Branded groceries to on-demand video: Start-up trends for India in 2017

2017 is going to be the year of customer experience, reports Tech in Asia

If 2015 was the year of capital invested, 2017 is going to be the year of customer experience. A few spaces will have an advantage.

Fresh foods

Without brands, no one takes responsibility for the quality of any product. And in the perishable food space, that’s dangerous. Choose any meat, fish or vegetable. There is no way of telling how old it is (or how freshness is maintained), where it was grown, or what pesticides were used.  

But this can change with good, strong brands. Several companies across food groups have been working hard to build a proof of concept over the past few years. In 2017, I think we’ll see these companies mature.

Subscription businesses

“Competing on products was last century’s competition; now you need to be able to compete on business models,” wrote Alexander Osterwalder.

Nowhere does Osterwalder’s quote ring truer than in India today. And the one model that’ll lead the charge in 2017 is the subscription. It the ultimate convenience to be able to automate regular purchases. The tipping point for this model in 2017 will be billing. These businesses are only as convenient as their billing systems. 

Original video content

The combination of internet connectivity, a better understanding of device characteristics, the content delivery networks, and great quality content will help on-demand video take off next year.

For Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, or even Hotstar and Jio to truly succeed they will need a constant stream of shows. And that content will need to be for local audiences. There is no way they’ll be able to do it on their own. And that’s a huge opportunity for companies that can support them.  This article was published on Tech In Asia. You can read it here.