I am reproducing this article about Web 2.0 in India that I wrote for I4D, a publication focused on emerging ICT technologies and their socio-economic impact. I4D is run by a NGO called CSDMS, a think tank in this area. The article was published in the July edition of their print magazine; pdf version of the article is here. Worth pointing out that the article was written primarily for a non tech savvy audience.

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Technology is a gradual leveler; it gets created by a select, knowledgeable few, while remaining an enigma to others. Only when applications of that technology percolate down to the masses and start helping them do things faster, better, cheaper etc that it becomes an agent of social and economic change. Consider the case of the computer. Fifteen years ago, the most commonly accepted definition of the computer was – “it is a data processing machine”. That definition while technically correct, has little practical relevance in today’s age, when the computer is a data cruncher, an entertainment hub, a communications device et al.

Similar is the case with the internet. It started as a means of sharing information for academic & military purposes; soon it became the backbone of business communications. Now the internet is getting social- people have taken center stage and the technology has taken a backseat. The internet is slowly but surely becoming an inseparable part of our lives, as it becomes our primary device for “ICE”- information, communication and entertainment. And a good indicator of this trend is the emergence of the new wave of the internet, often referred to as Web 2.0. Web 2.0 is like a refurbished version of the internet. While Web 1.0 (or the erstwhile internet of the late 1990s, early 2000s) was still focused on technology, Web 2.0 is far more humane – it focuses on people and how they can collectively influence its developing character. Little surprise then, that the international person of 2006 chosen by the Time Magazine was “You” – the individual at the center of the current paradigm of the internet.

The internet’s basic character is changing. And a good way of understanding this change is to delineate how Web 2.0 is different from its earlier incarnation (or Web 1.0). Consider the following shifts (explained in metaphorical terms):

Read v Read/write: Earlier, people could just read the internet. They were simply the viewers or the audience. Now people can easily write back content into the internet – through blogs, forums, multimedia content etc and this is a paradigm shift.




User Generated Content: Vast amounts of content is getting added to the internet through blogs, images, videos, other kinds of media and the majority amongst them is coming from amateurs and not professionals. The entry barriers for creating content are much lower than before and this is a major shift as well.

Passive consumption v/s Active participation: The earlier version of the internet was characterized by surfing and browsing, whereas Web 2.0 is pivoted on connecting, collaborating and sharing.






Expert Voices v/s Wisdom of the crowds: The participatory nature of the internet can now be harnessed to precipitate the “wisdom of the crowds”. There is a multiplicity of views and opinions, but it is possible to isolate the most strident amongst them and use that within your own context.


80:20 rule v/s the LongTail: Much of human effort (personal or professional) is oriented towards serving the significant few (or the 80%) at the expense of the insignificant many. But that’s changing with what is known as the “Long Tail”- technology advances are making it possible to isolate and service the teeming insignificant millions at the long tail of the internet’s normal distribution curve. The message is that “there is room for everyone now”.

“The content comes to you”: Instead of you having to search and go to the content, the content can be made (through a technology called RSS) to come to you. This has huge implications in the way, the internet content gets created, distributed and consumed by users, as also the amount of time & effort they have to spend searching for it.

It is important to understand that in the evolution of the internet as a medium, its different versions (1.0, 2.0 etc) co-exist along the same continuum. They simply correspond to different levels of maturity of the technology and people’s familiarity with that technology at a given point in time.

In India, the internet is gradually becoming ubiquitous (starting with the urban centers), though Web 2.0 is at an incipient stage. Given its characterizing benefits (mostly free, on demand availability, convenience, unlimited storehouse of information etc), the internet is being widely used for booking railway & airlines tickets, searching for jobs & matrimonial matches, searching for local facilities etc. But the Web 2.0 dimension of the Indian internet space is confined to a small subsection of its overall user base. These can be described as the “early adopters” and they typically are technology workers. The internet consumption behavior of these early adopters can closely parallel that of the most advanced users in the West. This group is growing quite fast. While I don’t have data to substantiate my thinking, my hunch is that the rate of growth of Web 2.0 in India (vis-à -vis Web 1.0) is faster than the rate of growth of the internet itself.

Some of the areas where significant Web 2.0 activity exists currently in India are:

Blogging: Blogging has caught the fancies of lots of Indians. Thousands of new blogs are created daily. Most of the blogging is in the English language, though vernacular content is gradually picking up. People are using blogs as a means of personal expression, or a means of chronicling events. Many self employed professionals are building their digital identities around blogs. Blogs are playing a huge role in fostering debates about social and political issues.

News & Social media: One of the biggest impacts of Web 2.0 can be felt in the way, social media is influencing traditional media (print or online). Traditionally, news has always been driven “top down”- by news bureaus and through press releases. Now news (in many cases) is being driven “bottoms up”- by blogs and what can be described as “citizen journalism”. The source of news as well as its broadcast is increasingly getting fragmented.

Social Networking: Social networking websites are quite popular specially with the pre teens, the teens and the young adults. The need to connect with other like-minded people is universal and while that need itself has not grown, the use of the internet in searching for casual acquaintances, friends or even life-partners is exploding. More than a dozen social networking websites that currently exist, are proof of this trend and the biggest of them all, Orkut, frequently comes up in parliamentary debates, though not always for the right reasons. And then there is the trend of cashing in on the popularity of social networking to make inroads into a specific area. There are special social networks for music lovers (www.saffronconnect.com), for cricket fans (www.sixer.tv) and for recruiting technical employees (www.techtribe.com).

