584 Part Four Building and Managing Systems
INTERACTIVE SESSION TECHNOLOGY
The Global Internet Goes Multimedia
Megh Singh is a porter in India’s New Delhi rail-
road station, earning less than $8 per day. From
time to time throughout the day he can be found
under the station stairwell whispering into his
smartphone. Singh is using speech recognition
software to access the Internet using the station’s
free Wi-Fi system. His smartphone is a no-frills
Sony Corp. model with pared-down storage (4
gigabytes, compared to 32 gigabytes, which is
prevalent in developed countries). Singh’s smart-
phone has Google search Facebook’s What’s App
but Singh also uses apps, such as JC Browser, MX
Player, and SHAREit, that have been explicitly
designed for slow connections and minimal data
storage.
Most Indian porters still believe smartphones
are only for the rich and literate, but a growing
minority have been using cheap smartphones to
go online since the railroad station started provid-
ing free Wi-Fi service in 2015. Singh likes to use
his smartphone to check train schedules, message
his family, and download movies. He arrives at
the station early each morning to send his family
and friends recorded messages via WhatsApp. He
receives recorded replies from them throughout
the day. Singh also uses YouTube, Google, and MX
Player to search the Internet for shows and clips.
He uses voice search on YouTube, downloading
20 clips per day to watch at night when he
returns to the room he shares with five other
porters.
Singh is not comfortable reading or using a key-
board. He doesn’t know anything about email or
how to send it. However, he claims he can enjoy the
Internet to its fullest by relying on video and voice.
Singh represents the new wave of new Internet users
around the world. Instead of typing searches and
emails, the “next billion” Internet newcomers will be
primarily using voice activation and communicating
with images.
Text is not disappearing entirely from the
Internet, and it still has its uses. But instead of
typing searches and reading text-based web pages,
Internet users will be increasingly using audio
and video. Influential communicators will rely
more and more on podcasts, Instagram, YouTube
videos, and apps such as HHQ Trivia. This is true
in wealthy advanced countries such as the United
States and Germany as well as in poorer coun-
tries with low per capita income and Internet
penetration.
During the early years of the Internet, text
used to be the only format with which comput-
ers could easily work. Today, with more powerful
and sophisticated hardware and software, com-
puters can decipher and manipulate multimedia.
For many people, including those who cannot
read and write, it has become much easier to
communicate through images and sounds than
through text.
Only 400 million of India’s 1.3 billion people are
online, and the vast majority access the Internet
via a mobile device. Thanks to a price war and
vendors’ efforts to court low-income users, these
numbers are rising. Vodafone India, a subsidiary
of Vodafone PLC, found that new users didn’t
understand data limits. It decided to offer a new
option to buy as much data as they wanted at a
cost of less than 25 cents per hour. Facebook has
sponsored free Wi-Fi hotspots across India, where
it has 200 million active users. Developers at the
company’s Menlo Park, California headquarters
stage “2G Tuesdays” when they can experience
how Facebook works on slow Internet connections.
Facebook has built a lighter, less data-consuming
version for emerging markets as has LinkedIn.
LinkedIn Lite is a less data-heavy app that works
on 2G phones and will help blue-collar workers
find jobs.
New companies are springing up to provide apps
and services tailored to less-affluent, less-educated
Internet users. The apps on Mr. Singh’s phone are
a good example. UC Browser from Alibaba Holding
Group’s UCWeb is optimized to use less data for low-
speed connections. UC Browser accounts for over 40
percent of India’s mobile browser market. Lenovo
Group’s SHAREit enables users to send files, photos,
videos, and apps from one device to another using
direct Wi-Fi connections. YouTube apps created
for India make it easier to work with slow Internet
speeds, save videos to watch offline, and monitor
their data use.
Google changed the way certain searches from
India appear on the Internet. For example, if a user
 Chapter 15 Managing Global Systems 585

is searching for a local cricket star, the top of the
search will display videos and photos instead of long
text lists of links.
In 2016 Indian banks launched a mobile pay-
ment system to help people who were not very
tech-literate use their phones to make payments and
transfer money. The sign-up process was simplified.
Paytm is the largest mobile money app in India, with
over 200 million users, far more than the number of
Indians owning credit cards.
Sources: Farhad Manjoo, “Welcome to the Post-Text Future,” New York
Times, February 14, 2018; www-shareit.com, accessed February 16,
2018; Eric Ballman, “The End of Typing: The Next Billion Mobile
Users Will Rely on Voice and Video,” Wall Street Journal, August 7,
2017; and Julia Love, “YouTube Unveils India Mobile App for Spotty
Internet Signals,” Reuters, April 4, 2017.

CASE STUDY QUESTIONS

1. Why are voice and video becoming the primary 3. What kinds of companies are likely to benefit from
means of communication over the Internet? a more multimedia Internet? Explain.
2. How will this trend impact companies trying to
do business worldwide? How will it affect the
way they run their businesses and interact with
customers?

Position Description
This position works closely with the Managing Director and Head of Global
Sales to develop and maintain sales leads and new accounts. Job responsibili-
ties include:
• Developing new accounts with leads generated by existing customers and
relationships with media and industry associations as well as through cold
calling, emailing, and online prospecting.
• Developing account relationships to turn sporadic customers into long-term
business accounts.
• Developing sales opportunities for various categories of products and lines of
business.
• Finding and scheduling appointments with new prospective clients.
• Updating customer and client profiles.

Job Requirements
• Four-year college degree
• Very strong verbal and written communication skills
• Microsoft Office skills
• Experience at a sales or marketing internship or in cold calling desirable
• Outgoing, competitive, proactive sales personality

Interview Questions
1. Did you work with quantitative data in your college courses or at a prior job?
What did you do with the data?
2. Have you ever worked with online databases or database software? Exactly
what did you do with these databases? Did you ever take a database course?