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What I learned from the Chinese about our Indian online market

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Re: What I learned from the Chinese about our Indian online market

#61

Post by zenxblore »

witty_username wrote: post #30
user5994461 wrote: post #16

If you look at the internet users per country: http://www.internetlivestats.com/internet-users-by-country/ India has 462M people who can access internet at home, among 1326M inhabitants. That is a less lot than what one would think at first. Given that most companies reading HN are americans and some europeans. That brings the question of should we bother for the Indian market (early or at all)? Cultural barriers + L…

There are still tons of Indians who speak English, which may be a small percentage, but a huge market overall (for example, 5% of 1326M is 66.3M).

True. And that may be the reason the Indian digital space never took off - cause we had the luxury of that tiny market. In China, and elsewhere, markets in various services took off because they spoke Chinese, and that's likely in India as well.It's already happened in TV, in print, on Radio - even MTV speaks "Indian" :)

Re: What I learned from the Chinese about our Indian online market

#62

Post by ittekimasu »

selimthegrim wrote: post #58
ittekimasu wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strawman. Actually I have greater hopes for Africa, considering that nothing on the likes of, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decolonising_the_Mind has emerged out of the sub-continent. Edit: This has an excerpt, http://swaraj.org/ngugi.htm

I suppose the names Eqbal Ahmed and Tariq Ali mean nothing to you?

Tell me, other than mimic ing whatever is fashionable in London, Berkeley and Paris, what exactly has the "Left" done in Africa, S. Asia and S. America ? Fashion, in general, is apparently the operational semantics of the ostensibly unpowdered and unperfumed.

Re: What I learned from the Chinese about our Indian online market

#63

Post by vivekpani »

sonink wrote: post #41

>We do not have enough respect for our Indian consumers. Stopped reading just about here. If this is what you China taught you, my guess is you are good at making up lessons.

It is what I learnt. They didn't really teach me. I may have got stuff wrong too. But, we have all sorts of cases with China. We have pretty bad products that do not last and we also have some of the best ones. Apple phones that the world trusts so much is manufactured in China. But, regardless of the manufacturing, the digital medium where quality is not usually shrouded by looks, China has created examples in India by overtaking some of the established Indian businesses.

Re: What I learned from the Chinese about our Indian online market

#64

Post by vivekpani »

avighnay wrote: post #32

Here are some counter examples to the cynical uproar, I have specifically chosen examples of entrepreneurship born in India (against ones re-imported from the US and elsewhere) Successful companies that created products for the local market. All examples are from TamilNadu a southern Indian state. More such examples exist all over India. Such examples are not possible without having consumer interest at heart, Indian…

Can't agree with you more! One Dr. Kalbag, a man I respected a lot but couldn't meet, created a curriculum for school dropouts. His school in the Pabal Village in Maharashtra showed what the genius in school drops could produce. The local manufacturing in India is massive. I do not agree with those who say India is a service economy only. However, the last of literature and knowledge in local languages limits many such genius.

Re: What I learned from the Chinese about our Indian online market

#65

Post by vivekpani »

The comments and debates are overwhelming. I do not disagree with the debates about teaching English and Hindi as a wider languages than one's mother tongue that limits one to their village or community. But, English is also a choice. With the choice being there, we still have many literates "not" in English. More than half kids who join schools, drop out before they complete primary education and yet, they are literate. If they study in English only, they do not reach a stage where they can be comfortable with the language. Whereas, if they are literate in their mother tongue, they read for the rest of their lives. They read newspapers, magazines and also sources that can satisfy their curiosity with knowledge. Language does help in trade. But, knowledge helps in creation. Innovators usually do not get limited by language but can easily get limited by lack of access to knowledge. Most non English countries (Japan, Russia, China, Germany, Taiwan and many others) do not have anything much in English and yet, do business with the rest of the world.

Re: What I learned from the Chinese about our Indian online market

#66

Post by andrewvijay »

Ar-Curunir wrote: post #34
andrewvijay wrote: post #28

That was a painful read. The thoughts that I have in my mind everyday looking at the infrastructure while I ride my motorbike are just spilled everywhere in this article. The problems are mainly with people electing poor leaders. We cannot become a first world country with a third world leadership such as the one we have now. Our leaders are busy causing communal riots using stupid cows and caste systems , there is n…

Are you seriously citing Arvind Kejriwal as an example of a great leader?

Yeah His ways are looking silly but the amount of opposition they get from the central govt and how they perform against it is far far impressive. Let's all agree that we know what is going on and not pretend like there is no malicious intent from centre.

Re: What I learned from the Chinese about our Indian online market

#67

Post by anewhnaccount »

ittekimasu wrote: post #3

This so easily glosses over the linguistic apartheid in India (other African countries incl.), that it's shocking. See my previous interactions with the WASP imitations; I gather there are enough of them in India to form markets as large as Japan (oth. unicorns like Flipkart wouldn't survive). https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12116787 A language without economic value dies eventually. It's likely that the complem…

Here's Chomsky on postmodernism: http://www.mrbauld.com/chomsky1.html

Re: What I learned from the Chinese about our Indian online market

#68

Post by ittekimasu »

pakhibagai wrote: post #49
ittekimasu wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who studies culture (as you can tell), my hate is reserved for the neo-colonial entities and the bourgeoisie they cultivate to stay in power. If you call such entities by the names the kakistocracies christen, then yes, I hate most states in the global south. India, like China, however was a historic center (天竺 - heaven axis they called it) unlike most in the global south. To see it brought to the same lev…

Granted that India has structural issues. Which country doesn't? A good look at the American presidential election 2016 tells us all.

America, for all its deficiencies, does not expect its citizens to be loyal to a foreign culture or language, in order to come up in life. Some idiot being elected to the throne is not going to change the U.S, nor will it change the fact that US's GDP per-capita is about 25-30x that of India.

Re: What I learned from the Chinese about our Indian online market

#69

Post by FraaJad »

markdown wrote: post #56
FraaJad wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hindi is a local language. Those who can't write/read their own mother tongue are the product of the aforementioned linguistic apartheid where the city bred kids (I am one) attend a CBSE/ICSE curriculum that actively discourage non-Hindi/English languages.

> Those who can't write/read their own mother tongue are the product of the aforementioned linguistic apartheid You have two options: a. Teach them a language they can use almost anywhere on the planet. A language that documents most of the planets knowledge. b. Teach them a language they can use in their geographical district and almost nowhere else. The powers that they'd be better served by (a). You might think (b…

I can see this argument coming from someone who is privileged enough to move outside their ancestral domicile.

Most people, even those born in the richest country in the world, seldom move outside their state.

If I were to be treated like a second class citizen in my own place of birth because some languages give a small percentage of the population "world mobility", I would choose carefully.

Re: What I learned from the Chinese about our Indian online market

#70

Post by Ar-Curunir »

ittekimasu wrote: post #59
Ar-Curunir wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

India a socialist republic? I'm not sure where you're getting that from. Sure, there's tons of subsidies for the poor, but that's necessary in a country as large and poor as India. Re: language. There's plenty of strong linguistic identity in the south, East and West of India. The north has a weaker cultural identity, but the rest take great pride in their language and culture.

From its constitution.

India is a republic, but I'm.not really sure about the socialist part.
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