Internet in India

There has been whole lot of advances in this space since we last reported about it.

More players have entered into this space since then. Madhouse, Moviemart to name a few.

Madhouse has been a phone based rental service operating in Chandigarh (based out of Delhi ) for past one and half year and have now gone online with services extended to Delhi/NCR. Moviemart also confirms the market for Online DVD Rentals by moving its 100% offline store to online rentals. The trends in this space are quite positive as some earlier entrants (www.cinesprite.com, www.seventymm.com) are becoming aggressive in marketing, have improved their service levels, have gone for second round of funding etc.

Just to comment on Cinesprite, they are leading the pack as far as Delhi/NCR is concerned and currently promise a large range of titles and very good service levels. I asked for a title and they added it to their collection in a short span of time.

It is definitely becoming one sticky service with switching barriers coming from the movie collection, pricing and other website related features. I haven’t tried others (as I mentioned, it’s a bit sticky) but recommend others to try out Cinesprite.

Since I started using the service a couple of months ago I feel that online DVD rentals hold a definite advantage over the local DVD rental shops. I can search for the available titles, The quality of DVD’s are better, can maintain a queue of DVD’s that I want to watch, return it as per my schedule, no extra charges for keeping it one more day and moreover can request a DVD if it is not available in the collection. The only drawback I find is that they would only provide titles that are legally available in India unlike the local DVD rental shops.

As far as the competition amongst the online DVD rental companies is concerned I think it will all boil down to who has more titles, better deals, better DVD quality, timely deliveries and pickup (quality of service) and better promotional and marketing campaigns.

Challenges - mindset of people (as we last reported it) is difficult to crack and we would love to hear about this from one of the online DVD rental company. These companies surely have been successful in gaining some momentum by breaking such mindsets (or it is the adventurous lot of people - who jump to try out any new service that starts). It will be great to see and to imagine the growth these guys can have if they are successful in delivering on this front.

That’s neither a promo for some Pop show, nor it’s anything related to cricket. That’s IndiMix’06 from Microsoft India.

IndiMIX ’06 – It is testimony to the promise of effective Web experiences; it is the point of inflexion; it is the demonstration of the genesis of creativity and innovation; it is The Next Web Now. –Source

It would be interesting to see what microsoft has to showcase this time. Looks more of a move to attract the Indian youth towards “Live.com” than just another showcasing event.

Don’t be surprised if you see Anil Kumble’s name amongst the various entrepreneurs and technology evangelists, for Anil Kumble happens to be the director of StumpVision a software product development company.

Anyways, if you are impressed by Microsoft’s recent products like Atlas, Live, or you really like Mandira as a host, grab a registration here.

Google (Nasdaq: GOOG - message board) will soon announce that its Google Talk instant messaging and VOIP service will be built into its social networking site Orkut, Google’s version of MySpace.The company says its Google Talk and Orkut development teams are busy putting the finishing touches on the integration. The announcement will likely be made sometime next week.

-Source

Merging Social Networking and Instant Messaging, though a no-brainer, is a requirement. This would certainly increase user retention. Google’s certainly focusing on Orkut now!