FICCI Frames 2012: 'Online socialising' of business models could drive sales

Indians are increasingly becoming 'screenagers', jumping from one screen form to the other. Therefore, it is important to bring in innovations in the business model to help increase interaction and interactivity.

Who says online socialising is only restricted to sharing personal celebrations on a common platform, and creating a community of one's own?

While addressing the audience on the first day of the FICCI Frames 2012/03 in Mumbai, Sameer Nigam, head, Flipkart Digital Distribution, said, "The social networking platforms can also be used effectively to launch a new business model and receive instant feedbacks. These feedbacks can then be used efficiently to change and improve the given model."

Citing the example of Flipkart's recent launch, Flyte, an online music download store, Nigam said that the latest foray was not officially announced but was promoted effectively on Twitter. The users' immediate feedbacks were then used effectively to correct the new business model and inject fresh learnings.

The result? "Flyte is just a month old and there has already been one lakh music downloads in the last 14 days," he said.

Nigam was speaking at the panel discussion titled 'Building essential connections in the online business world: Emerging business models and more'. The other speakers in the panel were Farshad Family, MD, Nielsen; and Albert Almeida, COO, Hungama Mobile. The panel was moderated by Ralph Simon, chairman, MEF, Americas.

Agreeing to the above, Simon also noted that Indians are increasingly becoming 'screenagers', jumping from one screen form to the other.

"Therefore, it is important to bring in innovations in the business model, which will help increase interaction and interactivity," added Simon.

The innovations will also have to be introduced in the pricing models, which will induce people to buy the product. "The trigger to buy that online will also come when they get convenience, value and trust," said Almeida.

Family informed that today, Indians are spending more than 2.5 hours on smartphones and only 20.25 per cent of that time is utilised in communication. The rest of the time is spent on various apps and content consumption.

"But interestingly, this consumption across various screens does not cannibalise television consumption. The idea is more about owning a personal screen, while the family continues to consume content on television," Family said.