The App Effect: Helping businesses create or helping create businesses?

By Yan Fei  A navigation map, a DSLR, a watch, a compass, a diary, a torch amongst others are a few things you would typically find in the bag of a traveller. Have these things vanished? No. One smartphone with multiple apps has forever changed it all. Apps have replaced our long list of daily necessities and put them together in one place, one phone! Our phones are getting smarter and our desks are getting clearer. Calculators and alarms have seamlessly merged into our phones. Mobile and social technology is changing people’s behaviour to an extent that organisations are compelled to respond to this change. Small or big, tools are being shaped for each and every need of human beings. From swiping right for love to ordering food to sharing important files with one touch, apps are transforming how we perform each task. The apps are no longer tools or facilitators; they have become an integral aspect of how we live. This ergonomic benefit is also supporting the economic ecosystem. Mobile wallet usage is bourgeoning and people would rather lose their wallets than their phones. All this and more is contributing to India’s progress as a cashless economy which will eventually facilitate more transparent transactions.  Digital behaviour has blended so well in our consciousness that one does not even realise it. A recent report by Flurry found that total mobile device usage was up by 58 percent last year. Web browsing has taken a backseat and the web effect has now augmented into the app effect. One needs to also understand that while web was used for browsing, apps are used for all the daily needs. You want to switch on the air conditioner before getting home, there’s an app for that! You want to buy groceries and have them delivered, there’s an app for that! You want to order flowers 10 minutes before leaving, there’s an app for that! You want to share anything anywhere, there’s an app for that! Basically, whatever you want to do wherever, there’s an app for that! After consumer apps, today, every business across industries, both big and small are getting their own app. For many larger companies, mobile apps are the perfect way to reach out to their consumers, collaborate better with associates, create an avenue for feedback to extract business insights and empower employees.  Mobile web apps and native apps are the two main types of apps that companies are focusing on building right now. A computing archetype that increases productivity and reduces cost have been created by the mobile application. These apps are enabling smooth business transactions which were earlier restricted to stationed computers. Wireless networks in the form of apps have the ability to transform the entire business space. A mobile app serving as a business store stays open 365 days of the year. Apps on display devices are primarily a new and desirable phenomenon. If set up properly, they also function as a new platform for making economic decisions such as purchases. Companies all over the world are running major businesses through M-commerce and employ a huge chunk of the population. The app market has opened up a plethora of jobs that never existed before. Working in self-employment is now easy as the app market is creating endless opportunities for freelance workers. They have also inspired a new set of entrepreneurs creating a multi-billion dollar industry.  Start-ups are growing quickly, adopting technology at the fastest rate and therefore building an app has become the most obvious choice for them, regardless of the industry they are in. This also resonates with the advent of organisations’ dependence on technology in the future. Other than the start-up industry, the e-commerce players are one of the early movers to adopt this revolution in India. According to Meeker’s 2015 Internet Trends, 41% of India e-commerce sales in India comes from Mobile. Instant reception is leading to instant reaction and when customers give fast feedback, companies run to solve the issues instantly. Mobile marketing is so personalised that it is targeted to the exact needs of individuals.  The insights which these enterprises gather through apps improve personalization and functionality. Then comes the focus on experiential marketing which has become more and more important with the advent of apps. With introduction of techniques like geo-targeting and data analysis, apps are bound to get more personalised and user preference will be the biggest priority. Not only does it indicate the accountability of mobile in the e-commerce sector, it also highlights beginning of businesses that will run on app-only models through m-commerce There are a million apps and we need not concern ourselves with all of them. Their conclusive success is very important here. The root of the “app” effect stems from here. The sensation that we experience after using or seeing these apps is the motivation why the technology is such an extraordinary success. The quality of this experience of using this bank of apps on our phones is why the developers are moving so fast to change the entire interface to satiate the needs of the users. Apps are not only here to stay; they are here to create an effect – The App Effect, making 2016 the year when Internet of Things will take off, M-commerce will explode, social activities will see a new surge and businesses will become more efficient. All in all, the entire paradigm of the Internet world will change. The author Yan Fei is the CEO of SHAREit, a cross-platform sharing service.