Bharat: The Next billion users
2016 was a revolutionary year for us Indians. You guessed it right the Jio wave democratized the internet connection, and thanks to that Now we are the second-largest internet users in the world.
Indian internet users can be divided into two categories — India & Bharat. Defining these categories is tricky though the following is how we define them.
I had ignored the geographical layer in these definitions as I believe the internet had blurred the lines and someone living in a tier 3 city can have a thinking model of someone living in a metro city and vice versa.
The Gap
As most of the Apps come with default in the English language, 90% of Bharat users don’t have an option but to either quit or struggle with the App.
A perfect example of this would be — Zomato, which added regional language versions to the app and saw a growth of 1,50,000 orders a month.
India ranks 123rd in income inequality out of 161 countries.
Most of the population works in unorganized businesses and they get daily wages hence a lot of the products like Insurance, Monthly Subscriptions, EMI, and SIP — Mutual funds do not work for them as there is no fixed monthly income.
Lack of education often leads to users struggling with apps and being skeptical about them. A perfect metric of lack of trust could be Cash on Delivery. Around 80% of shoppers from tier 1 and 2 cities prefer cash on delivery as a payment method.
The usage pattern of technology of Bharat users is drastically different than India. This is because of differences in Culture, surroundings, Understanding, Upbringing, Past experiences, and Emotions.
Here are a few Examples
We are used to writing in exams, projects, Emails, and so on. Hence we type and send messages on WhatsApp as well.
A Bharat user who has done limited education and doesn’t know English prefers to send Voice messages as it comes naturally to him/her. The other reason behind this could be that most smartphones come with English keypads and the regional ones are difficult to operate hence sending a voice note is easy and efficient.
🛒 Iconography
A shopping cart is the most common icon we see on E-commerce apps. An Indian user can relate to it as s/he had seen and used it in nearby malls.
A Bharat user who has never been to a mall nor used a cart in his/her life will struggle to understand the cart icon on E-commerce apps.
Conclusion
The list of the differences between India and Bharat goes long. Hence I feel we can’t have a one-size-fits-all approach for the Bharat users.
At Carnot Technologies, we are catering to the Agri industry which consists of 60% of India’s population, majorly Bharat users. Stay connected and we will be sharing our design philosophies and IP technology which we have tailored for the Bharat users.
Part 2 Understanding the next billion users
Part 3 Solving for the next billion users
Team
Nitish Nayak
Prajan Shetty
Hiten Rajgor
