How many apps must a man download?

Kolkata: Whatever be your gender affiliation, the answer is invariably blowing in the wind. The average number of downloaded apps in Indian smartphones is usually 51 with 24 being the normal usage figure. For many reasons, a discussion is due, but first a few more data points.

In 2022, 28 billion apps were downloaded in India, about 5% of the global tally. There are more than 1,50,000 locally developed apps which account for the lion’s share of local businesses. Like elsewhere, social and messaging lead the fray while shopping follows suit – video streaming, games and music follow. Only about 6% of apps have in-app revenue, 3 % are subscription based while close to 40% rely on advertising revenues.

When the above information is presented in tandem with the 52% internet penetration in India (IAMAI latest) a clear pattern does emerge. Folks buying smartphones are succumbing easily to the app download syndrome, considering that to be a necessary annexure of digital upward mobility. Collateral damage is quick, especially for the lesser-endowed devices, as the phone’s speed reduces due to excessive occupation of memory by the stored caches. This pesky reality is exploited handsomely by the secondary trade, as addendum memory chips do thriving business.

In certain cases, the redundant candidates are summarily dismissed to the disposal basket. Sometimes, dangerously so, the brand is also thrown out of necessary reckoning as the app interface is an emerging nuisance. Invariably a brand of Darwinism comes to the fore, only the fittest survive in the bright confines of your smartphone. The question remains, who are the fittest?

Digital businesses must recognize the difference between transaction strategy and conversation conduits. Unhappily, due to a prevailing me too pattern in industry, the app become a default ' proof of intent' for most businesses, its sheer presence necessary evidence for a functioning business team. Adored by insufficient board rooms but eventually rejected by customers. The app is an integral part of digital transaction, in a broader sense, but not an element of digital conversations.

Transactions actually refer any brand customer exchange which leads to a measurable and rational fulfillment. Instagram and Facebook apps thus allow shortcut access to habitual interactions, much easier than navigating through a web. Similarly an Amazon app facilitates grocery or fashion, while Netflix does what we all know it does. Gaming is a habit forming activity as is music, thus apps do thrive. But do note that they all operate under the auspices of customer induced transaction, in the expansive sense as suggested. Not communication but transaction, and the difference must be noted.

There are certain salient features of transactions that can be facilitated by apps. Priority, or unhindered, access is a given, whether Amazon or Facebook. When you add a dash of personalisation, the attraction is even more apparent. Then a monetary advantage, wherever applicable, versus transacting in alternate conduits, however habitual or familiar. An app is the hotline equivalent of the internet era, its necessity dictated by its immediacy and expectation of advantages. Whether pecuniary or emotional is not direly relevant.

Therefore when a school decides to have an app, I am bewildered. Or, perhaps, an ITC Master Chef, whose value is best appreciated in a competitive melee and not an isolated island. Or even hotels and restaurants, which do not offer any benefits versus booking.com, but insist on enjoying a standout presence. Worst are BFSI apps especially insurance, as the customer of a health policy is frankly not interested in silly messaging or corporate accolades. Sports outfits, like football clubs,  treat the app as a surrogate for physical obstinacy in loyalty and while the enrollments are staggering the visits are less amazing.

The fallacy actually begins with the consideration of the digital universe as a destination by itself, with the app being its resident Marilyn Monroe. While in a customer centricity driven branding universe, the media must be contractually subservient to the message, which in turn is linked ruthlessly to business objectives and market realities. Thus, for a school, the physical space offers sufficient opportunities fir interaction,  as does the website and whatsapp, so the app is redundant.

No mentally sound individual will download a health insurance app unless it gives enormous advantages in claim management, the task mandated successfully to agents. ITC Master Chef, with a pedestrian range of RTE goodies, must be delusional if they believe that these categories have frenetic loyalists and further, that they will flock to this privileged access. We are facing a crisis in common sense and this is merely a visible manifestation. Aided by a desperation for performance metrics, an HR burden that is a bane to business.

So the task of the day is to invest in an integrated customer engagement strategy, with dashes of transaction and elements of conversation. If transaction is the heroine and the app provides a defined interaction benefit, as discussed, then go ahead by all means. If, however, a combination of offline interactions and the Whatsapp/SMS/Website troika do the job splendidly, then resist the temptation of building a trophy mirage. The app, when done uselessly, will make an otherwise worthwhile brand slip out of the radar and that is truly avoidable.

If you build it, they will come. This was the credo of an earlier universe. The evolution is even more starkly simple. If they are anyways coming, then why build it?