India’s strange tech hesitancy
After the dramatic DeepSeek announcement from China, many in India are speaking up for the need of local LLM based AI systems. If a Chinese group could do it for a mere $5 million (Rs 60 cr), it can be easily replicated.
But no such platform operates in isolation. India will need several social media (SM) platforms and an ecosystem of AI-based apps, so that there are enough number of developers and users who advance the technology in new areas and find ways of marketing it in India and across the world.
India has shown strange tech hesitancy, and there are no substantive products in AI even though this will be central to economic progress in the coming decades, and it will matter in the race between the leading powers. [Reference 1]
By numbers, Indian has the second largest group of SM users at 462 million; China leads with 1.1 billion users, and the United States ranks third with 239 million users. In India, video content is most popular, with over 480 million YouTube users who are interested in entertainment and educational videos, making YouTube essential for devising marketing strategies.
Out of the top 18 SM companies in the world that have at least 500 million monthly users, there is none that is Indian [Reference 2]. Out of these 18 large platforms, 10 are American, 7 are Chinese, and 1 (Telegram) operates out of UAE.
SM Platforms, 500M+ users, with estimated Monthly Active Users (MAU):
1. Facebook 3.07 billion
2. YouTube 2.70 billion
3. WhatsApp 2.40 billion
4. Instagram 2.35 billion
5. TikTok 1.67 billion
6. WeChat 1.37 billion
7. Messenger 1.10 billion
8. Telegram 950 million
9. LinkedIn 930 million
10. Snapchat 800 million
11. Douyin 755 million
12. Kuaishou 700 million
13. X (Twitter) 600 million
14. Weibo 600 million
15. QQ 550 million
16. Qzone 520 million
17. Reddit 500 million
18. Pinterest 500 million
When it comes to news and microblogging, X is most influential. Beyond these there are numerous smaller microblogging platforms that cater to specific interests or demographics. For example: Threads has reached 300 million, and Bluesky has 25 million monthly active users as of December 2024.
If India has the second largest number of SM users, why isn’t there a single Indian player in the list?
In the domain of microblogging, the US has at least 6 significant platforms: X, Threads, Gab, Gettr, Parler, Truth Social, and Bluesky. Even in this less complex platform, and despite more than twice the number of social media users than the US, India has none.
The Indian business world appears to be following the old Fort St. George model, where the East India Company ran the show and Indians served as soldiers, accountants, and consumers of the products from factories in Manchester.
There needs to be a national resolve to have the government and industry support Indian SM and microblogging sites by placing job ads and main government announcements on them. Government departments and businesses across the country should become subscribers.
If the national will on this were to be properly articulated, private industry will see the benefits of an Indian social media company which is based on a realistic business model and industry support.
If you want to do business in various international markets, you must use local SM platforms. India has chosen to sit out this race and just be a consumer to global SM companies, giving up on the marketing benefits of national platforms.
For example, in China businesses must use WeChat which is more than a messaging app as it integrates social media, mobile payments, and various services. QZone (China) is a social media app that allows users to share photos, write blogs, and listen to music; Sina Weibo (China) is a microblogging platform akin to Twitter, and useful to brands looking to engage with Chinese consumers through real-time updates and trends; Douyin (China) is like TikTok.
Internationally, one must use VKontakte (Russia), Line and Mixi (Japan), KakaoTalk (South Korea), Bigo Live (Southeast Asia), and so on. Social platforms also have games and shopping features, and they are useful to brands to pitch their products to consumers.
National SM and AI-based search platforms in India will bring in many benefits. But they should be devised for the whole world, because only then will proper attention be paid to excellence in developing and managing the platforms.
Reference
[1] Subhash Kak, The Age of Artificial Intelligence. 2024.
[2] India had one app, a microblogging and social networking platform called Koo, but it shut down in 2024.
