@Digital Summit: Uniform Code Of Conduct For E-Commerce, Exemption Handling;Contentivity

In the first session, titled ‘What will drive the growth of the Internet in India’,
Rajan Mehra, Country Manager eBay India spoke about public-private partnership to bring about empowerment, education, health and employment. The government needs to provide subsidies to the fledgling Internet industry and leverage government infrastructure. The private players would move towards a standardisation of technology, focus on training and build a backbone for rural penetration of online services. Issues of ambiguous legal and regulatory policy were raised, for which changes are in the offing. A uniform code of conduct for e-commerce was also mentioned. An exemption of duties for goods purchased online was asked for, and a committment on privacy and security was promised.
Hitesh Oberoi, Co-founder and COO of Info Edge said that there’s a need for identifying consumers on the basis of their needs, and developing different market plans. Internet in India will be local, and a resume database sells in India because of its price point. India is a matrimonial market, not one for dating. With cheap SMS in India, it will always be a mobile market, and a young market. It’s important for offline businesses to move online, and for there to be an online-offline model.
Alok Mittal, Executive Director of Canaan Partners said that the Internet in India is supply constrained; markets are always created after businesses are created – take the low cost carrier Air Deccan as an example. Now there is no lack of capital, and technology is available off the shelf. Also, not a single Internet business in India has taken off on word of mouth, so big budgets are important. The brand needs to inspire confidence. Usability is key, and exeption handling is critical – Amazon had immediatey cancelled an incorrect order that he had placed, on his request, while Businessweek took six months to refund a double order for a subscription. As am Industry he said, “We do not attend to talent. The best consumer marketing or consumer finance people are not joining the Internet businesses.
Mohit Hira, Director of Marketing at Indiatimes fastforwarded to 2017, and said that the future is a khichdi (a mix). Content will not be king – it will exist to connect people. He gave the examples of the Shilpa Shetty petition (23000 petitions) and Bookcrossing to emphasise the same. The custom newspaper will not replace the branded newspaper, and to succeed, portals will have to be hosted inside a larger domain, User Generated Content will not be credible enough (or so he hopes, I guess, for the sake of Indiatimes and the Times of India). I do agree with the assessment that the future will be about the perfect search, and the combination of content and connectivity – which he called contentivity.

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