
India’s Flipkart to shut down website, thanks to popularity of mobile - rohanaurora
http://www.geekwire.com/2015/indias-flipkart-to-shut-down-website-within-a-year-thanks-to-popularity-of-mobile/
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hiby007
I am an regular Flipkart User, and I do not like this behaviour, Flipkart is
forcing me to move to an mobile app, just to have better control and tracking.

They have already stopped supporting the mobile website, and it simply
instructs you to download the app to continue.

This is the moment I have completely stopped using flipkart and moved to
amazon.in

I like website more than app, both gets the job done, where as In an mobile
app I have to give various permission which is not required for a simple
E-Commerce website (which suggest the are just doing it for the data)

See the list of permission used by the app below.

    
    
      Device & app history
      retrieve running apps
      read sensitive log data
      Identity
      find accounts on the device
      Location
      approximate location (network-based)
      precise location (GPS and network-based)
      Photos/Media/Files
      read the contents of your USB storage
      modify or delete the contents of your USB storage
      Camera
      take pictures and videos
      Wi-Fi connection information
      view Wi-Fi connections
      Device ID & call information
      read phone status and identity
      Other
      receive data from Internet
      use accounts on the device
      view network connections
      full network access
      control flashlight
      prevent device from sleeping
      read Google service configuration

~~~
hobarrera
It's already past time that Android had (out-of-the-box) a "don't grant access
but make the application think I did"-checkbox.

Essentially, showing fake data to the app if you pick this (eg: no photos,
fake contacts, etc).

AFAIK, there are some android apps (and cyanogen) that add this features, but
it really needs to be worked on upstream.

This is doubly useful for google, since they can always keep their own apps as
"superprivilidged" on google-sponsored phones.

~~~
winter_blue
It'll be better if there are checkboxes next to each permission, and if the
user doesn't grant a certain permission, the app _can know_.

Older apps targeting older API levels will receive fake data, whereas newer
apps will be able to know whether they were actually granted the permission or
not.

This would prevent apps (and app developers) from being left in the dark, and
would also kill the "all or nothing" permissions model currently in place.

~~~
thewhitetulip
Android starting from 4.4 does have a privacy feature that allows you to
control what data out of permissions a particular app can access, on my phone
I have turned everything off for everything. P.S. I don't have any google app

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CydeWeys
Unreal. Do they really expect it to cost more to maintain their web presence
in addition to their mobile app than their web presence will make them? If you
already have a back-end for servicing all of those mobile apps, is having an
HTML front-end really that difficult?

I vastly prefer doing almost anything I can think of on a real desktop with
big displays and a good keyboard over a mobile app. Am I that out of touch?
Why would anyone, that has a choice in the matter, prefer a mobile app for
shopping, when it's much easier to open and manage dozens of tabs of product
listings and reviews across lots of different sites for ease of price
comparison and product comparison?

... wait, I think I realized why they're doing this. They want to create a
walled marketplace where you're locked in to buying things from them, and
can't easily compare products or prices elsewhere.

~~~
sgrove
What about Gopher? FTP? Usenet? AOL? WAP? HTTP/HTML is just another way of
consuming the content, but the justification for using it over other mediums
is that usage is high enough. If it falls below a certain threshold, then it
makes sense to throw it out, just like the other low-performing mediums.
Although walled-garden reasoning may also play a factor, a simple market-
driven analysis would be sufficient in many cases to warrant the decision to
drop HTML.

There are some big social media companies whose mobile traffic so far
outstrips their web-usage, that they consider from time to time dropping the
html frontend. It seems inconceivable to us, but it makes a certain amount of
sense.

~~~
wpietri
Not quite. Absolute traffic levels don't matter. The only time it makes sense
to throw it out, as the parent comment suggested, is if the maintenance costs
exceed the benefits. Even if the usage is low compared to mobile, it only
makes sense to stop if it's a long-term net negative.

Personally, this makes me suspect bad architecture. If they've got well-
factored APIs, the additional cost of maintaining a modest web presence should
be pretty low. From what they describe, mobile is now somewhere between 40 and
60% of their traffic. Even if they were pretty sure that the trend to mobile
would continue, why wouldn't they just hedge their bets by investing less in
the HTML front end until the web traffic is really negligible? Few people use
faxes anymore, but a lot of businesses still publish fax numbers just in case.

Assuming that this isn't purely internal politics, then my best guess is that
they have a lot of terrible web code. Somebody saying, "Mobile is the one and
only future! Look, shiny future!" gives people a chance to declare bankruptcy
on a lot of technical debt while appearing as forward-thinking leaders, rather
than bozos who made a giant mess.

