We live in an era where change is the need of the hour, where data is oil, and innovation is the engine that drives any industry. New technologies are coming up each day, making our lives more comfortable and everything accessible at the click of the button. They are bringing people closer to each other and resources available to the remotest parts of the world. All these innovations have led to the formation of an entirely new economy - the Digital Economy. What is the Digital Economy exactly? People often perceive it as businesses conducting through markets by the use of the internet and the World Wide Web. But this does not solely encompass the essence of the Digital Economy; there is much more to it. Popularly known as the New Economy, Web Economy, or Internet economy, the digital economy refers to the tech-based digital computing, with the mission to ensure transparency and accessibility to all. But Why is the Digital Economy significant? Why are the businesses investing a large part of their resources into researching and acquiring such technologies?
To answer this question, let us know about the SIX Ds of tech-disruption that have revolutionized the operation of businesses in modern times. As stated by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler, Bold -“The Six Ds are a chain reaction of technological progression, a road map of rapid development that always leads to enormous upheaval and opportunity. Technology has changed the meaning of disruption from just introducing a new product or service into the market to defining new ways of providing the luxury of satisfaction to customers. Technologies like the Internet of Things, Big Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine learning have modified and constructively disrupted both professional and personal lifestyles. The six Ds, namely- Digitized, Deceptive, Disruptive, Demonetized, Dematerialised, and Democratized; decode by Peter Diamandis. He states that the study and understanding of these six aspects is the secret to positively impacting the lives of millions of people. What each of these aspects signifies?
The first D signifies Digitized, which means that once a thing is converted or encoded in 0s and 1s, then they experience exponential growth. We can take the example of smartphones, once digitized from the old school telephones, have restructured the entire telecom industry massively. Despite the global economic slowdown, the demand for smartphones did not dip even a little. Instead, in the second quarter of 2019, smartphone shipments rose to 36.9 million, from 32.1 million in the previous quarter, according to International Data Corporation's (IDC) Asia/Pacific Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, released on Tuesday. A thing that is digitized has a Deceptive exponential growth, as the initial growth rate is not that fast as it is after it has reached a certain point. We can analyze at the revenue trend statistics of live media-streaming apps like Spotify, Gaana, Saavn, and many others. We will notice that in the first few years, each of them experienced a relatively flatter growth, which exponentially rose after reaching a particular rate. This deceptive growth rate Disrupted the entire industry and, subsequently, the traditional economy giving birth to the New Economy. This Disruption brought constructive chaos in the market, with the focus changing from only the introduction of new products to improving on the quality and experience derived from that product. The classic example would be the demise of the CD/DVD market brought by the inception of iTunes/iPods, in the early stages of the 21st century.
The added advantage of this digital change was of Demonetization, in terms of availability of products at prices as low as free. The perfect example of this is Jio brought by the Ambani's, which turned around the tables overnight, providing customers the benefit of free internet and calling for a period of three months. This step resulted in a drop in prices of other players of the industry, leading to overall benefit and satisfaction to customers.
Similarly, things like camera, maps, books, and others, got Dematerialized into a more pocket-friendly version; in the form of inbuilt cameras in mobile phones, Google maps with GPS navigator, Ebooks, etc. In addition to improving convenience and transparency, the digital economy opened doors for all people, overcoming all biases and stereotypes, becoming the Democratized version of the Economy. These six Ds have become the success mantra of any company that wishes to reap the benefits of the digital world that we reside in. It is these aspects that a business should consider and understand while operating in the industry. Since change is inevitable and Disruption is the driving force, Acceptance and Adaptability will help to survive and grow.