How Whatsapp took over India
As every Indian telecom company will sadly admit, their revenues from text messages have significantly fallen in the past few years, thanks to Whatsapp messenger. A phenomenal shift of consumers from the traditional texting SMS and MMS to Whatsapp, started among the tech savvy youngsters, quickly spread to the older population once everyone started realizing the convenience of use, and the cost effectiveness of 2G data packs compared to texting packs. As everyone watched in wonder, Whatsapp became a huge driving force for smartphone and mobile internet adoption in India. Middle aged and old Indians, much known for their reluctance to embrace technology and internet, embraced these in hordes. In fact, my mother and her sisters’ sole reason for replacing their decade old basic phones with smartphones was Whatsapp, and even older relatives, who use no other form of social media, became active members of Whatsapp family groups, where they gossip all day. They probably switched over due to the existing presence of a huge number of “close” ties on Whatsapp.
Even as the embracing of Whatsapp changed consumers’ behavior towards texting and accelerated the smartphone and mobile internet penetration, it also changed the day-to-day interactions, with roadside vendors and small businessmen using it for advertisement and images and videos becoming more effective and prevalent modes of communication . The “free” attribute greatly enhanced this rapid embrace, because the payoffs for advertising increased since the input cost became almost zero. Also, the switch-over was greater compared to other social sites, because of word-to-mouth advertising among friends and a huge user base, which is similar to what we studied in class regarding close ties. Also, the ability of easy, on-the-go, uncensored, “private digital socializing” seemed appealing to the Indian masses, since sharing of sentiments or feelings on a more public platform like Facebook is considered relatively inappropriate. Since all contacts in a phone’s contact book, which usually constitute weak ties, can be messaged using Whatsapp, businesses and district administrations also have started preferring it for instant communication and networking. Thus the presence of a huge number of close and weak ties on Whatsapp, and its free availability has driven Indians in hordes to it, and has changed the way they communicate, and Whatsapp has become the new Facebook for Indians!
Whatsapp dominating India
The link can be found at http://www.socialsamosa.com/2013/09/whatsapp-new-facebook-india/