1GB per day-the new data normal due to Reliance Jio

In the 2016-17 annual report of Reliance Industries, they disclosed that the average data consumption per Reliance Jio user is  10GB/month (as against a quota of 1GB/day or 30GB/month). This implies a data pack utilization of 33%, that too on a daily basis w/o usage accumulation, which is great. The icing on the cake, introductory pricing of Rs 100/month. In parallel, smartphones are getting cheaper, with a 4GB RAM, 64GB storage and 400Mah battery phone now costing Rs 9,000(or more). This is beneficial for content owners and apps since folks have more money to spend on their services, and ability to consume on the move(this was earlier not feasible due to high mobile data costs, but with someone who takes the JioFi dongle along, they have their own hotspot in lieu of mobile data)

The implications of this are
-Cloud based services like Wynk(Rs 99/mth), Hotstar(199/mth) and Kindle Unlimited(150/mth) are getting a great audience
-Video hungry channels like Sports, TVF, Comedy, Amazon Central which are usually consumed during commute also gain
-Losers are telcos who got very high data ARPU customers due to the propensity to consume on the same SIM, but now using JioFi dongle, they have their own 24*7 Wifi hotspot using the same phone
-To be fair, Jio has its hassles such as network disruption, dongle life around 6hrs and potential radiation concerns by carrying the dongle with you. Also, employers may not be overjoyed with people using Wifi in office.

Yet, with other companies following suit, the data revolution in India is now in progress

Upfront Rates and more responsive customer service-Why Urbanclap trumps Housejoy

Let me disclose upfront that Urbanclap is cofounded by an IIM Ahmedabad senior of mine Abhiraj Bahl, but this fact does not bias my views. As someone having used both these apps for home and beauty services (electrician, carpenter, home cleaning, beauty) etc, I find the UI of UrbanClap to be better for the following reason

1. Most services have upfront rate card(eg carpenter repairs Rs 250/hr) and not the 'On inspection' tariff where you may feel gouged at times. Housejoy by contrast has a visit fee which is adjustable 
2. Prices usually (but not always) inclusive of tax
3. Super responsive customer service available on chat from 9am to 7pm. Opposed to this, Housejoy has email or call. 
4. Intuitive questions to help better identify the service provider and help them scope work. For example, computer repair requests are asked the model type/repair reason. UrbanClap pioneered this before copied by others

Housejoy has recently revamped their app/UI maybe to address #1, and are offering discount codes perhaps to make up for lost time. But for now, UC rocks.

Hope is not lost however for Housejoy. When Uber entered India, they kicked ass of Ola's customer care. But in the last few months, Ola is in my view, much better than Uber now. So with enough management focus, one can always make up lost time

Some musings over the last one year

Recently, I read an article by the Collaborative Fund Blogger Morgan Hausel about why everyone should write http://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/why-everyone-should-write/

In this blogpost, I take a stab at addressing the 4 questions he mentioned

What is your edge over competitors? Skills in excel, PPT, financial modelling are generic skills, however the initial edge in my view is the ability to understand accounting better than a MBA, and business better than a CA. This is cumulatively improved by  the softskills such as empathy, willingness to get your hands dirty in the trenches, and lack of ego. Successive bosses and mentors have the credit for instilling this in me. However, I am aware of the power of compounding and everyday changes, so it is a mission to become better daily amidst the information overload.

How do you react to unforeseen risk? I interpret this question to exclude insurable risks, since that would be hedged against. But for risk such as 10% market swings against your open futures positions, the stock you just entered being called out as a fraud, your much thought over positional trade failing, these are unavoidable. Hence, I try to structure the portfolio to be within my staying power. For example, I recently purchased the listed Indian private bank YESBANK, on the day before it released its annual report in which it disclosed divergence from the central bank suggested provisioning norms, for certain non-performing assets. This disclosure was not voluntary being mandated by the securities regulator SEBI, and the stock promptly corrected ~10%-15%. Thankfully, I did not have to exit at firesale prices, and could hold and exit at a profit(now the stock is 10% over that initial entry price, after having swung back 25%). So correct risk management applies. In personal life, this maxim would be not to be dependeant on just one income source, professional development etc. You don’t know which one will work.

What have you changed your mind about recently? That there are companies who can grow at double digit CAGR without reverting to terminal growth rates. This is not an excuse however to write fiction in excel and justify outlandish P/E multiples, but rather is an effort to learn from them. To the end, focus on business insight rather than news, and on knowledge with a longer half life. 

What part of your job are you not good at? I’d suppose this would entail dealing with what I consider non value added and ego massaging work, which finally does not serve any economic purpose. This is integral to any corporate job especially as you climb the ladder (notable exceptions are the owner-operator driven companies out there).