Looks like the winter chill is catching up with Venturewoods. Was at the contentsutra mixer couple of days back, and the participation seemed to be good.
One thing that I have been thinking about is the set of online businesses that are ripe for indian market. In 1999-2000 the dotcom boom lasted only 3 months in India, and as such, some ideas and teams that might have had merit could not get funded. Five years later, a lot of interest is coming back. One set of ideas are clearly around “concept arbitrage” — bring and localize ideas that have been successful elsewhere. JobsAhead was an example of this, so was Baazee. Some examples of obvious holes:
1. Online consumer travel. Makemytrip got funded few months back, and I hear some others have funding too. This space is getting competitive. Are there models which people are not looking at but are valuable? A travelog site for example (check out my Leh travelog).
2. Ecommerce — there is still no amazon.com equivalent in India. I still buy most books I need from amazon, and pay $7-8 per book for shipping. And I spend around $500 per year doing this. Firstandsecond and Fabmall started with promise but (imho) succumbed to low funding and premature entry (though I believe, both sites are still there and may make a comeback).
Horizontal portals are taking some of this action away, in travel, in ecommerce and so on. But, focussed brands will have potential.
Would love to hear about big ideas waiting to happen in India (either concept arbitrage, or otherwise)… Any thoughts?
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hi can any one let me know the the best and relaible webhosting company in india.
best regds
reghulal
We have developed an internet-based goods and services portal for the Indian market. To ramp up this startup operation we have searched for an India-based entrenpreneurially spirited manager/partner. Our postings and requests for resumes have been met most commonly with suspicion and a request for details of the site, despite our making it clear that disclosure was contingent on receipt of a candidate’s cv and further qualification, including references. The postings here have made it clear that our basic plan is on target and that there are individuals in India who are qualified and motivated to make it happen. You have also confirmed our view of the targeted customer base as small and skeptical, yet almost certain to grow and be attracted to our model. Thank you so much! Any suggestions as to where to post further elements of our partner search would be greatly appreciated.
Hi,
InfoMedia Corporation a leading company in offshore development is venturing with the fastest growing property portal http://www.RealAcres.com
InfoMedia Corporation is planning to invest heavy amount in online realestate business.
Source- WallStreet Journal
It is good to know Alok’s view that online businesses are waiting to happen. I couldn’t agree more. In fact when there was a bust, it was rather surprising for me as I always felt people feel very comfortable doing their business/purchase and sale from the comfort of their homes. In retrospect, I would say it happened bacause of a few reasons; one that the net penetration was at that time not very high, secondly there were still not enough ‘trusted’ vendors operating in the space, the lack of look and feel for the consumer durable market, lack of penetration of credit cards in the market and lastly the lack of security in internet transactions. Out of these now in the larger cities penetration is reasonably good now. Secondly penetration of credit cards and security too is better. Of course the publicity received by some of the cases of fraud in this and the treatment of the cheatshas been a deterrent too. All this leaves us with, according to me current opportunity in commodities where the look and feel is not important. Thus a metals or prescious stones business where the products are sold more by standard specifications certified by international agencies is what can catch fancy as ambiguity is not there and prices too can be transperant. The catch here is the cash market. On the consumer durables front too the net is going to catch on as the tecnology keeps improving. Currently it is more risky as whave to bank upon people going to shops and after selecting a product going on the net to buy as it usually works out cheaper. Here I guess a long term investment will have to be made by the seller to build his credibility. If this can be done then success should be around the corner. For this risk VC funding is required…..:-)
This is the link: http://www.whizlabs.com. A good example of an online business that clicks. In India.