Are Indian startups (ONLY) service aggregators?

Just curious are Indian startups only so called service aggregators?

I have come across few startups in recent times, so let me shortlist few of them :)-

- One which provides an online market place for buying new goods/utilities/clothes/books from different vendors,

- One which provides a mobile app / online portal to let common man to buy or sell stuffs from another common man.

- One which provides a website + mobile app to let users chose, select and shortlist homes in various cities/localities.

- One which provides a mobile app for getting your food delivered from your chosen restaurant.

- One which provides a mobile app for parent + child + school connectivity

- One which provides user an online option to search for help (plumbing/electrician etc).

- One which provides a mobile app for availing cab services.

- One which provides a mobile app for availing cargo vehicles for shifting goods etc.

- One which provides a mobile app + website to book bus tickets.

- One which provides a mobile app + website to book movie tickets.

Etc etc, I can name few more, never mind,
Do you see a pattern over here,

Each one of the above mentioned startup tries to automate a service which exists in the market!

Were there not cab services before, were there not parent teachers meet before, were there not bus booking counters before. etc, I am not saying none of them are beneficial,

Infact all of them are beneficial, I have nothing against any one of them.

I am just behind the thought process as to why each one of them is trying to automate service providers with an mobile app + website ?

Why isn't there anyone who can think of any start up which does not have a service provider underneath acting as a producer of revenue?

Is it that hard, when a startup can provide 12-15 Lakhs per annum to a BE fresher with 0 years experience I am sure they have a huge round of funding!

In that case, why cannot they do some path breaking research in core technology?

Well, I think I do have the answer in form of my assumptions,

- Path breaking research also breaks your back, its a pain in the arse when it comes to yielding results.
- Are startup founders trying to hide the above fact
- Are the founders greedy to make quick money and sell of the company to a competitor?

I almost forgot each of the above business / Startup I mentioned has one or more competitors too, thus driving the costs down also profit margins for them down, as a result they either end up in loss or they have to sell more / huge in number or shut shops!

Doesn't IIT / IIM tag add any weightage to research instead of automating service aggregation? I do not know. And by the way are these service aggregation idea original or are they copied from other countries? Well, I will leave it for you to decide!

Cheers,

Random thoughts on Indian Startups!

Often I wonder, what do Indian startups have as their business model?

Somehow, I am not able to conclude any decisive long term business model, which comes to my mind, which would carry them through for next few years or many more years.

You may be wondering, its their business, its their money, but what do I do, if my thoughts ask me questions on startups?

I can have an opinion of my own, why not?

So, coming back to the business model, I really think, Indian startups are lesser concerned about providing services to the Indian people. People cannot ask them to provide technology at a lesser price, they simply cannot(it demands another post).

Recently had a debate on a website, where in someone was of the opinion that the online retail & selling company was a technology company working and headquartered in India.

I was wondering, how come someone who is all about service aggregation, bringing different sellers under a common website come under a technology company. I do agree they provide mobile app and a website to chose products from, that does not mean they are a technology company, are they?

So the gentleman replied, technology company because, technology is needed to build a scalable website, mobile app and to maintain it which needs 100's of engineers and thus a technology company.

I was like, what the F! I always thought technology company is the one who gives proprietary technology straight to the end user in terms of usable products and NOT in terms of delivery of somebody's product via website.

- What may happen if the user's start going to stores and buying goods
   Still better discounts + reduced profit margins + higher pressure on buyer to sell more + higher force fed marketing resulting in buying unnecessary junk?
- What may happen if the user's buy only things which they genuinely require.
- Why are these service aggregators  not able to target coastal areas / rural areas
    Is it because rural people buy only stuffs that they need
    Is it because rural people are ready to spend enough time on services automated by these service aggregators?
    If rural people have such time to spend after work, where are we losing time?
again in traffic doing what ? building more of such applications to fool/con people into buying more junk.

Ahhh the vicious cycle continues!

Cheers,

PS - Amidst all of these I just saw someone being driven in a Porsche Cayenne (costs Rs 1crore +) in my tech park, well, may be the CEO of the online retail company, and the money, yeah investor funding!

Someone's sure getting richer conning common man into buying junk!

