43 – Apple II

I-pod in the year 2003, apple introduced I-pod a music player a product which dominated the market for several years because of Simplistic user interface, a click wheel and five buttons one can’t go any simpler than that you can easily select to a song, album or singer the only competition which was around back than was Sony Ericson walkman exerts placed their bets on I-pod as they thought I-pod is much more than an mp3 player other companies had to redefine and tweaks their products as Apple set the benchmark with the I-pod.

I-Phone
On January 9, 2007, at Macworld Expo, Steve Jobs announced the most anticipated I-phone, known as a revolutionary product at the time of the launch within the first 24 hours Apple sold 2,70,000 I-phones. Interface and software idea was based on I-pod, developers and Steve want to make the I-phone simplest and innovative, hardware and software was designed to work with each other, it was like a pocket-sized computer which other companies were tried their hand to but didn’t get any success, Ever since then Apple is still dominating the market. According to a recent study, Apple I phone 6 became the best selling mobile phone of all time.

42 – The Coca Cola Story

Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink invented in the year 1886 by John Stith. What stands out over all these years, which makes it the world’s best soft-drink maker is their marketing tactics which always stand out in the market.

Coca-cola is the largest beverage manufacturer and distributor in the market which you can find it in the farthest of the region, in the rural area spread across 200 countries.

Simplicity
Coca-cola always stuck to simplicity while marketing and advertising. Coca-cola campaigns always go around happiness and sharing, some of the famous tag lines which are used in coca-cola campaigns is – “Open Happiness” “Thanda matlab Coca-cola” “”Share Happiness” “Khusiyan banto khsiyan badao”. Simplicity is the key to succes when you want to reach to the end consumers.

Personalization
Coca-cola knows how to use personalization effectively while targeting the consumers, despite being a global brand coca-cola makes sure to localize the campaigns to make it regionally appealing and attractive. Share happiness is one of the most successful campaigns in which they replaced the coke logo from one side and printed share the coke with the person named on it which became a huge hit.

In some of the countries coca-cola costs cheaper than water, which makes it an alternative of water.

41 – MacDonald

I am loving it, Macdonald is one of the renowned and leading fast-food chains of the world, founded in the year 1940 by Richard and Maurice MacDonald. Ronald and Maurice both decided to open a restaurant where customers can come and enjoy the meal, they bought appliances to sell hamburgers and milkshakes. In the year 1945, Ray Croc American fast-food tycoon visited the shop and amused by knowing the number of milkshakes and burgers a small shop owner can sell.

He advised Macdonald brothers to start selling the burgers at low prices, slashing the cost of workers by selling it directly from the self-service counter. In the year 1955, Macdonald opened its first franchise outlet in Illinois and the business started to grow, Macdonald expanded 1,000 stores.

The Clown
In the year 1963, Macdonald introduced a fictional clown, Ronald Macdonald with the “m” logo, known as MacDonald’s happy clown. According to a survey which was conducted by stunning-stuff.com in terms of recognition Ronald Macdonald comes second after Santa Claus, you can find the statue of the clown on the entrance of every store of Macdonald’s.

There are always two sides to a story with the expansion of Macdonald’s faced backlashes as it was promoting unhealthy and junk food. Macdonald played smartly and includes healthy meal options on the menu.

40 – SoftBank and Masayoshi Son

SoftBank is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company, headquartered in Tokyo, the company was founded in the year 1981 by Masayoshi Son.

The reason why I am writing about this, they are consistently in the news because of the way they back and invest in startups, known as one of the biggest and craziest investors in tech.
Some prominent companies Softbank invested in are-
Uber
WeWork
Nvidia
Slack
ARM
OneWeb
Paytm
Softbank founder Masayoshi Son is a Japanese Technologist, entrepreneur, and investor, an interesting story which was shared by many is before moving to the US for studies. Masayoshi tried to meet Fujita Deen who was the president of Macdonald’s (Japan), Fujita recommended Masayoshi to study computer engineering.

In the year 1981, while studying B.A Economic from U.C Berekely Masayoshi with his friends invented an electronic translator, which was a sound translator device that can translate Japanese into English and German which he sold to a company and make huge bucks from it. It was just the beginning of Masayoshi’s brilliance and smartness. Masayoshi realized in the campus students don’t have much to do in the free time and there is no option to entertain. Masayoshi imported used video games and gaming consoles and installed it in the dormitories and restaurants with this investment Masayoshi earned $1.5 million.

Son started investing in various firms from Yahoo to Amazon, Vodafone Japan, and many more SoftBank never look back since then, the pattern which Softbank follows is phenomenal.

39 – Kingdom of Disney Characters

We all are extremely fond of cartoons. Especially Disney cartoons, we all used to adore The Lion King, Timon and Pumba, Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, Aladdin. Each character taught us something which can we apply in our life.

I am listing a few-

The Lion King – A mentor is a must in life, no matter where you go and what you do, without guidance, you will be lost. Just like how Rafiki mentored Simba.

Uncle Scrooge – My favourite, the amount of wealth Uncle Scrooge and Richie rich posses is unordinary, I believe they are the richest cartoon characters of all time, jokes apart. Uncle Scrooge taught us no matter how wealthy you are family and friends comes first they are the one who matters and counts.

