Tag Archives: eCommerce

JustDial and InMobi are Leading the Indian Startup Scene

Indian startup scene

More continent than country, India is home to 17.5% of the world’s population. One of the emerging economies, it has no shortage of traditional entrepreneurs who have been part of the family business for ages, but the new wave of startups is still at a nascent stage.

The hottest sectors for startups seem to be E-commerce and Online Travel, with many companies having a valuation of about 1 billion dollars. Native companies like Flipkart, Jabong and Snapdeal are giving strong competition to Amazon, which is such a success story in the US.

India has its own Silicon Valley – Bangalore. About 41% of the startups are in Bangalore and 33% of them are ecommerce businesses.

The biggest advantage of starting up here is the sheer number of young people with access to online opportunities. Also, in a developing country, an organization that can develop unique solutions for its problems will be a sure success. For example, JustDial, a company that gives information to people having no internet access by sending it via SMS or InMobi, a startup creating waves in the Mobile Advertising sector.

There are an equal number of challenges to overcome too. The major cause for the slow growth is poor infrastructure, although much improvement has been made in recent years. Government regulations, risk-averse consumers and an overall lack in basic facilities are hampering further growth. It is said, that any organization that can take on the complexities of India may well be equipped to tackle the world!

In recent years, there has been just one Tech IPO (JustDial), while other startups have gone through successive rounds of funding. At the end of 2013, Zomato, a restaurant recommendations app, successfully raised funding from Sequoia Capital India and entered the 1,000 crore club (approximately 160 Million dollars).

India is attracting a steady flow of foreign investment because of its immense potential and fewer market entry barriers in comparison to China. With no dearth of talent and a passion to excel, India’s ‘Startup Age’ is just beginning.

One Billion Facebook users not enough to make $100bn company

Congratulations to Facebook on reaching one billion users milestone, this is undoubtedly an huge achievement and must be accoladed whole heartedly!

https://twitter.com/joshelman/status/253852332327067648

But I might be wrong, it seems to me that Zuckerberg has carried away with sheer number of users and good words from a stalwart like Steve Jobs about his stubbornness to remain product focussed and not interest based revenue-centric, and although he ended up building the best social network platform, so far he has failed to leverage it for shareholders (shares are already down by 40+%).


And when he really tried to please them by launching various FB apps and bombarding users with ads, sponsored status and promoted stories, users become disgruntled about a timeline so full of commercial page links that they have become more listener than participant, and are confused as to why they need so many apps to manage their accounts!
https://twitter.com/stefBIGdreams/status/251434960584601600
https://twitter.com/BlackCapsNo1Fan/status/252934505281773568

So what exactly went wrong with Facebook? I think, they followed Apple theory too religiously; they built beautiful product (like all iProducts) and then tried to control their ecosystem (Like App Store) in order to monetise it – but can Facebook really follow a purely Apple model?
I don’t think so. Why? Firstly, they don’t have ‘must have’ products for users – social engagement can be substituted or complimented by email, SMS, phone, or via rival networks. Users of iPhones and iPads have no choice but to use Apple by-products, only be available on their devices, including the highly deprecated iMap on IOS6! Whereas they have many choices and no compulsion when it comes to using Facebook and its applications.
https://twitter.com/MisterGed/status/250180550940323840

In other words, Facebook can’t really push things on their users; it should try to build on what is already working, like Zynga games, Spotify music sharing, or the recently launched Facebook Gift!


https://twitter.com/VeilleSMO/status/250278808685535233
I think Facebook Gifts are a great idea and can replace the way we do transactions, specially buying products for family, friends and loved ones – because stats suggests 80+% of us like to buy things from word of mouth recommendations or friends’ suggestions – and there is no better place than Facebook to get recommendations from friends.

In summary Facebook needs to build products with tightly coupled commerce ability not push advertising like pages you may like, sponsored posts or sponsored stories. Along with Facebook gifts (i.e. currency, or credit) let’s build a more open ecosystem for developers so that Zynga- and Spotify-like companies can build really lucrative communities to pour some money in and make Facebook a $100bn company!