Hello Our Dear Audiences & Reader,
A Very Happy New Year 2021!
Like you, I’m quite happy to have 2020 behind me. I can’t wait to see what unfolds in 2021, and for things to go back to some semblance of normalcy. On this Monday, instead of a regular recap email, I’d like to go back and talk about 2020 one final time, and the most important lesson it taught us—all thanks to our subscribers. And what this means for you—a reader of www.multmediastudio.net in 2021. When 2020 started, and the Covid-19 pandemic pushed all of us indoors, we asked subscribers what they expect from The Mumbai Multimedia Studio. Broadly, the feedback fell into three categories:
“Things are moving too quickly. Can you keep me up to date so I don’t fall behind?”
“There’s too much information out there. Can you tell me what I should listen to and what I should ignore?”
“I read the news. I am just not sure what any of it means in the long-term”
2020 was a year that was fast-paced, eventful, noisy and unclear—unlike any other year before. That’s why we invested in creating another set of products to keep our subscribers informed.
Our Blogs.
We used our BLOGS to tell the story of 2020. Thousands of our subscribers experienced 2020 solely through them. Hundreds wrote to us telling us how they felt more informed, intelligent and even calmer—all while the news cycle jumped from one pointless outrage to the next.
Let me show you.
Back in March, when India went into lockdown, we immediately analysed two things. The fiscal cost of the lockdown caused by shutting down both demand and supply, and the impact on the four big supply chains—people, food, healthcare and money, all of which turned out to be the big problems that India struggled with in the next several months. To explain the fiscal cost, we used the example of how mothers “freeze” long-running Monopoly games in place after telling players to call it a night.
Then in April and May, as things became clearer, governments started creating digital tools to monitor its citizens, under the guise of contact tracing (Remember Aarogya Setu?). We wrote about the structural impact of this on surveillance. Then came stimulus measures by various countries. We wrote a lot about it. We talked about which ones would work, and which ones wouldn’t. When India announced a stimulus, newspapers reported it with much fanfare. However, OUR AUDIENCES of www.multimediastudio.net found out that things were a bit more...nuanced. Also, technology companies found out that they had to change their apps and websites outright thanks to the pandemic. We did a fun, visual edition of 3D VFX Animation how safety communication trumped product communication across apps in Asia.
Apart from the pandemic, trade went through a crazy ride as well. The most significant trade deal in Southeast Asia’s history, the RCEP was signed by 15 countries. India was not one of them and chose to walk out of it. Thanks to our newsrooms across Southeast Asia and India, we covered the implications of this from both sides—subscribers got the Indian perspective and the South Asian one. Then came the big one—the Chinese app ban in India and the call for self-reliance or Atmanirbhar. Moving away from China was always going to be tricky for trade across Southeast Asia and PLIs, as we said several times. While the world stayed shut, one company in India won. Jio Platforms raised over $20 billion from a clutch of investors, and we analyzed the hell out of this. We wrote how this was due to something called the TINA factor, what Facebook and Google want out of this, and we structurally broke down how Jio is in the endgame now.
Also, more about Facebook in Southeast Asia doing things you haven’t heard much about.
Oh, we also did other cool graphics. Like the one which studied the impact of the shutting down of IT parks in India, and its long-term consequences across multiple areas.
Much & more followed. Readers knew exactly why vaccine development was complicated, and why transportation was even more complicated, and why India has an edge. We had loads of fun too. Like the time when we wrote about an imaginary conversation that never happened at Google. Oh, and the time we told the history of Reliance Communications through the fable of the merchants of Baghdad. All in all, it was an eventful year, and our newsletters helped make it even more so. We had a lot of fun writing them, and even more fun reading your feedback which made us better.
2021 promises to be as eventful as 2020.
We, at Mumbai Multimedia Studio, hope you stay on and experience 2021 through our regular BLOGS as well. Happy New Year, and we look forward to helping you make sense of the world this year as well. Also, do consider subscribing to Multimedia studio if you haven't already — Choose the one that makes the most sense for you.
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