In this new era of the conversational internet, chatbots are the new websites and messaging apps are the new browsers
Away from Silicon Valley, a new Internet revolution is sweeping across countries around the world. While some of this is driven by Silicon Valley ideas and products, it’s surprisingly not on the radar of most tech leaders and investors.
Some background is needed to understand. The commercial Internet as we know it emerged in the mid-1990s, in the age of laptops and desktops, long before the invention of smartphones. New frameworks based on hypertext formats enable websites to become the way for businesses to deliver content, products and services, and browsers to become the way for consumers to discover and consume them. Long before smartphones emerged about a decade later, users in developed countries had already developed the habit of using websites and browsers.
However, most emerging countries have essentially skipped the first part and gone straight to smartphones. These mobile-first ecosystems operate very differently. The most used apps in these countries are messaging apps (can be WeChat, WhatsApp, Line, Kakao, Telegram, Viber, or even SMS/RCS, etc.). So as businesses now try to engage with consumers, they are finding that building chatbots to engage consumers is very effective.
Think of chatbots as the new website, messaging apps as the new browser, and the entire framework as the new conversational internet.
Unlike the “hypertext” Internet of yore, the conversational Internet is more convenient, natural, and easy to use. With 10 billion conversations per month with more than 45,000 businesses, Gupshup plays an important role in enabling this conversational Internet. This gives us a good perspective on this emerging phenomenon.
The conversational interface enables users to chat with businesses as easily as they would chat with friends or family. Businesses in emerging markets find that user open, read, and engagement rates are often much higher than with email, websites, or apps. Messaging applications include identities, eliminating the need to log in to each service. It usually contains or is integrated with a wallet, which makes payments easier. Mobile devices include cameras, GPS and fingerprint recognition to support location-based or strong authentication services.
If this sounds surprising, a version of this phenomenon is already happening in China, with WeChat, a super-app that provides access to mini-programs created by businesses.it is actually Chinese internet browser. Applets are not entirely conversational – they have more structured interfaces, like apps and websites. However, it does speak to the fact that internet delivered via messaging apps is the preferred mechanism in a mobile-first ecosystem.
Other messaging apps are reluctant to mix metaphors the way WeChat does, juxtaposing web-like screens with message threads. Instead, apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, RCS, etc. can keep the user experience consistently conversational. Just say “Hi” or “Hello” to start a chat thread, similar to how you would start a conversation in the real world.
Some may ask, isn’t messaging heavily used in developed markets? Yes, we do have those widgets in the lower right corner of the website. Or businesses do send emails and text messages to users. In all of these cases, the messages provide you with a link that, when clicked, takes you to a web page where you complete the rich transaction. In emerging markets, users don’t click through to these pages that much. So instead of adding a bit of messaging to the web in a hypertext internet, the web is squeezed into a messaging experience in a conversational internet. The messaging experience is richer and more advanced than anything seen in developed markets (example below).
Structured interfaces like websites and apps require users to click on screens, tabs, links, and buttons for something to happen—they force humans to act like computers. In contrast, conversational experiences require users to simply speak—they force computers to behave like humans. Humans learn how to talk in early childhood, and this is how they talk to other people. Conversational experiences are therefore arguably the logical endpoint and most evolved form of human-computer interfaces (until we figure out thought transmission via brain implants).
Today, all banking services, except cash withdrawals, are available via chat without the need to physically visit a branch. Loan sanctioning, account opening, investing/trading to balance checks, you name it, it’s all there. If banking is done, there’s retail therapy, where you can shop and splurge from a detailed catalog, build a shopping cart and make payments – all from the messaging app itself. hungry? The restaurant offers food ordering and delivery tracking services. Airlines, hotels, hospitals, pharmacies, government agencies and nearly every business are just a chat away. To use a metaphor from the physical world, messaging apps have effectively become a kind of shopping mall where people can find almost everything they need or want.
Conversational experiences have seen widespread adoption over the past few years, and now these interfaces will get a huge boost with the breakthrough development of generative AI solutions for computer natural language understanding. Advances in translation and speech technology allow chatbots to transcend language and literacy barriers. Of course, emerging markets will be impacted the most, where these interfaces are defining a new way to buy, pay and find support.
People deeply influenced by the hypertext Internet often ask why tech ecosystems around the world don’t eventually become like those in the United States. Anyone who has been to one of these markets, even for just a day, will immediately realize how different the mobile-first technology landscape is. The conversational internet is ideally suited to a mobile-first ecosystem. Indeed, the more interesting question is whether this behavior will make its way to developed markets.
With the rise of the LL.M., this is looking increasingly likely. Advanced conversational interfaces, good at talking like humans, already pose a threat to search engines. In the age of GPT, who wants to wade through a set of blue links? Not just search engines, it could actually threaten every website, forcing every user interface to become conversational. Maybe every dashboard, form, report, every website will have a conversational layer on top of it, hiding the network complexity underneath.
This may take a while, as businesses in developed markets are hesitant to abandon a user experience they may have spent two decades optimizing. But that’s the nature of paradigm shifts – when technology enables it and consumers prefer it, businesses have no choice but to adapt or risk being left behind. Instagram Direct already offers APIs to enable rich experiences that continue to grow globally. Even SMS offers some conversation, but is rather limited in functionality.
As we move from hypertext to a conversational Internet, from a computerized Internet to a humanized Internet, from an exclusive Internet to an inclusive Internet, it will have a huge global impact on economies and societies around the world. The hypertext internet wave digitized developed markets, bringing about massive change, disruption and value creation, and there is no reason to think that the conversational internet won’t do the same for the rest of the world, and may even do so as it cycles back to developed markets More things to do. market. It’s time to put the conversational internet on the technology radar, because even if we don’t, it will force its way in.
About the author
Beerud Sheth is the co-founder and CEO of Gupshup, a leading conversational engagement platform. Gupshup helps businesses better engage customers with personalized conversational experiences. The company operates in more than 40 countries, has more than 45,000 customers and sends 9 billion messages every month. Sheth previously co-founded Elance (now Upwork; NASDAQ: UPWK), which pioneered online freelancing. Its online platform enables businesses to tap into a global network of millions of freelancers, achieving over $3.5 billion in total transaction value. He holds a master’s degree in computer science from MIT and a bachelor’s degree in computer science from IIT Bombay, where he received a Silver Medal.
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