The Rise and Rise of Services and Other Stories

Clearly there has been a definite shift to Internet-based service models. The new models are redefining the web and nudging it to what is popularly being called Web 2.0 (read a seminal article on the same – if you like it, you can bookmark it on a service called del.icio.us (which consolidates favorites of registered users like this. And you like having more fun, you can flickr to see pictures of what people think as “cute” or collaborate with your team on your next document over Writely– which Google recently bought). And if you want to see what a hash of Google maps and Craig’s list looks like, go to www.housingmaps.com. And there’s www.audblog.com where you can leave a message on the phone and see it in the next instant on your blog (it’s weirdly cool)! The common factor among all these is that they are the new Web 2.0 - offering all kinds of services now built around what used to be the erstwhile software-only products. This also puts a big question on the traditional beliefs of institutional investors on seeking product-oriented models so that it can scale – here, services scale. The current activity surrounding Web 2.0 involves consumer-centric models – even if it is for the knowledge worker (such as Writely), the models are individual-centric and not really business-centric. Among other things, a business has to be open to collective wisdom (which is impossible if it is a product) in order to be web2-ready. As this new web disentangles and evolves, we will see more models that are business/ industry specific.

Now, let’s take this a step further and add India into the fray. There are certain service-dependent industries (such as retail, finance, logistics, healthcare, telecom…) that lend themselves naturally to this combined model where you not only have services wrapped around software but also need the India-type services to scale dramatically.

All that’s food for thought but here are some thoughts on food: McDonald’s is experimenting with centralizing its call centers in Hawaii (nope, not Bangalore!); so when you place an order for fries on your next drive through, the person taking the order may not really be where you are!