The advent and relevance of web-based applications in India

Amit Ranjan, Co-founder, Slideshare
The advent and relevance of web-based applications in India, and whether the application shift from the desktop to the web/mobile has the potential to catch up in India.

The internet has played a pivotal role in the world emerging as the proverbial ‘global village’, with the farthest corners of the globe just a mouse click away. And the operational instrument for the internet's prowess is the web browser. Ever since the Netscape era (circa mid 1990s), users started using web browsers to access static websites (that largely disseminated information); but that has since given way to complex dynamic web applications, that mimic or even surpass the capabilities of desktop computer applications or other complex offline processes. No wonder that browsers are fast emerging as the most important piece of software on any computer (other than the operating system). The drivers for the emergence of browser based applications are a bunch of coinciding technical, historical & circumstantial factors.

Consider the following:

The Web Browser as a window to the world- The browser is the principal agent for the internet's ubiquitous reach, and hence it's influence. It is through the browser that people access the vast majority of online applications that help them achieve their daily tasks faster, cheaper, better etc. Outside of the browser, applications like email & IM have been successful as well, but the browser is unmatched.

Universal access- Web based applications can be accessed from any-place & any-time, as long as you have access to an internet enabled device (computer, mobile, handheld etc). This adds flexibility, as people need not be restricted to specified physical locations for their work.

Proliferation of web startups- Fuelled by open source software, plunging hardware costs due to Moore's Law, low entry & exit barriers, and the dream of being the next Microsoft or Google, thousands of web startups are engaged in building disruptive consumer or business oriented web applications. And the internet ensures that the markets for these applications are global.

SAAS as an alternative to licensed (packaged) software- The increasing trend towards software as a chargeable, metered service (just like your monthly telephone & electricity bill) as opposed to being sold in a shrink wrapped pack (that comes with a machine specific license) is fast catching on, specially amongst the early technology adopters. SAAS precludes the need for an extensive distribution & sales network, thus bringing down the selling cost, while ensuring scale.

Emergence of Google/Yahoo as challengers to Microsoft- Historically, Microsoft has dominated the software industry since the late 1980s. And it achieved this through the millions of personal computers that were shipped with pre-installed versions of its Windows operating system. The new kids on the block (Google, Yahoo et al) per force had to open a new battlefield, one in which Microsoft was on the defence. This battlefield has turned out to be the internet, actuated through the web browser. So anything that Microsoft could do on the desktop, the upstarts can do better inside the browser.

The Indian case

In India, internet based web applications assume significance for an additional factor (apart from the above mentioned ones) - they allow people to overcome the inefficiencies & bottlenecks of the physical world. In a country with sub-optimal infrastructure (e.g. logistics, transport, power etc) that gets further compounded by socio-political factors like poorly planned cities, rampant corruption, the web can help people short-circuit some of these deficiencies.

Take the case of internet railway booking (run by IRCTC) and how its runaway success has been a game-changer. Other favouring factors for India are its large pool of knowledge workers whose daily work lives revolves around the computer, and a huge rural hinterland with its rocketing mobile penetration that has made India the fastest growing mobile phone market in the world.

In India, web based applications are slowly catching on in usage as evinced by the examples below:

Offline transactions moving online - Online railway & airline bookings, online job recruitment, matrimonials, property portals etc are essentially web based versions of what are established offline businesses. They have transactional business models, and some of the earliest home-grown success stories in the Indian internet space are of this genre. And as more offline services move online, their future potential is huge.

Online content authoring tools- Examples are online word processors, spreadsheets, presentation softwares etc and the key service providers are the global websites (e.g. Google, Microsoft). Present Indian usage is insignificant; any users are likely to be the early adopting technology professionals, who work in collaboration with cross continent team members or clients. One bottleneck in this area is the rampant piracy of desktop softwares, which makes the online tools largely unnecessary for most people.

Content storing, distribution & collaboration tools- Examples are websites for storing, distributing and collaborating over rich media like videos, images, podcasts, slideshows, webmeetings etc. The key players are the big global websites (like YouTube, Flickr, Webex etc), as also various lesser-known Indian websites. These applications are oriented towards personal entertainment, education/Elearning and business communication & collaboration.

Online financial management systems- This area includes online banking, online stock broking and personal financial advisory & management systems. The service providers are largely institutional - private & public banks, NBFCs etc. Many mobile web applications are being built for online payments, online financial transaction processing etc.

Personal & professional networking- Social networking is a big trend in the Indian space; the users are the adolescents & young adults who are using these websites for personal entertainment, online friendship or professional networking. The service providers include the big global players (Orkut, Facebook, LinkedIn), the smaller home-grown startups (BharatStudent, Minglebox, Indyarocks, Yaari etc) and also the big Indian media/entertainment companies (Bigadda).
The future potential for this space is believed to be huge, though the business models are largely oriented towards monetizing attention through online advertising.

This movement of applications from the desktop to the web is confronted with a host of challenges. Foremost amongst them are issue pertaining to data security, as web applications usually have centralised data storage with single point of failure & leakage, thus making the system vulnerable to hacking, phising attacks etc.

The mobile phone penetration in India is indeed very enticing, but form factor considerations for cell phones have prevented mass adoption for most of the high end mobile services; many of these applications presume GPRS or EDGE connectivity, which is fairly low at this stage.

Vernacular language content is another factor holding back the adoption of the web in non English speaking sections of the society. Lastly the overall market size for many web services is relatively small, given India's low internet penetration, thus raising questions about the viability of the business models.