Time to introspect - Are internet companies ready for the Bharat internet users?

A race to get to the Bharat internet users

Increase in the smartphone and internet penetration in India in the last five years is nothing short of a digital revolution. Cheaper smartphones coupled with very lucrative mobile data plans has resulted in a steep increase in internet penetration, especially in rural and semi-urban areas and among the digitally novice users. There are more people than ever before who now possess smartphones and are accessing the internet for the first time. India has the second highest number of internet users in the world, only behind China.

The internet companies and online service providers have, unfortunately, not been able to keep pace with the evolving internet population of the country. The service offerings available today are built keeping in mind the early adopters of the internet in the country. With the demography of the internet users now evolving, the companies cannot expect the new users to just adopt products that are not natural to them. They need to realise that one size does not fit all!

While communications platforms such as WhatsApp and ShareChat, and entertainment platforms such as YouTube and TikTok have managed to break into this market and get the users to use their platforms, none of the internet commerce or services company has truly been able to crack the formula to convert these internet users into consumers. YouTube now has about 300 million and TikTok about 150 million Monthly Active Users (MAU) in India. In contrast, the total number of online shoppers in India is estimated to be around 140 million in a year! 

“No company has truly been able to crack the formula to convert these internet users into consumers” 

A popular strategy adopted by many players to capture these users from Tier 2, Tier 3 and beyond was to provide their platforms and services in multiple vernacular languages. This strategy was driven by the hypothesis that language was the primary barrier for these users adopting different digital solutions. In a rush to increase their penetration and to have the first movers advantage, most of the internet companies started to aggressively push their vernacular solutions to these users. What the majority of the players missed was that the language problem was just the tip of the iceberg, and not the entire problem.  As a result, there was little to no adoption of the services and these users still remained cut-off from the internet commerce world.

Understanding Digital Bharat

At Niki, our approach has been to empathise with the users and get into their shoes to understand the nuances of their lives and habits. We believe that without doing so, it would be impossible to build a solution that is of value to them. In order to fulfill our vision - nobody is left behind - we rely heavily on our on-ground research. Over the past three years, we have spent nearly 30,000 hours talking to our existing and potential users trying to understand the different aspects of their lives. Our in-house research and insights team has been conducting user surveys, personal interviews, focus group studies, and market studies to test out the different ideas and solutions that we have and understand the major impediments to adoption of internet commerce.

“At Niki, our approach has been to empathise with the users and get into their shoes to understand the nuances of their lives and habits.” 

We found that the new internet users could broadly be divided into two groups - one that was decently educated and belonged to an upper-middle socio-economic strata and the other which was less educated and belonged to the middle and lower socio-economic strata. They both have their own set of apprehensions to adopt the digital means. While the first group lacks trust and is very comfortable with their existing methods, the second group panics whenever they have to try something new. 

Apprehensive of change

The first group feels that their existing means of accessing services and commerce, which is primarily offline, is sufficient and gets the job done. They have become used to doing things or getting things done in a certain way and feel that change is not really required. The obvious benefit of the internet economy, such as convenience, is not very obvious to them as they don’t find any inconvenience in the current method, which they have been used to for years. 

Doing things the way they do is also closely linked with their social structure and interaction. For example, they feel good about taking their friends and relatives to a shop when purchasing a new phone. This makes them feel more connected to the person and shows that they value that person’s opinion and place in their lives. Going out to shop is also a way for them to enjoy with their family and is usually accompanied by a meal in a restaurant. Their lives, over the past many years, have evolved around the things that they do or are expected to do and they have their own set routine/process around this, which they don’t want to break. 

They also have a mental barrier against the safety and quality of goods and services purchased digitally. Many are cautious about sharing their bank or card details on any portal, fearing fraud. They are still not comfortable with the idea of safe and secure internet transactions. Multiple stories of fraud in the newspaper and rumours spread over WhatsApp only add to these apprehensions. 

Unfortunately, many of them have been targeted or know someone who has been targeted by scamsters. These users are considered digitally naive and have been bombarded by calls and messages asking for their card details or OTP. This constant targeting coupled with what they hear from their peers, a lot of which is distorted reality, has pushed them into a shell and they find coming out of it extremely difficult. 

Fear of change

The second group on the other hand, is generally not very open to trying out new things. When presented with an opportunity to try anything new, their first reaction is “humse nahi ho paayega” (we won’t be able to do it). We observed that they were very under confident and panicked whenever anything unknown or not tried before was given to them. This group relies heavily on those around them to guide them and teach them. For them, being less educated equals not being able to do anything on their own. 

Although they are very confident of doing any physical work, any mention of something even remotely technologically advanced sends them into their shell. Most of them bought smartphones because

• It has a bigger screen when compared to their feature phones
• Others around them were using it
• They wanted to access videos. 

They use their smartphones as a TV, with YouTube being their most used mobile app. In fact, YouTube for them is what Google is for us. On probing further, we uncovered that someone in their known circle had taught them how to open YouTube and search for things using voice, and that is all that they did. 

We ran an experiment where we gave them a version of YouTube without voice and found that they were lost, not able to search on the app that they are so comfortable with! WhatsApp for them is just a content sharing platform where they mostly receive and send forwards, and hardly use it for actual communication. Unlike a Tier 1 user, these users still rely on and trust SMS. 

“The second group of users were lost in a voiceless search version of YouTube, an app that they use regularly!”

We also realized that these users are not self exploratory users and would limit themselves to what has been taught to them by their peers. An interesting example of such a scenario is where some of them have not moved beyond the scan and pay option of the mobile apps as that was the only thing taught to them by the shopkeepers! Being non-explorers, they need heavy assistance and rely on others in their community, who they feel are more sophisticated, to do the digital tasks for them. They also earn their income in cash. Although they possess bank accounts, they are used mostly for receiving subsidies from the government and not for regular banking purposes.

How to truly reach the Bharat internet users?

A common trait observed across both the groups was that they don’t trust brand ambassadors when it comes to digital commerce/transactions. While a known face as a brand ambassador is good to drive awareness, it is unlikely to lead to adoption. Companies would need to think of ways to use the local community and local solution champions to drive adoption among these users. 

It can also be said that the current commerce offerings might not be very relevant to these users as their buying habits and patterns are largely determined by family as a group and not an individual. 

It is important for internet companies to look beyond the language problem because simply translating the current platform, designed primarily for English speaking/Tier 1 users, into vernacular languages will not solve the problems for these users. The entire user journey and user experience needs to be reinvented and aligned as per the new market. The companies need to focus heavily on spending time with these users and understanding the details of their lives in order to build a solution that would be beneficial and value driven. It is very important for the companies to understand the emotions of the new internet users.

“It is important for internet companies to look beyond the language problem because simply translating the current platform, designed primarily for English speaking users, into vernacular languages will not solve the problems for these users.”

To truly impact the lives of the new internet users, the companies need to reinvent their approach to product development, marketing, and customer acquisition. The companies need to revamp themselves and update their idea of who these users are and what they truly need. We at Niki have done exactly that and see 18 months of continuous growth. More on that in the next post!