| So what if I belong to the 40+ age group and at times cannot gulp down my morning breakfast without having a newspaper in my hand. A newspaper having Shashi Tharoor and Shah Rukh tweets, our beloved Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh wearing the quintessential blue turban, IPL auction imbroglio news, pictures of Sehwag, Bollywood... Wah! All add more spice to the lovely fragrance that emanates the moment you open the morning newspaper.
Suddenly one day, something hit me! I read this in a major daily newspaper recently...
‘The youth of today is NOT reading newspapers, magazines and other print publications’.
I paused and wondered, why not? Newspapers today have a good dose of Breaking/Masala news and their supplement sections blatantly print images of girls which- in the 80’s- would have been classified as nudity and censored. But still the youth is gradually drifting away from the print media. Here I am who at times can’t brush his teeth without going through the morning newspaper and on the flip side, the youth- who is a lot smarter than I am- is seeking information from somewhere else! Where from??
Got the answer... Internet! There is a fundamental shift in terms of how ‘information’ is being absorbed these days by most youngsters. Some research helped paint the following internet scenario...
1. Cost of internet connectivity is coming down leading to growth of internet connections. As of 2010, India ranks 4th (yes, fourth!) in terms of the absolute number of internet users across the globe. And the growth is exponential as internet penetration in India is just around 4% (of total population).
2. 40% of all internet traffic in India comes from cyber-cafes. So lack of computer/infrastructure at home is no longer holding people back to use internet!
3. Social networking is hugely popular. While I used to write a letter to my friends in US around 1985 and waited patiently for their reply that reached me after 30 days, nowadays the youth gets restless at times when someone doesn’t reply within 30 seconds on chat/email.
4. Youth of today is spending more than 50+ hours a week on an average using electronic/internet media and they are communicating with more than one person simultaneously using multiple internet avenues like chat, email, social networks etc.
5. Proliferation of numerous business websites is soaring; online bookings are getting more popular as people are now more comfortable using credit cards online. Mobile phones are helping bridge internet connectivity with users. SMEs(Small-Medium Enterprises) are especially leveraging the internet to reach potential new customers.
But what next? Expect the following in future...
• Books/Newspapers confined to history?: In parts of California (US), paper newspapers/books are fighting a grim battle for survival and may be history in times to come as their electronic versions take centre stage. I don’t think anything like this will happen in India- at least not till 2020- due to the sheer number of people who are not internet savvy.
• Indispensible: Just like you would be surprised if you meet someone today who doesn’t know how to use a phone. Similarly, you may get a similar reaction in future if you are not aware of how to surf the internet.
• With so much information ‘overload’, people would be looking for relevant ‘localized’ content that can help them in the decision making process. Infolona (www.infolona.com) is one such portal in India that is striving to present relevant information to the users when they want in a simple, useful but informal, fun way.
• By 2020: Technology/Internet advancements would make the following a reality...
o VideoPhone+Internet+Email+TV+Camera+RemoteControl+Movie would all converge into a single device. Value, Cost and Ease of Use will define the success of such devices,
o Doctors would be seeing patients remotely over web,
o Majority of people would work from home with virtual meetings over the internet,
o All ‘paper’ examinations abolished. ‘Open book’ internet exams would become a norm,
o Majority of marriage invitations and marriages broadcasted over internet as it would be impossible to reach marriage avenues on time.
We can paint many such scenarios! Whether its Shashi Tharoor’s tweets creating a pandemonium in Parliament these days or someone booking an Indian Railway ticket online at 10 PM from his bedroom in his pyjamas... lets face it that Internet is binding more and more people together and is gradually becoming part of the mainstream.
-Palash Jain (Chief Solutions Officer of Infolona and ex-Google Director) |