Mickey Mouse – Everyone’s favorite and most adorable teaches us to be helpful, his friends can always rely on him if they are going through any tough situations. Smile always spreads smiling and keeps smiling no what others will say and how bad is the day. Always look at the bright side of the situation we all have seen in most of the episodes Mickey always thinks positive and doesn’t let the negative effect him.

Timon and Pumba – I can’t tell you how much I miss this show, so funny and hilarious because of the Hindi dubbing. To be yourself that’s the biggest learning which I grasp. Tolerance is the virtue, No matter how much Pumba irritates Timon, Timon always tolerate being a friend, which we must learn

38 – Winter is here

I have moved from Indore, a city that is located in the heart of Madhya Pradesh. Indore comes in the malwa region where you will get to experience all the seasons equally be it Winter, Summers, Autumn, Rainy season whereas in Mumbai all you experience is rains, rains, a lot of rains and humidity. So, the winter season, Mumbaikars may not be able to relate to it but since I am from Indore I can relate to it.

Indore is known for the food and in winter season you will get an opportunity to experience a lot of different mouths watering delicacies and dishes which you can not resist. I am listing down a few.

Jalebi which is a sweet made by Maida (flour) and sugar syrup which you can in winter some people like to eat it with the milk.

Garadu is also one of the excellent Indori cuisines which you can enjoy in winters or rainy season which is a fried sweet potato served with jeeravan.

Bhutte ki kees which is a traditional street food you will find in Indore made up of boiled and crumbled corns.

Moong bhajiya – Moong bhajiya or moong ke pakode is a must-have thing to eat which is made up of moong dal and served with chutney and fried chilies when you are out with your friends in a wintry night with tea.

36 – End Of Decade II

Ride Sharing

In the year 2010 people were still commuting with the same means of transports Bus, Trains, Taxis or Own vehicles until Two friends Travis Kalanick and Garret Camp came up with an idea of a ride-sharing service which changed the way we commute today, In May 2010 Uber starts their service with just three cars in the city of San Francisco and as the ease and simplicity and east to book and easy to pay feature Uber becomes a massive hit, after going through various ups and down Uber is till in the market generating revenue of $3.8 billion.

Other companies like OLA, Carma, BlaBla car, Turo jumps in the business of ridesharing as they see the growth and success of UBER. In cities like Mumbai and Indore, Startup like Jugnoo entered by providing Autos and Two-wheelers to make it local and traffic friendly.

Smart Phones
Over the years a lot has been improved in the mobile phones industry Motorola Razor, Apple I-phone 3G, HTC. Mobile phone became slim, you don’t require a charger anymore to charge your cellphone, You can now pay through your cellphone, Quality and design improve drastically, foldable phones which were a distant dream is now a reality.

Apple decided to eliminate the charging port and Audio jack port to make its phones slimmer and aesthetically appealing and Brands like Xiaomi, Oppo or Vivo which weren’t even in the market, now outperformed the reputed and renowned brands like Apple and Samsung.

35 – End of Decade – III

Cable Tv to OTT

I, however, remember watching WorldCup at my home with my family on the television with the commentary of Ravi Shastri, when M.S Dhoni hits a six on the last ball and India lifts the WorldCup from then to now, people are no more rely on cable tv for the entertainment. Rise of OTT platforms took place that no one heard about, the mass shift toward OTT platforms like Netflix, Amazon, Hotstar, ALT Balaji, VOOT, Sonyliv, etc. increased suddenly. According to an article, India’s online streaming industry will grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 21.82% to become an 11,977-crore industry by 2023. It also says that according to the global accounting firm.

Free data plan of Jio and Cheap smartphones and Seamless network availability lead to marking a visible change of how people consume entertainment shows like Sacred Game and IPL created set record-breaking viewerships. One of the top-rated shows of televisions SarabhaiVsSarabhai decided to launch the second season of the show on hotstar to reach the wider audience. Not just pricing of internet plans but pricing of the subscription charges are low, Netflix offered 3 months free subscription, OTT market is most likely to grow over the years and we might gonna witness the end of cable tv because of Amazon firestick and Smart tv through which you can connect the internet, wifi and Netflix and Hotstar inbuilt.

34 – Gaming World

Back in 2010, I remembered when my friends used to visit a gaming parlor to play Raw or Smackdown WWE games on Playstation 2, from then to now the games and gaming industry changed drastically.

Let’s talk about some of the influential and most popular games which took over and became a massive success. According to a KPMG study, India’s gaming industry will be worth over $1 billion with 190 million games by 2021

Fortnite

Released on 21st July 2017. It isn’t that famous in India but In foreign countries, teenagers are crazy about this, 250 million registered players. Players fight against each other. Players have an option to create their avatar, game mode and practice. Fortnite generated $3Billion by offering in-game items to buy through users can improve their game and skills by purchasing various weapons, powers.

PUBG
A game that became a widely popular and overnight sensation in India. Some of the gamers even lost their life because of the addiction of the game as they played it non-stop without eating and resting, in some of the states government had to impose a ban on it and in some state, schools had to release circulars and organize parent-teacher meetings to curb the addiction of PUBG, still, the game remains most downloaded on Playstore and I-store.

I still remember in an interactive session of Mann ki Baat one of the mothers asked PM Modi how his son just plays games online and doesn’t pay much attention to studies for which PM Modi replies ye PUBG wale hai kya.
PubG entices gamers through various participation and offers huge prizes to the winners PUBG Mobile India tournament offers prizes up to one crore rs. Over 30 million active users PUBG is still topping the charts.