E commerce sales projected to reach Rs. 5500 crores in 2007 - 2008
As per Assocham, e-commerce is likely to grow by 150% to Rs 5500 crores this fiscal year. The total e-commerce sales for last year were Rs 2200 crores. Delhi and Mumbai contributed 20% and 24% respectively of the total e shopper population in 2006-2007. For 2007-2008 their contribution is expected to reach 30% and 40% respectively.
- In 2006-2007, Delhi and Mumbai contributed 20% and 24% of the e shopper population
- In 2007-2008, Delhi and Mumbai are estimated to contribute 30% and 40% of the e shopper population
- Chennai and Bangalore contributed 7% and 6% of the e shopper populations in 2006-2007
- In 2007 -2008, Chennai and Bangalore will likely contribute 12% and 9% of the online shopping population
- 28% of shoppers are in the 18-25 age group, 48% in 26-35, 15% in the 36-45 age group and 9% in 45-60 age group
- 88% of online shoppers in India were male, with 86% having at least a bachleor’s degree
- Electronic gadgets, apparel, railways, air and movie tickets were most shopped items last year
- Products likely to gain popularity this year include jewellery, books, apparel, gift products, music, movies, hotel bookings
via ET
Helion VC MD Ashish Gupta on venture capital
Ashish Gupta, MD Helion Ventures, has an interview in the Hindu. He discusses the criteria they use for funding entrepreneurial ventures and what they deem important to a successful venture.
The following excerpt caught my attention:
VCs in India have been, and continue to be, accused of a bias towards entrepreneurs with IIT/IIM tags. Gupta agreed, and offered his reasoning of the phenomenon.“The bias is towards backing people who have some validation of success and relevant backgrounds. If the entrepreneurs are very early in their professional careers, then the IIT/IIM tags matter more because they are proxies for successful pasts.â€
Yahoo replaces Semel with founder Jerry Yang as CEO
Rafat breaks the news that Yahoo has replaced CEO Terry Semel with founder Jerry Yang. Semel will take up position of non-exec chairman and advisor. Susan Decker, EVP and Head of Advertiser and Publisher Group, will take up as Yahoo President.
Breaking news, but long time coming…
Difference in startup environment in India is dramatic
Livemint has an interview with Vineet Buch, BlueRun Ventures, on entrepreneurship, life as a VC and the startup environment in India.
Some key excerpts:
What is different about being a venture capitalist?
There is a fundamental difference. Entrepreneurs are in charge, they steer the ship. The VC is a kind of navigator. In the end, we can only give advice and suggestions. So, while we have a big-picture view and can offer connections, good VCs have to realize that they have to give control to the entrepreneur. Very often VCs who have been high-powered executives in a company don’t realize that they are not the people in control now. You can’t micro-manage the entrepreneur.
TV18 planning lifestyle portal ?
I just came across a job listing for TV 18, seeking freelance writers for a new lifestyle portal being launched by them:
feature writers who can put an interesting spin on stories related to work culture, corporate/budget travel, home interiors, education, personal finance, food and corporate fashion/grooming. This is for a new lifestyle portal being launched by TV 18.
Another listing also solicits a copy editor for ‘an upcoming portal’. Among other skills, “Knowledge of personal finance would be an added advantage”.
Rediff announces Blog Showcase
At the Pune Blogcamp event, Rediff announced the launch of Rediff Blog Showcase, a platform for bloggers to showcase their posts. Each time a blog is updated, their posts will get featured on Rediff Blog Showcase, which will then be voted by the readers using a Digg like voting system. Readers will also be able to comment on the posts.
Currently, the service is invite only and you can request an invite on their website above. The site will go live in two weeks and as of now, there isnt a business model around the site.
via AgencyFaqs
India Internet statistics
IAMAI claims there are 37 million ‘ever user’ Internet users and 25 million ‘active users’ in India at end of September 2006.
JuxtConsult’s recently released ‘India Online 2007′ pegs Indian Internet user base at 30.32 million. 83% (approx 25 million) are ‘active users’. Of the 25 million ‘active users’, 20 million access the Internet every day.
active user ~ a user who logs on to the Internet at least once in 30 days.
So, if someone was looking for accurate estimates on Internet usage in India, which report is to be believed ?
The ‘ever user’ metric is crap and the ‘active user’ isnt convincing enough to me.
The TRAI report seems to be much more convincing and reliable. As per the report, there are 8.582 million Internet subscribers of which, the broadband subscriber base stands at 2.054 million.
Where’s the Web 2.0 design factor in Indian startups ?
Even though Web 2.0 lacks a precise definition, I bet you all will agree to one point - Web 2.0 sites have a distinct style of design associated with them. Ample white space, big fonts, vibrant colors etc., all following the ‘less is more’ mantra personified by Google. At least for me, the less is more mantra works wonders in terms of usability.
If you follow the Web 2.0 startups in the US and elsewhere, you’ll notice that even the smallest of them manage to do a kick ass job at the Web 2.0 design front. Even the ‘n’th video sharing site or the umpteenth social networking site, they adhere to the Web 2.0 design standards. Several of them pack enough punch to evoke oohs and aahs too.
On the contrary, when it comes to Indian startups, very few seem to be drinking the Web 2.0 design kool aid. Only a handful of the startups seem to give the necessary importance to design and usability while for others, design and usability still remain an afterthought.
Read more
LiveMint interview with Raghav Bahl, MD TV18 India Ltd
Livemint has an in depth interview with Raghav Bahl, MD, TV18 India Ltd. As part of the interview, Raghav discusses how their partnership with CNN, CNBC & Viacom. He also discusses the future plans for the company and that their current focus will be on launching the general entertainment channel.
“Today, we are India’s largest news broadcast group… We want to be a very large media and entertainment group with a significant presence across the television broadcast business, Internet and films, and filmed content space,†he says.
You seem quite aggressive in the Internet space. How do you see the business panning out?
We wish to be a big player in the consumer Internet space. It may be a small business as of now, but it will take off sooner than later. We
believe that media companies in the West have, in a way, missed this opportunity. They couldn’t foresee the growth of the Internet in the
manner it has happened. We are also very clear that we don’t want to be just a content player because that’s a given. We want to have a
significant play in the Internet consumer services business. Last year, our Internet operations contributed around Rs25 crore to the top-line and we see it doubling again this year. Read more
Mentoring is non existent in Indian startups
In a column on Financial Express, Sanjay Anandaram, founding partner of early stage VC fund JumpStartup talks about the lack of mentoring in the Indian entrepreneurial scene.
“While having mentors and advisors is in itself no guarantee of success, having the right mentors can often reduce the agony of late unhappy realisations of the state of the business.”, he says.
Why are Indian entrepreneurs shy about involving advisors? While the entrepreneurial eco-system here is not as mature as in the US and the culture of mentoring is not as widely prevalent, the fact remains that most entrepreneurs are hesitant to have advisors. Some of the hesitation can be attributed to lack of awareness and shyness. The more serious reason is due to fear, anxiety and arrogance. Fear about losing control and influence; fear of sharing company information with a third party; fear of having to share the pie and arrogance about knowing it all.
Read the entire column here - worth a read.