Big Platforms Take Over, Small Businesses Flutter

Everyone wants to be a part of the gravy train that the big app represents. If you are small, the best survival mantra is to hitch your small business wagon to a star app

- HARISH BIJOOR

MALL is beautiful. Well, it was. Once upon a time. Today, life in the fast-track world of business and commerce is about scale. Big is beautiful, the model embraced by all. I talk of India today in particular. If you peek into the realm of commerce, it is e-commerce and D2C. If you peek into the food ordering and restaurant business, it is the big that dominates. Food-delivery apps are the norm, and no small restaurant can afford to be outside of it. If you look into the realm of public commute, cab-aggregator apps are the norm. The standalone autorickshaw or cab driver outside of this ecosystem is struggling to survive. I base this entire column on my recent research exercise, where I took random sample sizes from three distinct realms: The grocery business, fresh food outlets (restaurants) and the cab commute business (autorickshaws and taxi cabs included). The data summation is of India's top eight cities.

The breaking news is the sad fact that every small business across these three verticals is battling to survive. Being a standalone player in these three spaces is no longer a viable business proposition. This is particularly so when it comes to traditional non-differentiated businesses in each realm. Take autorickshaw drivers in Bengaluru. The city currently has 3,55,000 autos. Competition is intense, and the ratio of autorickshaws to humans is rather dense. The small, standalone autorickshaw driver, who is not on a cab aggregator app, is fighting to survive. Therefore, every auto driver wants to be on an app because finding customers is suddenly that much easier. The app appropriates that task. Business happens. And for this business to happen, you need to belong to an app.