Other Social Networks

Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are the most popular social networking platforms, and have the highest user base. Facebook has an active user base of 1.5 Billion; Instagram has 400 Million users and Twitter 316 Million users. A look at the lesser known platforms reveals the likes of Snapchat (200 Million) and Tumblr (230 Million) are not exactly languishing on the fringes. They are quite close to Twitter and Instagram in terms of user base, even though Facebook leads the way.

Tumblr is a unique blogging platform that offers myriad social networking features for those who log on. In terms of features it is closest to Facebook. You can chat with your connections, put up posts (called blogs), share posts by others and like posts. Your home page shows all your blogs and it can be viewed by anybody. One doesn’t have to be on Tumblr to see your homepage. The blogs can be photos, text or videos. What makes it more fun is the customization it allows. You can modify the home page and add new themes. The platform unique approach makes it very popular with bloggers looking to catch up with other bloggers. There are some limitations; you can’t publish blogs beyond a certain number.

Snapchat is a messenger where photos and videos delete automatically, there is a lot more to Snapchat. It is fast emerging as a platform for digital marketing as it’s quite popular with youngsters. Snapchat key highlight is the Story mode which allows individuals to broadcast a series of photos and videos with fun filters, text and drawings. A broadcast remains on the platform for 24 hours and can be seen by anyone on Snapchat. It is used by digital brands such as ESPN, Daily Mail, and Comedy Central to promote their content.

Reddit is a slightly off beat social networking platform which lays more emphasis on building conversation instead of encouraging random sharing of photos and videos. The design is a bit archaic but there is a wide variety of content to read. Reddit has strict guidelines and every post is scrutinized to ensure no one puts up offensive content. The Ask Me Anything is another popular feature of Reddit where an eminent personality takes up question from the Reddit community called Redditors. It has a unique section called suicide watch where Redditors try to talk people with Suicidal thoughts out of it. 

Measuring Digital Economy

The dramatic rise of the digital economy presents unique challenges to the bean countries who try to measure the size of national economies. Most economic activity was about the production of standard stuff such as wheat or steel. The growing use of modern barter or peer to peer deals in what has been described as the sharing economy?

For example, we use to book airline ticket through a travel agent. Now, airline site allow us to book tickets on our own. The effect is same, but what used to once be a market transaction that involved payment to a travel agent has now become a household activity for which no money is paid. National Income has actually declined even though the underlying transaction is the same.

There is very unique way digital products are priced. They have high fixed costs but zero marginal costs. A software company spends big bucks to write its code. It can replicate this code at zero cost. Or think about a new age music band that can distribute its new album at minimal cost over the Internet despite the initial high costs of recording. The prices of many digital products tend to fall to zero because of their unique economies.

Many business models are designed to create other revenue streams such as advertising since the main product is given away free to build a large customer base. There is again not much agreement on how to capture these changes in national accounts. GDP is the cornerstone of all national economic statistics. It measures how much output is produced in a country in a particular period.

The digital economy presents a new set of challenges. Economists have struggled to understand what the transition from an economy of atoms to an economy of digit actually entails. Most of the emerging debates are not about the productivity effects of digital economy. They are more about how to measure an economy where some important distinctions are getting blurred.

Democracy of Information

Were you listening to Music in 2000? If so, one would remember Napster. It was born back of the then newly discovered MP3 Technology – the compressing of digital files allowing them to travel over the net easily. As a result, young people were ripping songs from compact discs and sharing those. Unable to take the weight of sustained litigation, Napster collapsed but so did the music industry – before bouncing back 13 years later. Therein lies the whole story of what the media industry newspapers, radio, TV Films, has been going through over the past 15 years.

This democratization, the ability of consumers to reject, redo, choose what they want to read, listen, watch, whenever they want it is the first big change that the past 15 years have forced on the information industry. Everything from the Nirbhaya documentary to Aamir Khan Comments becomes a trending topic. The blurring of lines between the Armchair Amateur and the trained professional creates all kinds of disruptions – socially, economically, and creatively.

