The Zoho Corporation has developed and launched the indigenous product “Arattai.” It has all the features offered by instant messaging and voice-over-internet protocol services.
Currently, most users depend on foreign-owned WhatsApp messenger, initially developed by California-based company Mountain View. Capitalism provided the opportunity for Facebook, now Meta, to acquire it. Facebook changed its name first to “The Facebook” and later to Meta. Now, Meta has many products in its portfolio through the acquisition route.
The acquisition allowed the original idea to survive. No one in the world did anything to stop this acquisition. Meta, meanwhile, has developed a single product, Facebook, but has acquired many other products, such as Instagram and Threads, apart from WhatsApp. Instagram was originally the brainchild of Kevin Systrom and Mike Kriger for Apple’s operating system, iOS.
The acquisition of Twitter by Elon Musk is another success story of Capitalism that prevented the original idea creators from surviving. Twitter and Instagram are now competing for a monopoly between Meta and X Corp. Currently, X Holdings Corp is leading the race on the battleground of Capitalism.
We have our own story to share. Whatever the reasons, we had an indigenous substitute for Twitter with Koo. However, it is sad to see Koo getting killed and not even acquired by someone else. The Koo was shut down. Moreover, the revival channel exists as it is not sold to deep-pocket monopolists, again, whatever the reason for sales not happening. The primary reason is that the people were addicted to Twitter, i.e., X, and did not wish to put effort into changing their habits. However, Elon Musk forced the world to change their habit and accept X, but the brand value of Twitter is so high that even today, people say in daily life that it is Twitter, and the work on it is called Tweet. The brand is more valuable than the product itself. This mindset has been groomed and needs a customized strategy to counter it. The arrival of the concept of a brand to sell products is the culprit. Whether there should be a brand name or not is a separate debate. Facebook diversified to WhatsApp and Instagram; hence, they needed an umbrella brand and came up with Meta.
The pharmaceutical industry has eliminated the brand name, and now the prescription mentions a generic name. The brand name was a culprit in the healthcare industry, and the government took measures to rectify it.
We expect something similar in the social networking domain. The strategy needs to be customized. Whatever is possible in health care cannot be replicated in social networks. We need to think deeply and develop policies with effective legal teeth. It is easy to say that “Orkut” was killed by Facebook as Facebook appealed more. So, we must wait for a better idea to kill X and Facebook. We need to wait for that idea. Is it possible today when the gap between haves and have-nots in the technology sector is rising exponentially? Facebook survives as it upgrades consistently, and the Orkut did not have much time to upgrade. That much is okay to think and compete.
However, Capitalism’s battleground does not allow the original ideas to stay with their original authors.
Orkut was small, and Facebook and Twitter started small. Facebook is with original people, though. It was also disputed among Harvard school roommates and close friends of Mark Zuckerberg. Capitalism was not the culprit in the disputes among former roommates.
There has to be a solution to address the problem. Capitalism is going to survive. Having accepted that, we can be optimistic about the recent developments in Europe and America. The European Union countries have penalized Alphabet (i.e., Google) and Apple for tax thefts and anti-competitive behavior. These big technology companies have been proven thieves in lengthy, time-consuming legal battles that included many levels of appeal and stays. The Digital Market Act of Europe and the penalty to Google for rigging the search engine market is something to cheer. The lawmakers of the Western world are concerned and acting to safeguard the turf of small players.
So, we need smart regulations to prevent tax leakages and strict regulations to prevent technology companies’ anti-competition business practices.
The government is working on these. We, the users of technology and social network applications, must realize that we must have given Koo the support it had expected. The missed opportunity should not happen with Arattai as it happened with Koo.
Technology’s shelf life is diminishing, and regulators need to address disruptive, provocative, and controversial issues a priori.
(Alok Singh has a doctorate in management from the Indian Institute of Management Indore and promoter of Transition Research Consultancy for Policy and Management.)
