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India’s Flipkart to shut down website, thanks to popularity of mobile

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Re: India’s Flipkart to shut down website, thanks to popularity of mobile

#71

Post by dpacmittal »

arihant wrote: post #12

Another Indian e-commerce site Tradus did this last year, and they failed so badly they went back to stealth mode. Having said that, Flipkart might be just big enough to actually pull this off. I must note that it is highly irritating. They already shut down their mobile site ages ago with a "Download the app or go die" page. This is extremely irritating especially when you follow links from e-mails, their app fails…

Well, Myntra which was acquired by Flipkart is supposed to go mobile-only on 1st May. Flipkart might be testing waters before doing it across their whole business.

Re: India’s Flipkart to shut down website, thanks to popularity of mobile

#72

Post by captn3m0 »

crdb wrote: post #70
captn3m0 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue here is that Flipkart is not poor. It is one of the largest private companies in India, with valuations at $11 billion. They have already spun off their costlier operations (such as courier and warehousing) into separate companies which they have since sold off. The only thing flipkart is doing right now is tech and sales. They are definitely not "limited" by money or IT resources.

You'd be amazed how money can be wasted in online retail. I know of a 2,000 employee company that took 1.5 years to produce a mobile version of its site and another year for the app. Another (also thousands of employees and over 500 developers to manage code bloat) hires a "Chief Data Scientist" to build a data science team every 6 months or so - the guy quits after 3 months without even getting access to a database,…

That really sounds like a shitty company. I'm sure that while Flipkart does have its fair share of code bloat and overly aggressive management, they still have lots of good tech people, because of what they are offering in the market.

Their salaries are among the best in the Indian tech industry, so I think they do have the talent to keep a website afloat and running.

Re: India’s Flipkart to shut down website, thanks to popularity of mobile

#73

Post by captn3m0 »

avinashv wrote: post #50
captn3m0 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even in cases where you have a Credit Card, there are many hoops to fly through before you can make an in-app purchase: - It must be an international credit card - It must never have 3d-secure enabled International Credit Cards are costlier, and it just takes one payment on an Indian gateway to enable 3dsecure accidentally. And then, you can't use your card again on any international purchase because no international…

Are you trying to say that Indian credit cards that are 3D-secure enabled don't work for IAP? This is absolutely untrue. I have both AMEX and Visa cards issued in India, and simultaneously use them for domestic and international online purchases, IAPs, and in-store. Never had a problem. Frankly, I've never heard this.

So, if you make a purchase on an Indian website, you get 3dsecure, but you don't get one on an International purchase? It used to work fine for me till a while back, but the newer RBI guidelines have specifically mentioned 2 factor auth against international transactions[0]. Since its just a guideline, it is not enforced as such equally by all banks.

[0]: http://www.medianama.com/2013/03/223-rbi-credit-card-money-t...

Re: India’s Flipkart to shut down website, thanks to popularity of mobile

#74

Post by wpietri »

captn3m0 wrote: post #46
wpietri wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not quite. Absolute traffic levels don't matter. The only time it makes sense to throw it out, as the parent comment suggested, is if the maintenance costs exceed the benefits. Even if the usage is low compared to mobile, it only makes sense to stop if it's a long-term net negative. Personally, this makes me suspect bad architecture. If they've got well-factored APIs, the additional cost of maintaining a modest web p…

Yes, exactly. Any CEO worth his salt would know to hedge his bets and stay on a platform till its already dead. That is what Stephen Elop taught everyone. I do think that some amount of bad architecture is involved, but flipkart does have a lot of money, and a lot of good engineers. They even have cool stuff on github [0], which needs good people. They have likely fixed their architecture issues by now. Flipkart has…

The Nokia analogy bears approximately no relationship to this situation. Nokia was a platform company. Flipkart is just using other people's platforms, ones that will continue to exist independent of their efforts.

Your theory that people with lots of money and stuff on Github have no architectural problems does not match my experience.

Also, I like you using the web to tell me the web is dead. Do go on.

Re: India’s Flipkart to shut down website, thanks to popularity of mobile

#75

Post by hellbanner »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #28
hellbanner wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What the freaking hell. Android permissions are jacked up.

Oh, don't worry, it gets worse: * Android does not let you selectively grant permissions (unlike iOS) * Android expects you to give an app all permissions at once at install time, carte blanche (unlike iOS) * Doing certain very basic things often requires a broad permission - for example, checking if music is playing so the app can mute itself? "Read phone state" - which includes the phone number you're calling * Goo…

Thanks for creeping me out, Google. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9430839

Re: India’s Flipkart to shut down website, thanks to popularity of mobile

#76

Post by hellbanner »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #28
hellbanner wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What the freaking hell. Android permissions are jacked up.

Oh, don't worry, it gets worse: * Android does not let you selectively grant permissions (unlike iOS) * Android expects you to give an app all permissions at once at install time, carte blanche (unlike iOS) * Doing certain very basic things often requires a broad permission - for example, checking if music is playing so the app can mute itself? "Read phone state" - which includes the phone number you're calling * Goo…

I'm really interested in expanding my mobile development into more Android but stuff like this sounds awful. I hate the idea of offering say, GPS or datastorage to a customer but not letting them opt-in to it.
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