Comments on: How can Indian web startups sustain themselves ?

By: Ankit Bathija

Ankit Bathija — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 17:01:12 +0000

I think advertising and sponsor-supported model would be the ebst way for any Indian web startups to sustain themselves.

By: Rahul

Rahul — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 04:08:42 +0000

I think also with the increase in traffic with freebies can attract some ads which can get enough revenues to allow the website to sustain and wait for the time when the faithful lot of customers would start upgrading their memberships

By: Jiten

Jiten — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 11:48:15 +0000

I really like this article. Although i am still at a stage where i m contemplating on what business idea out of the 366 ideas i have will work, this is surely better understanding of what will sell and allow to sustain.

Thanks, Look forwards for more information.
Jit

By: Vikas

Vikas — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:58:41 +0000

Naa – ofcourse its not enough. It reduces the burn rate, way more than advertising would, but we are far from reaching nirvana

No, we haven’t done any price testing. In my view, the larger barrier to purchasing online is the mindset of not paying for a web app or the concern of transacting online rather than the actual price point itself. So, we are more focused on addressing those two issues than seeking the optimal price point.

By: pranav

pranav — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 15:08:11 +0000

vikas,

15% conversion rate is good, but is it enough in your case for the business to sustain itself ?

If so, then thats great !!

I’m curious – Have you tried to find out what it will take your free customers to convert to paid ones ? As in, are they finding the premium plan expensive ? Have you tried any pricing models to see what price could be the tipping point to to a higher conversion rate ?

By: Vikas

Vikas — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 01:31:04 +0000

Great article Pranav, and quite timely too. The Free -> Freemium has been our biz model for a while now and we are quite happy with it. The difference in our two offerings isn’t just more features, but also that the Free version comes with ads and premium doesn’t. We see close to 15% conversion rates from Free, which i think is in the ballpark of industry webapps.
An important side benefit from Premiums, besides more money of course, is that they up the bar for quality. It rids you of the misperception that its ok to have a less than perfect product or customer service since the product is Free.

By: fridayrelease

fridayrelease — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 17:48:09 +0000

This is not an easy task as it looks.If you have power with patient then go ahead and start.If someone think that they can start earn in a day .Please stop…

By: pranav

pranav — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 16:35:33 +0000

glad you liked it..i’d definitely recommend subscribing to andew chen’s feed. he’s an awesome writer.

By: vishal

vishal — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 13:58:58 +0000

pranav: The YouSendIt article is really good! Thanks for the link

By: vishal

vishal — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 13:57:05 +0000

How can Indian web startups sustain themselves in this market?

Good question! What I propose may not be an equally fitting answer though… but this is just my synopsis of the problem at hand…

I think any internet start-up plans to begin as an attractive, informative, engaging site, accumulate a considerably large user-base (preferably in multi-thousands), let the word-of-mouth epidemic spread and then:

Introduce new or enhanced features (Silver, Gold, Platinum account), but keep the freebies still available… if at a reduced bandwidth. Chances are even if 5% of your user base might register for the enhancements… thus keeping you afloat…

What might also happen at this stage is some bigwig might see a potential in your start-up and might offer a merger/aquisition… This option works better than imposing a freemium on your primary services… leaving users with no option but sulk and google for for alternatives… which would be present in dozens, thanks to the herd mentality as discussed in one of the previous posts…

Another alternative is try and search for start-ups with similar interests… if the cost of developing new features is too much to ask… For example: A book review site might tie up with a portal that is into selling of books … and thus each can boast an added feather in their caps in form of a new partner… In other words, expand horizontally/adjacently.

A start-up with a strong and a clear business model, a fresh and a user friendly interface, happy bunch of followers and the ability to stick it out till the end (remember, there are others in the race with you…) holds the best chances of surviving these time and thriving in the times to come…

- Vishal