Internet in India

e-aahuti, e-pooja, e-mandir, e-pundits, e-yajna etc..

Most of these terms have already come into existence and if not, very soon they would.

Rajiv on WatBlog writes about Saranam.com and Pariharam.com.

But as bursting of firecrackers is not really allowed in the western countries and also the lack of religious temples the Indians abroad are making a beeline to the religious web portals like Saranam.com and Pariharam.com for offering prayers which cost prices ranging from $8 to $15. Such religious portals are offering IT-savvy devotees prayer sessions done at temples in India, sending them a DVD of the prayer and offerings like dried flowers or vermillion, blessed by the priest.

Even the the holiest of temples are coming up with their own websites to facilitate booking of prayers online. Meenakshi temple happens to be one of them.
It’s not really limited to this, there’s a society called “Society for the Confluence of Festivals in India” operating out of Noida and runs the following sites:
1. Diwali
2. Durga Pooja
3. Pongal
4. Raksha Bandhan
5. BhaiDooj
7. KarwaChauth

…. and probably many more, think of an Indian Festival and they have a web site for that.

All of the sites are pretty informative and offer details right from history of the festival to celebrations, traditions and gifts. Good source of information equally for Indians and NRIs. A look at google trends for karwa chauth during this time gives a fair idea of the massive number of hits (revenue potential?) these sites get at the time of that particular festivals.

“Online gifting has become a popular phenomenon because it’s so convenient. Rs 29.5 crores worth of gifts were bought Online for the year 2004-2005 with Rs 53 crores expected for the year 2005-6 - IAMAI

“The festival season of 2005, online shopping saw customers spend $25 million on gifts, clothes and household articles”
-Source

Let’s see what are the figures for this year, and how much do the Indians and NRIs spend online this festive season.

Here are some of the facts and figures about internet consumers in India, the numbers have been compiled from different sources and research papers. For all those people who want to aim e-shoppers for their business, these statistics would give you a launching point.

Total online “Active users” (as of September 2006): 37 million. Source

Total online “Active users” estimate: 100 million by 2007-08. Source

Total market potential: Expected at Rs 2300 Cr by 2006-2007

Age group:

18-25 : 25%

26-35 : 46%

36-45 : 18%

What is selling?

Books, Electronic goods, Railway tickets, Apparel, Gifts, Computers and peripherals, Airline tickets, Music and Movies, Hotel rooms, Magazines, Home tool and Products, Home, Appliances, Jewelry, Movie Tickets, Beauty Products, Health and fitness products, Gift Certificates, Sporting goods.

How much are they spending?

Rs 500-1000 – 25%

Rs 1000 – 5000 – 39%

Rs 5000 – 10000 – 13%

Rs >10000 - 11%

Apart from that the total investment in 2006 is likely to be $6.3 billion, a number that is more than five times the amount invested in 2000. Source

While India rides the VC wave, it’s the best time to innovate, raise a VC investment and execute. Like most other good things even this will come to an end, so even before the “Bubble 2.0” is pricked lets just make some good use of it.

There’s a very inspiring google video on “Leveraging India as India stands up” where Prof. Ashok JhunJhunwala talks about the different opportunities India has to offer.

Note: I would publish more of these statistics on a day to day basis, you can also get the research paper from IAMAI website

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

The fact that India has over 18 million Internet users in the age group of (15+) (Source:http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=137510) inspired me to do some research around social networking sites coming up in India.

It seems a lot is happening:
www.peopleaggregator.net - Open Social Networking, *Open Source P2P Social Network Engine*, Marc Canter (Broadband Mechanics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Canter)  started it. Based on FOAF. v1.1 is  already live.
Read more on http://slashdot.org/articles/04/03/30/2333258.shtml

Upcoming Social Networking Sites in India
www.Fropper.com - Gaining momentum in India, they are marketing heavily in India
www.yaari.com - Lot of Buzz around this, upcoming social networking site, customized to Indian user’s needs, that’s what they claim on there blogs.
www.linknsurf.com - Mobile Social Networking
www.goyaar.com - beta live

www.humsubka.com - Seems to be a MySpace clone

It’s interesting to note that, mobile social networking has also started to pick up in India.

I’ve been trying to figure out exactly what features are customized to India. Next post probably!