. Shenoy believes that given the nascent digital market in India and the scope for further internet penetration, it may not be a case of dethroning the incumbent so much as increasing the market itself. “As newer apps come into play and solve specific challenges, the market itself will expand, attracting first time internet users into their fold,” she says.Naqvi compares the digital app ecosystem with surfing. “The shoreline looks beautiful from a distance, but hidden below could be dangerous rocks. The surfers, all with their unique boards, unique fitness level and unique skills, try their best to catch the waves. They have to time it just right to be able to ride a good wave. Some manage to even do a barrel, becoming unicorns, while many others fail.”He adds, “The biggest lesson is that even if you are able to ride even the biggest wave, it doesn't last forever. You come back towards the beach and have to put in effort once again to paddle back into the ocean and try to catch another wave or you will miss out on all the fun, success and probably not survive.
