Venue: Leela Kempinski Hotel, Gurgaon

Organizers: IAMAI & AKAMAI

Topic: Evolution of Mobile Channel in Commerce & Travel

This event was a closed group round table discussion with only about 30 invited participants. The podium included the delegates who all speak on their respective topics for a while before discussing specific matters among themselves in front of the audience. Then the discussion was opened to the audience and some of the invitees then posed questions which were answered accordingly by the delegates. Finally the group broke off for a round of cocktails followed by a networking dinner.

Following were the panel members in the discussion:

Following is a brief summary of the points spoken individually by the esteemed panel members:

Mr. Ankur Warikoo

As the moderator of the discussion, Mr. Warikoo began the talk by introducing the panel members. He himself spoke about his topic the last. A major point which he mentioned and that which many users of Groupon India have faced in the smart phone app which does not work quite so well. Rather given Groupon’s business model, it is all the more pertinent for the firm to have an app which can instantly align the user with a particular deal near his / her current location to satisfy the particular demands. The speaker mentioned that the firm is working on improving the App.

Mr. Sudarshan Gangrade

Of all the panel members, this speaker felt particularly confident about the mobile app of his firm. He in fact stated that due to the nature of their business, 85% of work was actually generated from the mobile app. Someone from the audience posed a question asking about how best to convert a general viewer from desktop or mobile web to downloading the App. The panelist remarked that such conversions rarely work from the computer. He also added that for a general viewer who somehow entered Ola Cabs website from mobile web, it was not the most ethical or successful a trick to encourage the user to download the app. Instead he said that the app was specifically downloaded by those who have already had success of Ola cabs on the internet and decided that this was a useful tool. He also added that unlike flight tickets or hotels or property, cabs was something a user ordered for instant effect. Thus the terms and conditions stated that that user needs to inform only 15 minutes prior to actual usage time. Bookings were not enabled to be made well before time. Another insight the speaker gave us was that a lot of people downloaded an app for instant usage and then uninstalled the same so as not to put pressure on the phone’s storage. Android phone apparently share uninstall data with app developers and this gives a very useful insight into the applicability of an app. Apple does not provide this with I-Phones but this was a very important piece of data necessary for app developers to make crucial decisions.

Karthik Sathpuragiri

Being a representative from the hosts- IAMAI- he thanked the invitees for their time and effort in joining this discussion. The day of the meeting was a crucial day for internet in India. The day coincided with a crucial cricket match between India and Australia resulting in the internet capacity being absolutely stretched to the limit. India lost the match and thus there was a sense of sadness, but the day also showed that the internet can survive such heavy traffic days. The speaker informed the audience that average broadband speed had risen to 2 MBPS which was a major improvement from 512 KBPS which was the standard norm till a few years back. He even stressed that surprisingly Delhi fell below the average rate in the country while it was Hyderabad averaging 2.5 MBPS which was doing the best nationwide.

Prashant Agarwal

Being the co-founder of a real estate search and advisory, his entire talk revolved around the aspect of people searching for and buying property on the internet. He said that in India, as is well known, people are extremely emotional with 2 kinds of wealth- gold and real estate. Thus decisions on real estate were rarely made on a mobile phone. The main purpose of his firm’s app is thus for people to search their options but not so much buying which is still done by traditional methods. A silver lining however is the I-Pad which he reckons falls somewhat between the smartphone and the laptop as a product category. Thus people did use the app on the i-pad or other such tablets for purchase decisions.

Aloke Bajpai

As an information aggregator, Ixigo’s business model was unique in the sense that selling a service was not the main aspect of this firm. Also the speaker remarked that very few people will download multiple apps pertaining to the same / similar topic. Thus Ixigo’s app was particularly helpful for people to extract information before going on to the purchase stage.

Prasanjeet Dutta Baruah

Among the delegates at the discussion, this speaker’s firm was probably the least connected directly on the mobile web. This being because that would go against the current norms followed by the Oberoi group’s business ventures. Their presence was more spread out through intermediaries who listed this hotel on their respective websites and apps. As this model was bringing good business and retaining loyal customers, the group does not feel any pressing need to tweak the model substantially.

Pranav Bhasin

Besides Ola Cabs, among the companies represented, Make My Trip marked the enterprise with the largest percentage of sales volume being generated directly by the mobile app. The speaker mentioned that the website has done such a good job over the years, that now the brand is instantly recognizable all over the country. Users thus directly download the app without any need of prodding and further use for their information and purchase decisions. A large percentage of travel deals are finalized using the mobile app. An audience member posed a question regarding users’ willingness to share data and location. The speaker informed that there had been no opposition, rather users were only too willing to share location data so that they could get accurate information on hotels and destinations near their respective present locations.

The invited members and the panelists then converged together for the cocktails and dinner while engaging in an orgy of invaluable networking.