He reminded the congregation that it took 110 years for us to reach 1 billion users of telephone landline since its launch. Television took 49 years; the Internet took 14 years and smart phones only 8 years. So with every new technology time of adoption is decreasing. Within the next 10 years it is believed that Internet will reach almost every human being on earth. Many big companies like Facebook and Microsoft have taken the initiative to achieve this target. One such initiative by Google is the Loon. The loon is a massive balloon 19kms above land, which moves around the earth transmitting a signal.
Elaborating his point further he said products that are selling well digitally like books, music and movies will now rule the market as opposed to products that require physical distribution.
In US the physical distribution of music in 2008 was over 20 billion dollars and now in 2015 it is less than 10 billion dollars. It halved over the period of 8 years and by 2020 it is estimated the industry will be wiped. The digital distributors in the music industry like Gaana and Saavn that did not exist in 2008 will continue to rule the market exclaimed Anandan.
Xiaomi, the Chinese mobile company is the fastest company in the history of business to reach 20 billion dollars of revenue and the interesting part it they only sell on their website and that too only on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Moreover the only marketing they do is a 10 second slot for 10 million dollars on New Year’s Eve. By doing so they save approximately 20% on physical distribution cost and 5-7% on marketing. This is the power of a great product and access to 650 million Internet users that China has presented to them.
He pointed out that 65% of Indians access Internet through mobile, that is highest in the world and Internet is impacting almost each and every industry. Over the next 10 years every single industry will be dramatically reinvented with the power of Internet and software, software being the more dominant influencer.
Giving the example of Paytm he explained that In India only 20 million people are credit card holders. paytm in its two years of being launched had secured 30 million active users of its services with 50% more people using it on a monthly basis compared to credit cards.
Summing up his address Anandan said that every industry would require the power of the Internet and software to remain relevant. The event industry too would need to integrate digital technology into its processes and systems to remain ahead of the game.
