Technology and My Culture

1. References

1.1. Chen, H. (2015). BBC: Asia's smartphone addiction. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33130567

1.2. TED. (2010, February 22). Kevin Kelly tells technology's epic story. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/kevin_kelly_tells_technology_s_epic_story

1.3. Theirer, A. (2014, April 29). Defining "Technology" Retrieved January 23, 2016, retrieved from http://techliberation.com/2014/04/29/defining-technology/

1.4. Gesenhues, A. (2013, October 30). Study: 72% Of Consumers Expect Brands To Respond Within An Hour To Complaints Posted On Twitter. Retrieved from Marketing Land: http://marketingland.com/study-72-of-consumers-expect-brands-to-respond-within-an-hour-to-complaints-posted-on-twitter-63496

2. Creative Aspect

2.1. Made a mind map to which I had never done so before to create a visually creative discussion and I have never created a complex one before.

2.2. Made my own kijiji ad to see how far a reach free online classified site now have have and how many people I could get in touch with. You can view my ad by going to the following link http://www.kijiji.ca/v-cars-trucks/mississauga-peel-region/1995-honda-accord-sedan/1142993213?enableSearchNavigationFlag=true.

2.3. In total so far I have had 3 inquiries and 79 views on my ad which goes to show how far a reach these online free classified websites now have.

3. Description of me and my culture

3.1. Hi my name is Noordeep and I am a immigrant to Canada. I came to Canada at the age of 11 and thus spent my childhood in Mumbai, India. So I am going to focus on the Indian part of my culture and specifically how the introduction of new technology has changed life in developing countries like India.

4. How technology has influenced commerce and business in india

4.1. More particularly I am going to focus on the impact of these technologies on the practicalities of how business and commerce is carried out in developing countries because I believe for technology to be considered influential and uselful it must have a practical implication in peoples everyday lives because at the end of the day that is really what technology is. As Adam Thierer says that technology is just the "practical application of knowledge especially in a particular area" (Thierer, 2014) or as Kevin Kelly put it technology is "anything useful made by a human mind" (Kelly, 2010) so I am mainly going to focus on technology that has has a practical real world impact on how business is carried out in India.

5. Specific technology I would like to discuss

5.1. The specific website that I am going to be focusing on is OLX.in which could be considered as the Indian version of Kijiji in Canada and this website allows you to post free classifieds on the web and has significantly changed how people buy used items in India. The site is also operated on other platforms also their most popular platform is their smartphone app which lets people quickly post free classifieds on the internet and this is not a surprise as the use of smartphones has skyrocketed in Asia a study recently found that Asia now has "2.5bn smartphone users" (Chen, 2015) a number which is expected to climb as developing countries like India and china continue to get richer. So the app really makes this website have a very large user base also.

6. Why I choose this particular example

6.1. Before such websites attempting to buy used cars, bikes or phones in countries like India was much more inefficient including layers of middlemen that would pump up the price of the used items. To drive home the point I will share the story of how me and my family bought a car for my grandparents back home when we went to visit them at first my dad attempted to buy a car through a used car dealership as my family in India always did before and even settled on he preferred but before going through with the buy he checked online to see if he could find a better deal. And sure enough he could buy the same car from a person that was directly selling it for about 20% less than the used car dealership or a total savings of $2000 which might seem as a large number itself but considering that average incomes in India are much lower than the west that could be years worth of someones savings. On top of that people is today's world are more and more impatient a recent study showed that "53% of consumers expect a brand to respond to a tweet within an hour" (Gesenhues, 2013) so actually going to a dealership and shopping around for hours has become an inconvenience for people they rather just scroll through all the features of a car online rather than hear a salesman talk them through it for hours on end.

7. In Conclusion

7.1. This goes to prove that new technology like the internet and websites like OLX.in or other free classifieds sites are having a great impact on the culture of how people do business and commerce in the developing world. Making the process of doing business more efficient and bringing more goods and services to people at lower prices. And the reason why I choose to show OLX.in specifically because I believe that these new technologies help people where it matters the most in their pocketbooks which is even more important in countries like India where people are more concerned about money since their incomes are still far lower than in the west.