Posts Tagged Add new tag
Why Digital doesn’t mean FREE
Posted by Saurabh Gupta in Mobile Content, Phonethics, upside down on July 7th, 2009
Spotted this on Paidcontent. Amidst all the hullabaloo about Chri Anderson’s new book ‘Free’ it remains to be seen if media in India or for that any kind of proprietary material is ever going to be distributed free ‘officially’. In fact it remains to be seen if the free-mongers will survive the end of their VC funded runs. I’d written about why Free Digital Media was not just a bad idea but probably also an impractical one. (Rupert Murdoch has famously said the obvious that ‘free is not a business model’)
The irony of course is that we’re a piracy ridden economy so the argument (for paid media) gets diluted every time a pirate hawks the latest book or movie at the traffic light. If they’re doing it, shouldn’t we? Won’t it get us MORE readers/viewers/lovers/anything? Won’t these default users shower us with riches someday? surely more users are better than less in today’s globalised hyper informed world? NO
While nothing makes it less illegal, unorganised piracy is still only a minor dent and doesnt have either the access or the many comforts that professional packaging and curation provides. It’s when the content creator promotes the notion that it costs nothing to create digital content simply because it is ‘Digital’, or even worse, throws open it’s doors to a third party (i’m thinking large benevolent colourful yuppie search company) that steals (yes, it’s theft) and serves proprietary material monetising it for piles of gold, that the entire business model needs to be reassessed.
Ask any content creator in India who’s dealt with aggregators and telcos in India. Till last year noone ever saw a dime from revenue shares, in the same time VAS (Value Added Services) revenues shot through the roof. The race to be ‘mobile’ without an indigenous business model filled third party coffers and trivilaised the very product being hawked by the digital baniyas. The race for users will do the same to proponents of ‘free’.
Next – So, if we agree it’s not going to be free, What is the model? How about a digital news-stand?
Add new tag, commuincations, creativity, dreams of an entrepreneur, entrepreneurship in india, Mobile Content, social media management, VAS
Simple City
Posted by Saurabh Gupta in Phonethics, upside down on July 6th, 2009
Design and function are ever so often confused for each other. In designing a web based application this becomes even more critical since most calls are taken by one or two people teams that have no prior experience of either building User Interface or creating an interactive layout. Get this folks, it is NOT similar to a print ad, so you cannot request multiple ‘options’.
The purpose of ‘design’ is to provide a quick and simple interface that allows users to access the ‘function’. If it stands in the way of that or hides your best features behind 6 clicks, your app is dead in the water.
‘Function’ is NOT i-click-here-and-go-there. It is the central premise, the business ‘reason to exist’, of your site. If you’re creating something with a high function factor, make sure it works fast, loads quick and runs smooth. The form factor should aid this and not add layers to it. In a country where internet speeds are from the Stone Age, this can make all the difference between a successful site and a dead site.