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Monday, November 05, 2007

Delusion in the Indian Web World, Kya Karen

Delusion is a bad thing. When delusion happens in the web world, it is amusing, or, shall I say, sad. Really, and delusion on the Indian web world continues to prevail. People, especially Indians, are of the belief that all you need to be successful online is to make a website, fill it with lies, have flashy graphics and people would come to buy whatever shit they offer.

So you lie a lot about your capabilities in SCM, ERP, CRM, and SDLC, and what have you, and still people do not buy. Then you lie a little more. You also copy and paste white lies in your so-called “white papers”, not knowing that being found out could kill you.

And then what happens. You sit and lament after a few millions of your hard earned, or else, borrowed money goes down the drain. What happened? Where did we go wrong?

“Yaar, I had to scrounge, sell my property to raise that money, yaar. यह, कम्बक्त वेबसाइट थो चलता ही नही, कोई आता ही नही.” Common enough complaint, by the way.

What you are doing is basically begging people to buy you’re the concept of your website and your product. So, if you were a consumer would you buy from a store that is badly laid out, has badly trained salespeople, has cheap advertisements all over the wall, and even the owner is an obvious liar. It is an accepted tenet that all advertisements lie. (I know; I have been in that territory before. I was the executive secretary of the Advertising Standards Council of India, which is the regulator and controller for the truthfulness of Indian advertising.)

I digress. And what do these become-rich-overnight entrepreneurs do for content on websites. “Copy and paste, mere dost, who will know?” I think there is a basic dishonesty in every Indian that makes them say this. They have a very pervasive contempt for the creative types, and the creative process. As a fledgling content writer, keen to make my mark in the world, I was told this, and sadly, even now I am told this. No need for me to say that piracy is rampant in the Indian net world.

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