‘Where’s my cut?’ the question that can revolutionise social media

• Speaking at the Business Insider Global Trends Festival 2020, Kavin Mittal of Hike said social media companies grow at the back of the customer data. “Your data, my data – but where’s my cut?” he said.
• The average Indian social media user spends 17 hours on platforms every week and consumes over 8.3 gigabytes of data.
• The next big money from social media will come from ads, micropayments and commerce.

India is one of the world's biggest markets for social media. But India's homegrown social media startup Hike's founder Kavin Mittal has a question that he believes can change the way we look at social media in the country – what happens when the customers ask for their cut from these platforms for using their data?

According to McKinsey's report, the average Indian social media user spends 17 hours on platforms every week and consumes over 8.3 gigabytes of data – that's higher than the average data usage in the US or China.

And this enormous data and user numbers, which is only set to get higher (India's total internet users could cross 800 million by 2023), has got social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, setting up shop in India, and feeding on the data produced in India.

Speaking at the Business Insider Global Trends Festival 2020, Mittal said, "It's fascinating to see all these social media companies grow at the back of the customer data. Your data, my data – but where's my cut? Customers being the owner of their own data – this is going to be a radical transformation, especially in a market like India."

Mittal believes that is the next big leg of monetisation of social media in India, which has so far been riding on ad revenues.

The next big money from social media – ads, micropayments and commerce

There’s been a lot spoken about the next big wave of social media and the power of revenue it will bring with it. However, even with the millions of new users coming in, Mittal believes that the cost per thousand is still very low in India and so micropayments or small transactions made by users online will be another thought that drives monetization.

However, Farid Ahsan, founder of Sharechat, one of India’s largest home grown platforms, still swears by the ad revenue model. “We are not against any sort of monetisation in a low ARPU economy like India. It's important that you are able to build revenue in a way that it's a win-win for everyone whether it's the brand, platform or the user,” said Ahsan.

Ahsan believes that the combination of ads and micropayments will lead to a commerce-driven economy. The idea of clubbing ads, micropayments and commerce has also seen the rise of the social commerce vertical in India with homegrown players like Meesho (backed by Facebook), having rapidly made a mark in India.

“All of these platforms will eventually become communities with their own economies where there are creators, brands, and consumers. That’s honestly how a platform should be defined – the net GMV of a platform is much larger than what the platform can actually monetize,” he said.

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