~~~
captn3m0
Yes, exactly. Any CEO worth his salt would know to hedge his bets and stay on
a platform till its already dead. That is what Stephen Elop taught everyone.

I do think that some amount of bad architecture is involved, but flipkart does
have a lot of money, and a lot of good engineers. They even have cool stuff on
github [0], which needs good people. They have likely fixed their architecture
issues by now.

Flipkart has money, and lots of it (current valuation is $11 billion). There
is absolutely no way that they are considering this on a cost-analysis basis.

~~~
wpietri
The Nokia analogy bears approximately no relationship to this situation. Nokia
was a platform company. Flipkart is just using other people's platforms, ones
that will continue to exist independent of their efforts.

Your theory that people with lots of money and stuff on Github have no
architectural problems does not match my experience.

Also, I like you using the web to tell me the web is dead. Do go on.

------
arihant
Another Indian e-commerce site Tradus did this last year, and they failed so
badly they went back to stealth mode.

Having said that, Flipkart might be just big enough to actually pull this off.
I must note that it is highly irritating. They already shut down their mobile
site ages ago with a "Download the app or go die" page. This is extremely
irritating especially when you follow links from e-mails, their app fails to
catch it and mobile site is giant "Ha Ha".

For this to work they would have to significantly boost the quality of their
apps. It is just not that great on either iOS or Android. Flipkart has made
apps for insane amount of platforms though, even S40, to probably support this
decision. Even my Android Wear has a Flipkart app.

EDIT: FYI, Flipkart didn't really say that they will shut it down. All they
said is that their mobile traffic grew 10-fold and in the next year they might
become totally mobile. He was obviously referring to traffic, with no word
about shutting down website.

~~~
dpacmittal
Well, Myntra which was acquired by Flipkart is supposed to go mobile-only on
1st May. Flipkart might be testing waters before doing it across their whole
business.

------
virtuabhi
A mobile app can have a higher conversion factor than a website. But still
this decision seems to be short sighted. A well-designed website allows people
the access information from a wide variety of devices - Amazon e-readers,
Google Android, iOS, Blackberry, linux terminals. If your device platform is
not supported then Flipkart then you will have to select a competitor website.

If you do not want to agree with the many "Allow this app to access X, Y, and
Z" then you will have to select a competitor website.

If you want to use a bigger screen and a keyboard then you will have to select
a competitor website.

A bug on website can be fixed immediately. If app has a bug and updated fix is
stuck in the app review process then you will have to select a competitor
website.

A company such as Flipkart can definitely support a web version along with
apps. And aren't website and apps supposed to be simple frontends using the
same backend APIs?

I think Flipkart is being too much ahead of time by ditching the web.
Hopefully, competitors such as Amazon and Snapdeal will fill the gap left by
Flipkart.

------
boulos
If they really turn off their website entirely, they'd get no traffic from
search engines. I assume this means they'll either keep product pages up for
the robots (and then redirect you to the mobile app), or that their 40M
registered users simply go directly to Flipkart when they want to buy
something.

~~~
notatoad
Google is indexing apps and prompting an install from the SERP when they
return in-app results. I doubt that it's as effective from an SEO perspective
as having a good mobile website, but it is supported.

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hacksome
They just tweeted out that the decision is not final.
[https://twitter.com/flipkartsupport/status/59245692561208524...](https://twitter.com/flipkartsupport/status/592456925612085248)

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mataug
I used to be a regular Flipkart user, I even bought their "Flipkart First"
subscription. That was a waste of money. Nowadays I just shop on amazon or
ebay, Prices are usually cheaper for the same items. Plus they don't force me
to use the app when on mobile.

------
dankohn1
I love Amazon Prime Now in NYC (free 2 hour delivery of tens of thousands of
items), but am constantly annoyed to have to pull out my iPhone to use it. Of
course, I presume Amazon is doing a mobile-first rather than a web-never
strategy.

~~~
artursapek
What's so terrible about "pulling out your iPhone"?

~~~
dankohn1
If I just read a review on my iMac of something I'm ready to buy, it seems
ridiculous to lean over and pull out my iPhone.

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bsder
Um, I suspect that the reason is much simpler.

An app can authorize a purchase through the phone provider. A website requires
a credit card.

