“A marketer today has to be part storyteller, part data geek” - 25 quotes from the India Digital Summit!

Friday January 16, 2015 , 4 min Read

The ninth annual India Digital Summit (IDS), hosted by the Internet and Mobile Association of India, wrapped up in Delhi this week with dozens of speakers addressing a range of important issues. How big is the Internet market in India today? How fast is smartphone penetration increasing? What can marketers and government do to accelerate digital benefits? What new startups are emerging in the field of Internet of Things (IoT)? What skills and apps will work best in rural India?

The report ‘[email protected]’ was released by IAMAI and BCG, and it was also announced that the Telecom Society for Development of Standards for India is working on standards in emerging areas like IoT, which is good news indeed for IoT startups. Here are 25 notable quotes from IDS 2015, with more in-depth analysis and research report review coming up next!

Each month, 8-10 million Indians connect to the Internet for the first time, mostly on mobile. – Vineet Taneja, CEO, MicroMax

3G in India today is still 3G-ish or 2G or no G! – Rajan Anandan, Google

Key for e-commerce success is customer delight – we were the only one in India to offer midnight delivery of iPhone 6! – Neeru Sharma, Infibeam

Government regulations have a huge impact on e-commerce in India – a change in visa rules for tourists can boost or drop online hotel bookings. – Himanshu Singh, Hotel Commerce

All businesses are digital publishers. – Hari Nair, CEO, HolidayIQ

Social media will disrupt business – we will have no more cold callers, only warm introductions. – Ashutosh Gupta, LinkedIn

With IoT, the Internet moves out of PCs and phones – into everything around us. – Sandeep Sibal, VP, Qualcomm

IoT success in India will come from automation, healthcare and smart homes – smart cities will come later. – Awita Badonia, Alcatel-Lucent

By 2017, all our devices will be IoT ready. – Tarun Malik, Samsung

IoT will succeed in India if it delivers mega-impact, such as reducing pilferage of electricity and water. – Jagdish Mitra, TechMahindra

Don’t pitch yourself just as an IoT startup – tell businesses you will transform their processes. – R.K. Reddy, CEO, Spoors

India should promote trainers of skills as much as teachers in education. - Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Union Minister for Skill Development & Entrepreneurship

Marketing used to be ‘on’ – now it is ‘on demand’. – Anirudh Kumar, SnapDeal

If you want to be a marketer today, you have to embrace mobile. No mobile, no marketing. – Tushar Vyas, GroupM

Contextual push relevance is a key success factor for mobile marketing. - Nilay Arora, WeChat

Today, mobile users want to see ads by choice, and not by force. – Kunal Shah, Freecharge

Media fragmentation is a good thing, users want to see what is more interesting and innovative. – Parul Bhargava, vCommission

Will the difference between a mobile site and a mobile app disappear one day? – Anurag Singh, Affle

A marketer today has to be part storyteller, part data geek. – Rohit Kumar, Sociomantic

Marketers need to look beyond tactical to strategic benefits of mobile marketing. – Prabhvir Sahmey, Google Doubleclick

Mobile marketers need to look at technology as investment in the future, not just as spend. - Noor Warsia, Digital Markets Asia

In 2015, 50,000 Gram Panchayats will be connected by the national fibre optic network. - Aruna Sundararajan, Bharat Broadband Network

Apps which will work in rural India have to address education, health and government services. – Nishant Rao, LinkedIn

Rural Internet must connect users to utilities, finance and the overall economy. – Vijay Shekhar Sharma, One97

Don’t think of the Internet just as a service, it is a platform on which a whole range of innovation can be launched. - Satyan Gajwani, Times Internet