So, in 2021, Mark Zuckerberg changed Facebook's name to Meta. Later on, Elon Musk would change Twitter's name, too, but, at the time, it raised some eyebrows. After all, it seemed emblematic of the idea that Mark was going all in with his poker chips on the Metaverse with a belief that it would be the successor to the Internet and shape all digital experiences with use cases ranging from hanging out with friends to entertainment, gaming, fitness and education. The power of belief.
Meta announced a product called the "Meta Quest Pro" in 2022 for the cheap price of $1500 (about ₹125,000). Some guffawed. In a country, like India, would such a burgeoning technology even have some user stickiness? People may have thought, "It's too futuristic. It won't be for the masses. It'll be on the periphery of technology. The world's not ready for futuristic technology".
Then, OpenAI went public with a ChatGPT model. Suddenly, there were crazy rates of adoption across the world, even in India. According to BCG, as of 2024, India was the largest user of ChatGPT with about 45% of respondents revealing they used the chatbot. It may have even sparked an influx of AI startups with subsequent funding following, almost like the 2021 funding frenzy.
