WhatsAAP!

There are things that elicit feelings of shock, awe and surprise at the same time. Couple of news that attracted global attention and inspired feelings mentioned above share some characteristics. Business news that made headlines was the $19 billion Whatsapp deal which made its cofounders Jan Koumiss and Brian Acton into billionaires. $19 billion by itself is a huge figure, add to that the fact that the company only started in the year 2009! Here is a story of someone who had a humble background, started on his own, understood his market, offered something user-friendly (that too cheap) and ended up making billions! Generally words 'cheap' and 'billions' don't fit in the same sentence but in case of some extraordinary achievements like these they do. (It is even a bigger achievement considering in India people don't even pay $1 per year; instead they uninstall the app every time $1 becomes due and then reinstall it!) It is just amazing to see how the app which was virtually free for end-users ended up making so much money for the makers. Of course, the value lies in the database of users, potential of capitalizing on the database etc. But the fact remains that as an end-user I am using one of the best apps for free.
The master stroke was to sell it at a time when its use was at peak. I can say this with confidence as an avid user of the app myself! This is not to say that its users will not increase anymore at the same rate, it will continue to attract new users. But the timing was really good, as of late some similar apps had begun providing an alternate to Whatsapp. So it was a good decision to sell it while it was still a 'unique app' rather than sell it at a time when it becomes 'one of the apps'. I don't think the deal will have any significant impact on me as a user of the app. Only time will tell though.
Now compare the app with the AAP! Launched as recently as late 2012 (though the ground work started some time back with team Anna) AAP captured the imagination of the country when it formed the government at Delhi with Congress supporting from outside. Again, it was started by a common man with a humble background, who understood his audience, had a solution in the form of corruption free India, sold his idea honestly and ended up becoming the chief minister! I am not sure if AAP has seen its peak or it is yet to come, but no one can deny the fact that AAP has found a following across all age groups and classes of people and it is a serious force to reckon with especially in the coming Lok Sabha elections. Companies toil for years reaching that $1 billion figure and then put in constant efforts sustaining it; Whatsapp took approximately five years to do that! Similarly political parties spend years convincing people why they will offer a better government than the existing one and still lose out in the end which results in another five year wait. But here is a party which took less than a couple of years to win a state election and become a serious threat for national parties.

It is election time!

So the dates are out! Largest democracy in the world will vote from 7th April-12th May (with results due on 16th May) to elect the new government. And it promises to be a nail-biter with both national parties; Congress as well as the BJP fighting for allies, dealing with internal party disputes, calling each other all kinds of names, and marketing their respective PM candidates through hoardings, banners, social media etc (perfect case study for learning integrated marketing communications)
Couple of things makes this election even more interesting. Firstly, the emergence of AAP which made a stylish debut in Delhi as BJP refused to form the government, Congress agreed to support the AAP government, and AAP accepted Congress’ support to form the government! It would have been a completely different ball game altogether had Delhi not happened. Secondly, the possibility of third front surfacing as the game changer (game spoiler for the national parties) and with as many as PM candidates as the number of parties, it will certainly add spice to the already spicy set-up! Variety is indeed the spice of life
Contest between two national parties Congress & BJP (UPA & NDA with their respective allies) plus two game changers (AAP & third front) is going to be like reading a suspense novel full of twists and turns. How boring it would be, if even ours was a two-party system! Diversity of our country with various interest groups and resultant existence of regional parties adds charm to the elections. Of course as an individual, one would prefer having fewer parties so that the possibility of one party getting a majority increases which leads to stable government. But hey, I like my food spicy!
Things that I am looking forward are AAP performance considering their meteoric rise, offbeat approach and attitude towards things in general. Also it will be interesting to see how and to what extent the Modi wave with a tremendous track record in Gujarat, large rallies and promising speeches converts into votes for BJP and how Rahul Gandhi's vision, discussions at school and college levels with a smaller audience, and long term outlook will translate to votes for his party.
Icing on the cake is the 'None of the above' option which is being introduced for the first time! Assuming a voter turnout of 55 percent, one would think the rest 45 percent weren't happy with any of candidates representing their constituency so there was no point voting for them. Going by that logic, there should be a higher turnout this time around as rather than sitting at home and saying no one is good, you can come out and convey the same by exercising your right to vote.  Considering the rate at which people are losing confidence in various political parties, NOTA Party i.e. 'None of the above' party may come out a winner!