~~~
rokhayakebe
This is interesting. India the primary way for in app purchase is via the
provider. Credit card penetration is low.

~~~
captn3m0
Even in cases where you have a Credit Card, there are many hoops to fly
through before you can make an in-app purchase:

\- It must be an international credit card \- It must never have 3d-secure
enabled

International Credit Cards are costlier, and it just takes one payment on an
Indian gateway to enable 3dsecure accidentally. And then, you can't use your
card again on any international purchase because no international gateway
supports 3dsecure.

~~~
avinashv
Are you trying to say that Indian credit cards that are 3D-secure enabled
don't work for IAP? This is absolutely untrue. I have both AMEX and Visa cards
issued in India, and simultaneously use them for domestic and international
online purchases, IAPs, and in-store. Never had a problem. Frankly, I've never
heard this.

~~~
captn3m0
So, if you make a purchase on an Indian website, you get 3dsecure, but you
don't get one on an International purchase? It used to work fine for me till a
while back, but the newer RBI guidelines have specifically mentioned 2 factor
auth against international transactions[0]. Since its just a guideline, it is
not enforced as such equally by all banks.

[0]: [http://www.medianama.com/2013/03/223-rbi-credit-card-
money-t...](http://www.medianama.com/2013/03/223-rbi-credit-card-money-
transfer-guidelines/)

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lucasmullens
This is crazy. It used to be that companies who couldn't do both mobile and
desktop just made an app wrap their website. Maybe we need the reverse of a
WebView. A website that does nothing more than emulate an app.

~~~
icebraining
It actually already exists: [https://www.manymo.com/](https://www.manymo.com/)

~~~
0432894820432
I just used it to access cmyip.com, and it shows their IP without identifying
it as a proxy... I tried to contact them to say that people can abuse it, but
there's no way to contact them without creating an account. :( Welp.

------
davidu
Strategy hypothesis --

They believe they have more knowledge of how to execute in the mobile space
than amazon or other outside incumbents and so they think they can move faster
and better by shutting off the power alley's of the incumbents (web) by
driving the warzone to mobile.

It's a strategy... and just a hypothesis as to some of their thinking... but
maybe? :-)

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npalli
There was a very good blog post about why shutting down the website makes a
lot of sense in India (and many parts of the world).

[http://www.eugenewei.com/blog/2015/4/6/tech-
miscellany](http://www.eugenewei.com/blog/2015/4/6/tech-miscellany)

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sosuke
I imagine they will still have a website, just not one that has the
functionality. It makes perfect sense, if a particular interface is only
driving single digit usage you drop it. No need to waste dollars updating
something no one uses.

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heroic
To be precise, 85-90% of their customers are now coming through mobile app.
Going forward, it doesn't make sense for them to support so many platforms.
People using their website are now a minority. Keeping the website operational
is just too much effort in the long run for them.

You can compare this with, how many developers worry about Blackberry when
they launch? Hardly any! The reasoning is simple: it's a platform whose usage
is sinking(was?).

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rathish_g
Note: They are not closing the flipkart online portal, but they are closing
the myntra website which they acquired an year ago. And in the press release
they must have mentioned that they are moving completely to mobile version.

They bought myntra because of tough competition and have to close it anyway.
They are doing an experiment by keeping the mobile version.

Slow death for Myntra! PR for Flipkart mobile app!

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thewhitetulip
I think they are making a mistake, there is a reason why the internet was
created, and forcefully migrating all users to the mobile app is wrong, it
defeats the purpose of having a website which anyone can handle, the news
might be that flipkart is shutting down its mobile website, shutting down the
main website is like shooting yourself with a pistol :D

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binoyxj
While they're at it, there's this new wave of services with no interface. They
believe in the mantra "The Best Interface is No Interface" eg: Operator, Magic
etc. Interesting times!

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nutanc
I hope google penalizes such kind of behavior in their search results

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zuron7
I think there is a mistake with this article. They were and already have shut
down their mobile website. There is no official statement the they are going
to shut down their website.

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Aardwolf
Can this be ran in an emulator on a PC?

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M8
As an upside they get a real choice of programming languages (unlike "Open"
Web).

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enupten
ಗೂಬೆಗಳು!

