What happens if the Facebook was born in India:
It was difficult for a start up like Facebook to originate in India, if not downright impossible.
- First of all our educational system is not designed to promote creativity and out-of-the-box thinking.
- Middle class was extremely insecure back then. The sole motive after getting into a good college, was to get good marks, get a high paying job and 'settle'.
- Even if for arguments sake, a person developed such a website in 2004, it would not have picked up because of connectivity issues: the broadband penetration was JUST NOT THERE.
- If he/she would have told about this idea to his roommate/batchmate/parent
s etc., they would have, in all likelihood, completely discouraged him/her to pursue it and hence, it'd have died then and there. - Since there was not much internet coverage, exposure to the recent cutting edge development and technological advances was alarmingly low in India. So, the odds of someone developing Facebook becomes astronomically small.
- Let's assume he/she somehow developed it and now all the students of a college (example IIT Delhi) are connected through this website, the problem now arises that where to go from here. There was almost zero coordination among various colleges and universities.
- Assuming sizeable population of Delhi's college going students are somehow on this website, there is still an acute need of funding to scale it up. Startup funding was not a fad a decade ago, especially in India.
- Let's assume he/she has enough money (ancestral property), now the problem is they are supposed to be full time on this website. Dropping out from college, especially in India, was an extremely unlikely phenomenon and hence, the idea would not have scaled up.
- Finally, assume there is sizeable user base, there is decent funding, the person has also quit the college. But even then, for massive scaling, one need huge amount of funds and necessary man power. In that case, a competitor sitting in USA could have either acquired them or easily copied the idea, raised more funding, hired more qualified people and could have developed a better product.
So we can safely assume that a start up like Facebook was difficult to originate in India, if not downright impossible.
However, do not confuse my underlying tone of pessimism with the past, to the highly bullish and optimistic scenario of startups in the present and future India.
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