All about startups (What goes in my mind) Part 1

I have not reached 100 posts for the year, so thought of applying a cheat in order to reach 100.

I have loads of thoughts running with respect to the startups also I have few more posts regarding my past/recent treks to Himachal, the coastal side plus unknown forests. So I guess, I can hit 100 again!

With regards to startups I am trying to analyze about
- Their funding.
- Their business model.
- Their long term vision.
- Their profit making model.
- Their technology / service offerings.
- Their employees and pay packages.
- Their layoffs or retention.
- Their competition.
- Their end results.

You can think this as a prologue for one of those series of posts.
I had series on Cab Drivers, Tales from trek tour and travel, and now on startups,

In a way, I do not see any intellectualism as a part of these posts, just my cheat code to make sure I hit 100 posts for the year.

Meanwhile, its 7 50 in the evening and yes, I am posting from office, using office network! ( Sadly, I just turned unethical).

Cheers,

PS- My previous post was more like a person high on alcohol, probably, I was high on frustration that day, reading salary of employees in the startups, but now I am fine, hence trying to dissect the numbers!

And I am reading less and writing less, I have given some time to a wonderful individual, in return for sheer happiness!

Force fed marketing

I do have some thoughts on whether do we really need so many startups. One thing I noticed about the startups was that,

- The startups were either service aggregators.
   - You can consider service aggregator as someone who ties up with all the cab driver in Bangalore and connect them with your so called app.

- Providing service based on your data.
   - Some of the startups were more to do with online data like how do people decide what to buy, how to hire best people in the market, how to market more goods to people who by online, keep track of who unfollows you on twitter (really?) etc.

- Force fed marketing.
   - Continuing with the previous point, some of the startups come up with something called data science. Each online user's data is analyzed to find patterns of spending and churn out an algorithm where they can be presented with more shit to buy!

I mean common, just because somebody is coming up with a newer technology does it mean we ditch our hard earned money to buy it? Did life never exist without technology?

I still do not get the point where the so called over intelligent humans are tricking other humans to buy the shit that comes out of their brains? I  mean really, do we need so much of advancement just ot keep the population employed and engaged?

Can't we move to a simpler model, where we promote agriculture, lesser jealously and better life, instead of over exhausting what god has given us, just to end up with rich people and poor people and butt loads of traffic jams, exhaust fumes, hatred and technology to fuel more hatred!

I agree, science and medicine has made progress in terms of treatment/cure, I am not seconding this one, but other areas, instead of building individual electric cars? cant we build a public transportation system over the same electricity?

Jeez, why are we overthinking a problem,

Cheers,

PS - I have no doubt some of the startups are really useful, especially the one's providing cab facilities in Bangalore, but others, will let you decide!

Of startups and investments

Sometimes, I wonder, where the world is headed to. I see a lot of startups in Bangalore,
each one
  - trying to bring something new to the consumer.
  - trying to compete for market dominance.
  - trying to make money (well are they?)

We hear of the startups
- which provide software/app for cab services
- which provide software/app for bringing groceries to your home.
- which provide software/app for online shopping.

And there are many like this, also I see a lot of competitors for each of the genre.
I mean many people providing software/app for cab/groceries.

So, what makes me really wonder is though some of the startups are making money,
- are these startups really necessary
- No wonder these are providing opportunity for many people in terms of employment,
- But weren't there days when they did not exist and we still went ahead with daily chores.
- Haven;t we not arrived at days where we we are trying to automate/simplify things which are not really complicated in the first place.
- For example - driverless cars. app to open the car/start the car - I mean do we really need this.

What I am trying to understand is, are we trying to over think and create problems out of things which were really simple to accomplish? I know driverless cars shall help lot of people, but really, hailing a driver / cab should be simpler? dont you think so?

Found this below image, just wondered where the world is headed to. I just wonder, why people are funding such vada pav selling startups in the first place,

Cheers!

Giving out gyaan

Giving out gyaan or writing intellectually stimulating posts was never part of my intention on this blog, I have written my heart out over the years, but now, somehow, feeling the urge to write some thoughts of the way things are happening in real world, in other words, secretly disguised gyaan.

And yes, I have not been reading much these days, not sure why, my kindle stays idle!.

But here's trying my hand at some new genre of posts!

Cheers,