Internet in India

I’ve been hearing whispers that Google will integrate their social network Orkut with the mobile social networking app they acquired last year, Dodgeball. While it’s not rocket science to make the connection between the two products (both are social networking), the reasons to join the two are becoming more compelling… via ReadWriteWeb

Well, if this could happen in Brazil, India would be the next. So, Yaari.com needs to make it’s mark before Google comes with it’s offering.

Somehow managed to get access to Yaari.com through a friend’s ID. So here is a screenshot depicting the very obvious features of any social networking site.

Unlike Fropper, this site is free. The obvious question is how does a free social networking site survive, online advertising?, no, Prerna Gupta - CEO yaari.com is smarter! (our absolute faith in this, forced us to think and led to some more research).

So here are the screenshots that strike the chord.

The revenue comes from sms, tie up with Mobile Carriers in India, get a part of money user spends on receiving an sms (the standard rate in India is approx Rs.5 per sms, and typically carrier would not mind giving a rupee to a partner) from web and cash in on the volumes.
Smart as it might seem, but again the “Idea” in itself isn’t at all original. Yaari.com appears to be inspired by SMS.ac (A San Diego based Social Networking company with a registered user base of over 50 million in over 180 countries - Source). Sms.ac has more features than yaari has, but then they are moving in the right direction. Alerts and SMS messaging itself would amount to a lot of revenues.

Seems, Yaari.com has come up with an indianized version of SMS.ac. But that’s what has been happening in the consumer internet market in India. SMS volumes in India are unbelievably high, Just to give us a hint

“60m sms messages were sent new year’s eve in India in 2005 -Source“

M-Ticketing, a lot has been happening in this space. Here are some companies operating in this space in India.

ConvergeLabs
Funding $11 million
Key Investors: Walden International, Anthellion Capital, Global Catalyst Partners, Dot Edu Ventures, GVFL M-Ticket, ConvergeLabs’ leading application, allows mobile users to buy tickets from their phones. Instead of standing in long lines, concert and theatergoers get a special barcode on the screen of their phone, which they swipe over a scanner at the event to gain entry. –Source: RedHerring

Then there’s Moveo:

Moveo

Seed Funding $1 million

E-ticketing will soon be passé. M-ticketing is going to be the rage. M-ticketing (tickets on the mobile) is one of the applications that Moveo, the latest Indian start-up in mobile applications is coming up with. –Itwire

PVR Plans to roll out m-ticket

Indian Airlines, Spice, Indian Railways and others are coming up with m-ticketing.

Despite all this buzz about m-ticketing TicketPro (MNC having prensence in many countries) has recently started operations in India under the name of MovieTell (The reason I liked this particular site is that they have a cool Ajax based interface unlike ugly TicketCounterIndia). Why?

Because there still remains a lot of potential in just the movie e-ticketing space. The shear volumes of movie tickets sold in India make it possible.

Even at a pessimistic estimate of just 30 percent of the showcased numbers, it’s possible to sell Rs.1 billion worth of movie tickets through online sales.”
–IMAI

And if still somebody is not convinced with the figures have a look at these Google trends:

Top cities searching for “online movie tickets” around the world:
1. Hyderabad, India
2. Chennai, India
3. Bangalore, India
4. Mumbai, India
5. New Delhi, India
6. Delhi, India
7. Raleigh, NC, USA
8. Reston, VA, USA
9. Calgary, Canada
10. Denver, CO, USA

Indian cities top the charts.

The reason is simple not all multiplexes or cinemas have the infrastructure and volumes to host their own e-ticketing systems as PVR and famecinema have. There is HUGE potential for any web site trying to bring all of them under one hood. A concept similar to Fandango.

This is just the beginning, there still is huge potential here, probably more than m-ticketing which initially would be limited to big players!

Definitely a win-win situation for small Cinema Owners and the consumers.

consumer-internet-india

I strongly feel that Indian Market is just right to start a business in Consumer Internet. There’s nothing really bad about building a clone of a service which is successful in US. Afterall you are entering a new Market, a Market offering more than 18 million online users.

Online DVD rentals, which was an unexplored territory until last year, now happens to have quite a bit of competition with many services starting in India. Following are some of my thoughts:

1. Challenge: Indian Mindset! Still, most of the people aren’t willing to make payments online. They would still like to see the face and whereabouts of the party they are paying to. Fortunately, the scenario is changing atleast in the Metros, but still would take some time to spread. (That’s the reason we say it’s the right time to enter Indian Market).

2. Are online DVD Rentals a threat to local DVD Rental Operators: Immediate, NO!, long term YES!, only when people realize the value add of an online service and the professionalism it offers in all it’s dealings. (I am absolutely satisfied with CineSprite’s services in terms of customer care. How long?)

3. Who gets the princess? - It wouldn’t be about better UI, niether would it be about Site Speed, it has to be about Quality of Service, better service plans and supporting revenue models, probably, online stores, advertising on delivery envelopes, web advertising etc.

There certainly is going to be more competition here

And WOW!! Seventymm receives $7m

consumer-internet-india