Content centric communities: Many online communities exist for users to share their multimedia content like images & videos. Digital cameras and camera enabled mobile phones have become cheap and ubiquitous. It is easy to take a casual or fleeting snapshot with these cameras and upload it to the internet, for sharing with friends and relatives. While the most popular communities- Flickr for images and YouTube for videos are not India specific, they have very sizable participation (and content) from Indians.

Services leveraging the “Long Tail”: Many niche (or unique) online services are emerging, leveraged on the “Long Tail” characteristic of Web 2.0. Consider TempoStand, a website where you can buy/sell independent Indian music with a Creative Common attribution. Or iFood.tv, which is a community for food lovers and food making. This trend is likely to explode in future.

Spawning a culture of informal knowledge sharing: Something that exemplifies the power of Web 2.0 in spawning a network of knowledge sharing and open learning is the cult of unconferences (BarCamps) that have happened in India recently. Unconferences are informal conferences (or meetings) that are positioned as an anti-thesis of traditional, big budget, formalized conferences. They are a huge rage across Indian tech centers and they have been propagated largely due to the influence of Web 2.0. While this has mostly happened for technology professionals, it is possible to replicate it beyond technology (in just about any domain).

Web 2.0 is not without its own criticisms. It is often described as “more hype than substance” and question are raised about the commercial viability of many of the websites that have sprung up. That perception, in my opinion, is only partly justified. For it is important to understood that this is the new wave of the internet. The internet is being put to new uses and by definition anything which is new is unproven and hence initially not likely to have a robust business grounding. Remember when the computer was invented and its critics theorized that there existed a market for 5-10 such machines. The issue of commercial viability of Web 2.0 is similar, though it is quite likely that some of our existing models of commercial feasibility may need rethinking in the process.

I had been internally debating whether or not this blog post made any sense. What precipitated my decision in the affirmative was this piece of news that I read on ContentSutra. As things stand today, I can sense a general environment of conjecture about Indian Web2.0 amongst its thought leaders. There is a continuum of opinions, with people’s reactions ranging from cautious disbelief to speculative anticipation. Different people (or organizations) seem to be taking divergent positions and while everybody has a right to a course of action that best serves their own interests, I wonder what this collectively means to the readers of this blog. For a big chunk of Webyantra’s readers have Web2.0 as their ‘occupational karmabhoomi’. Many of them are betting their lives & careers on Web2.0 and/or committing significant resources to carve out their livelihood in this space. Hence this issue needs much closer introspection, at least for the sake of that specific group of people.

Let me piece together a bunch of recent news item, or some of my own observations to give you a sense of what I am driving at.

Avnish Bajaj Says Social Networking Is “A Waste Of Time” In India – Avnish Bajaj surely knows a bit about the Indian internet industry; he is co-founder of Baazze.com, one of India’s biggest ecommerce site and now a venture capitalist, so when he voiced his concerns, you have to accord credence to his views. He did clarify later that he was referring to pure SNS sites. In fact its not just online social networking, he has earlierexpressed general skepticism about Indian Web 2.0, saying that our internet industry has not reached a state of maturity.

Sequoia Capital invests 7 million in Minglebox – Sequoia is a big name in venture funding of internet startups. They have internationally backed some of the biggest names in this business, so when their Indian arm invests a sizable sum in a SNS startup, that hasn’t really set the roads on fire (as yet) and is just one in an increasingly crowded space, you have to notice it. Personally I think this decision makes sense for them, for as an investor you have finite choices and if they have to bet on somebody in the Indian SNS space, Minglebox is a better choice than many of the others. But my main point here is that they are certainly not as skeptic as Avnish about Indian Web2.0.

Canaan Partner says Web 2.0 not high on its priority list– Canaan, another Silicon Valley VC firm said that while they are looking at the software & internet space, they are not hugely kicked about Web2.0; they are more aligned towards transaction based models. Canaan incidentally is headed by Alok Mittal, who surely has a good sense of the Indian internet space for he founded JobsAhead, before it was acquired by Monster.

Media/Entertainment industry hots up to internet (incl Web2.0) – One recent trend worth noticing is that the big Indian media companies (having huge reach through their TV channels)– Times, NDTV, CNN IBN, Reliance Entertainment are getting their internet act together. They obviously think that the internet is the next big medium after the television. In fact, its not just Indian media companies but foreign ones as well. Take the case of MIH India, which has been promoted by a South African media house, Naspers. MIH has made some high profile top mgmt hiring decisions, is committing serious advertsing money to their products- in general they are betting big on this space. I must add that the media companies are eyeing the internet space in general, but it’s safe to assume that they are partly influenced by the buzz around ‘web2.0’.

No dearth of VC money for internet space – You would agree that there is more venture capital money available for the Indian internet space that what the market can absorb. (in fact in India, that’s probably true not just for venture capital but for big ticket private equity as well); and the blame for this clearly lies with us- the startup guys, the entrepreneurs themselves, for not creating enough compelling products & services that can be considered ‘investment grade’ by owners of the capital.

So what do you think about all this? Are you confused about Indian web 2.0 ? I’d like to hear from you, specially if you are a Web 2.0 entrepreneur yourself. Or even if you are just a gazing onlooker….

I have my own point of view on this and a pretty strong one at that. but without being judgmental, I’d like to listen to what others have to say.