I have been reading quite a few articles about the internet business and the dive store traditional model. It seems that the most “affected” field of the diving industry is the equipment sales business model.
While some manufacturers are resisting the internet as a sales channel, some others are taking great advantage of it. This is affecting directly the way in which dive centers manage their equipment sales and deteriorating their relationship with their once “best friends”: manufacturers.
At the same time, training agencies are creating products that develop mainly on line and in which the only part that is left to the instructor is the in water training. Even before that, many entrepreneurs started creating diving simulation software. I don’t particularly like the software created but the trend is catching up with technology and some money will definitely make a difference in those.
There is one quite obvious fact: The information technologies have changed our world forever. The power is now in the hands of the user; whether it is about shopping for scuba equipment on line or getting trained in a scuba course the tendency is to go on a technology platform, name it Internet if you want. We must expect that in the midterm all the “in water experience” will go virtual and will be provided by a very fancy multimedia platform.
One conclusion could be drawn: The diving industry has always been behind the opportunities that the internet creates and traditional business models have retarded the development of those opportunities for the diving industry turning them into threats.
I think the scuba industry needs to get ahead of the technology trend for once. We must create the inevitable before it reshapes our business for ever, just like the internet did. With this I mean a pro active approach.
PADI has very interesting material on the Undersea Journal. They are always following the market trends and the generational approach of customers. Another conclusion may be drawn from what we read in the UJ: The customers are changing. Children are digital beings now and this is something a lot of old time instructors will never understand nor share. Not to blame them; it’s just the world is spinning to fast these days.
I have three brothers and one sister. The two younger ones are having experiences I just had the chance to dream about when I was younger: One is a Rock and Roll star in Guitar Hero, he plays on the internet with other people trough his Wii console. He is now taking electric guitar lessons and he is doing just fine. My other brother used to fly planes with Microsoft’s flight simulator and has now evolved into scale planes that really fly. Both of them share all they do about their hobbies in social networks and have constant participation in blogs, peer to peer networks, etc.
Where I want to get with this family jewels explanation is that the new generations want to have the experiences we could only dream of when it was our time… and they want it now. The scary thing is that they are getting them trough many different tools and platforms and that the diving industry is falling behind.
I have just completed some of the basic technical instructor ratings. I still have a long way to go. I would love to dive the Andrea Doria and get one of the valuable china plates; but, at this moment I’m just not capable of doing it in a safe way. On the other hand, a twelve year old can be Sebastian Loeb in the world rally championship on Play Station.
Remember what it was like when only military divers could use a CCR or even become an Open Circuit Diver? What was it like before “Diving is fun”? My point here is that the diving industry will get to be just like that in the midterm if we don’t get out with new innovative and technology based platforms.
I can only dream of a video game in which people can actually learn CCR diving and all the theory it involves with a different approach than going through a really long “diving in general” chapter with raid.com, having a less than friendly power point presentation with IANTD or reading a black & white TDI book. It will definitely be more fun than reading the 100+ pages on the APD manual on a basic air diluent course even if I don’t own one.
A lot of things can happen underwater and a video game is a very good way to simulate that, thus I could go and have a grasp of what being inside the Andrea Doria feels like, get “eyes on” experience on a HUD and computer display. I’d like to see that in a really big high definition screen, manage it with my Wii joystick and have to do a couple s-drills while underwater by pressing buttons at 50+ m.
If I do survive the dive on my console, I would like everyone on line to know about my achievement and feel like John Chatterton for once. Be cheered on social networks!! When I think about that I realize we will need a mash up in Google to place an avatar flag on the wreck and a virtual log book to brag around.
One day we scuba instructors will have to compete with the “having great experiences on line trend” and that will be the end of the link between the 3 E’s offered by dive shops. That will be the end of the dive shop business model. Education, Equipment sales and experiences will compete on line instead of collaborate in one place. Furthermore, diving will have much more competition for experiences just as great that cost a fraction of the money we need to spend on a CCR course and unit nowadays.
If you don’t believe me, think of the travel industry. From the late 70’s to the early 90’s the traditional travel agent business model was developed in the United States. Airlines, Car rentals, reservation systems, tour operators were involved in a very well structured chain. If an airline sold a seat, many of the other players would get a cut. That business model is now over and all the one time “partners” are now equally competing for the “internet traveler” attention.
Does this means that diving will disappear? I hope not but this definitely means that the industry has to get hands on to create a way of training virtual divers, making it more fun and increasing volume.
With some money invested in IT and by making it really fun and rewarding, hopefully we will increase the amount of people having the diving experience on line and therefore convert some of them into “enthusiastic divers” that actually want to go underwater with a reputable dive operator that do require a C card and forms filled assuming potential death and injury.
If the Silicon Valley people could do this with golf (a much more boring sport than diving for me) they can definitely do it with underwater exploration of caves in the Mexico, wrecks in Northern Europe, Sharks in the Galapagos Islands and so on.
