The term “hyperlocal” is often used synonymous with local deliveries in India, thanks to the wave of hyperlocal start-ups that started earlier this decade, which mostly did some kind of delivery. BigBasket and Grofers delivered groceries, Zomato and Swiggy delivered food, PharmEasy and 1mg delivered medicines, today Dunzo is delivering packages, Urban Company and Housejoy are delivering home services. But even before the wave of these hyperlocal “transaction” platforms started, we had hyperlocal “discovery” platforms like JustDial, Yelp, FourSquare and Google Maps, just that we did not call them hyperlocal then.
“Hyperlocal” however, has a powerful meaning. Hyperlocal is information oriented around a well-defined community with its primary focus directed toward the concerns of the population in that community. A working definition of hyperlocal was published in 2012, describing it as “content or services pertaining to a town, village, single postcode or other small, geographically defined community”.
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Hyperlocal is indeed about communities.
This is why the world is now moving towards hyperlocal “collaboration” with platforms like NextDoor and Nebenan making it big in the US and European markets. NextDoor is bringing together private communities while Nebenan is bringing together public communities and enabling collaboration and commerce for these communities. Platforms like IamHere have integrated public and private communities and tuned them for the Indian context in interesting ways.
But leaving products and brands aside, hyperlocal is in fact witnessing a revolution.
People are wanting to directly buy organic produce from local farmers near them. Consumers are looking for doorstep repair services. Small businesses are looking to expand their sales by hiring people locally who would not only know the locality but will also come at a cheaper cost. If hyperlocal commerce is witnessing a boom, community collaboration is becoming an absolute need because of the emerging social dynamics, so much so that UK had to appoint a “Minister for Loneliness” to address urban isolation and social solitude. With livelihoods taken care in modern day economics, people are now looking at lifestyle needs. People are wanting to pursue their hobbies again, people are wanting to make friends again, people are wanting to build their support system again.
While social dynamics are demanding that hyperlocal communities be collaborative, market dynamics are enabling them to be digitized.
Firstly, mobile internet with GPS technologies has provided a wide possibility for location-based solutions. Secondly, the omnipresence of e-commerce has made people have similar digital expectations for interactions in their neighbourhoods. Thirdly, COVID has suddenly made neighbourhoods the world, for the whole world. People are talking about getting back to roots, new businesses are coming up in neighbourhoods, consumers are realizing that there are certain things that e-commerce cannot provide them, “touch and feel”, “immediacy”, “serviceability”, for example.
70% of our lives is spent in neighbourhoods and communities. 2/3rd of smartphone users look for local info every week, 1/4th everyday. 76% of people who do a local search on their smartphone visit a physical place within 24 hours and 28% of those searches result in a purchase.
Yet, it is ironic that technology today does not connect us well in our neighbourhood. Who lives in my neighbourhood? What is happening in my neighbourhood? Who can answer my neighbourhood question? Where do my neighbours buy from? Is there a local deal in a store near me? Can I volunteer for a social cause near me? All of these are done mostly through inefficient channels of word of mouth today. It is time technology solved the collaboration problem for hyperlocal communities.
Location-based discovery and services (LBS) is a $30 billion market globally growing at a CAGR of 27%. In India, this is estimated to be around $1 billion. There is a consensus that the Indian hyperlocal market has crossed at least $300 million. Print revenues in a city like Bangalore is over 500 crores ($70 million), can hyperlocal tech take a pie of this? When LBS touches $100 billion globally over the next five years, will Indian companies be in a position to tap a good chunk of it?
If hyperlocal “discovery” ruled the internet world in the first half of last decade, hyperlocal “transactions” have definitely ruled in the second half. Will hyperlocal “collaboration” rule the next decade? There are enough indicators to predict this in the affirmative.
Article contributed by Naren Kumar, Co-founder & CEO at IamHere
