Disclaimer: The thoughts expressed in this post are personal. They have nothing to do with the organisations I’m associated with. If you disagree with these thoughts, that’s fine.
Hello Reader,
It has been more than a week since we’ve been receiving forwarded messages with headlines like “Ban Using Chinese Products / Applications.”
I have some questions:
- How do we define which app to remove, as it’s so-called “made in China”?
- If Google is banned in China, how can Chinese devs publish apps on the Google Play Store?
The following might be an explanation:
- We have companies in India that are funded by Chinese conglomerates to run the show. Will we stop using them?
- Some companies in China outsource their development, translation, and design jobs to Indian markets. If we stop using these apps, we are hurting our own economy.
Let us take TikTok as an example:
- TikTok has a good entertainment quotient.
- Publishers & viewers are huge in number.
- More content means more resources that TikTok’s operations team puts in.
- More resources mean more investment to run the show.
- Now let us think about how an app developer makes money. It has to be from data & advertisements.
- Your data is already sold out. So if you want to ban something, ban putting in ads.
- For an application of that scale, there must be a local team managing infrastructure and operations.
- Stopping using that app will remove the need for the local team, hurting our economy. Keep them in “THE SHOW MUST GO ON!” mode.
If you want to take on some tech giant, use the free things they are giving. Do not pay by any means, such as in-app purchases or viewing ads. As a user, enjoy what you get for free.
Now you might be saying: “We are a marketing team. We have a new product that will help our team survive the pandemic. We need advertising outreach.” I’m not against that at all. Everyone is trying their best to survive. Take an extra step and reach out to publishers directly. Half of them don’t even know their asking rate; you can grab a better deal.
Conspiracy thought:
Always thinking about who could benefit from such forwards?
- Indian devs who are publishing clones of these apps? Naah. Bas Behti Ganga me hath dho rahe hai. They have no idea where it’s going to lead.
- Current ruling party? Maybe. Nowadays all we have is the “keep the devil occupied” policy.
- Internet service providers? Maybe. We all know the current internet situation is not that great. Reducing users from apps like TikTok or PUBG could save bandwidth. Net neutrality & ISP ranting about infrastructure costs is a topic for another day.
That’s all — just a thought. If you have other thoughts, I’m a good listener. Feel free to drop a comment or wherever we encountered this topic.
Have a great day ahead.