The blurring also has some nice implications – notice the amount of talent coming out because of YouTube. Everybody from a cook in Noida to your Cat can become an online sensation, forcing mainstream media to drop its snooty. From Star’s Hotstar, Zee’s Ditto TV and Eros’s ErosNow, mainstream media firms are trying hard to get the 100 Million people watching online video in India. In the process, they are joining hands with names they wouldn’t have considered earlier. For Example, Star has signed on AIB, an online video creator popular for its spoofs.

The second is the havoc this democratization has wrecked on business models. But while, disaggregation is good for consumers, it has not yet translated into solid benefits for Media companies. In the US, for example, the newspaper industry has seen one-third of its revenues wiped out over the past 15 years, even as the number of people reading news has increased. One could call this evolution if the third thing about this democratization wasn’t true.

Those offline revenues of newspapers, film studios and television firms are funding the thirst for this disaggregated content online. Note that the bulk of traffic on search engines, social media and on a host of news sources comes from professionally generated content. More than three fifths of YouTube traffic comes from the videos put up by the large studios. Building shows with big stars, aggregating mass audiences for advertisers online does exactly what other media platforms do. That begs the question what really is democratic about a medium and a business where revenues and audience power are so heavily concentrated.

India’s Women Athletes in 2015

2015 was a great year for India’s Women Athletes, as they valued and ran into uncharted territories, secured Olympic Qualifications, and raked in the trophies. While it was a stupendous year for Sania Mirza, one in which she won a stellar nine titles with Martina Hingis, including two Grand Slams, and reached the top of the doubles world rankings, there were other Indian women too who made 2015 a year to remember. In their respective disciplines, these athletes broke new ground, took the world by surprise, and gave us something to look forward to in 2016, the year of the Olympics.

Lalita Babar: The daughter of a farmer, Babar broke the national steeplechase record thrice this year. The icing on the cake was becoming the first Indian to qualify for the final of a track event at the World Championships. For the Rio Olympics starting in August, Babar has two tickets – for the steeplechase and marathon.

Hockey Team: Indian Women Hockey Team was officially confirmed as participants for the 2016 Rio Olympics. For the Indian Women Hockey Team which has played at the Olympics only once before this, in 1980, on invitation, this is a watershed moment. Full of girls from small towns and whose popularity seems restricted to Shah Rukh Khan’s 2007 film ‘Chak De! India’, this is a telling goal scored just in time.

Dipika Pallikal: Pallikal began the year brightly, winning the Winnipeg Winter Club Open in February, but hit plenty of roadblocks midway through the season. Having failed to get past the first round in three previous events, Pallikal surged into the quarter-final of the prestigious US Open in October with a hard fought victory over World No. 5 Alison Waters. Pallikal also spoke openly about gender bias and refused to participate in the National Games since the prize money for male and female winners wasn’t the same.

PV Sindhu: She won Macau Open in February 2015 and beat World No. 1 Carolina Marin in Denmark Open.

Deepika Kumari: She went into the London Olympics in 2012 as the World No. 1 and made a first round exit. After two years, she overcame the shadow of failure & led the women recurve team to silver at the World Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark, booking them a ticket for Rio.

Apurvi Chandela: Part of the generation that was inspired by Abhinav Bindra’s gold at Beijing 2008, she has her sight set on the ultimate prize. She took the first step towards it by bagging bronze at the Changwon World Cup in April and qualifying for the Rio Olympics in the 10m air rifle event. She is the only shooter besides Jitu Rai to have booked a berth. She shot an impressive 206.9 to win Silver at the Munich World Cup in September.

Dipa Karmakar: Karmakar achieved the massive feat of becoming the first Indian to make it to the final of an event at the World Gymnastics Championships. She finished fifth in the final of the vault event, which means her chances of getting a wild card to compete in the Rio Olympics are pretty high.

Saina Nehwal: Last year, she had become the first Non-Chinese player to win the China Open Superseries. 2015 was the sting back in Nehwal game as she became the World No. 1 singles player, an astonishing feat in a sport dominated by the Chinese. Though Saina Nehwal had a few significant firsts to her name – like a world championship and an All England medal – the big titles eluded her. Expectations are high from her in 2016 Rio Olympics.