e-India Times

Mobstreet.in

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil) — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 18:13:00 +0000

Finally, landed into a slightly different group discounting site - mobstreet.in !! Unlike other group discount web sites, this one offers two types of discounts - Open deals and Mob deals. While the Open deals become active as soon as they are being published, the Mob deals turn active only when there are a minimum number of users who sign up for the deal. Probably, that's one of the reason you can see the deal categories different from the one's that i have been seeing on earlier sites. The focus appears be more on electronic gadgets and tours/travels. I did not notice any restruant or health club related offers (some relief to increasingly confused users!!) Interestingly, I could see offers on air tickets which was quite a deviation from local services. You can get latest deals on mobile or by email.
The buy workflow involves charging the customer a small amount as an advance. The pending balance amount needs to be paid to the vendor after deducting the advance payment. Not sure which cities are current being covered by this site !! Check it out here if you wanna experience it.

Mydala

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil) — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 17:27:00 +0000

I had a chance to look at mydala.com - another group discount web site. The process and approach remains the same. Each day the web site publishes a deal at 12 PM. The deal remains valid for 24 to 72 hours. A customer can buy the deal at the announced group discounted price. Each deal becomes valid only if a minimum number of people have signed up for it. Once the deal is closed and it has achieved the required number of people the customer receives a printed discount voucher in his email box. The validity of each deal depends upon the vendor's offer and is published clearly on the web site under "What the catch" section.

There are multiple payment options - by cash, credit card, netbanking, IVR, oxicash etc which makes the payment easy for customers. I could see the following retail segments leveraging this as a medium for sales promotion:
1. Restaurants
2. Slimming and beauty services
3. Tours and travels
4. Movie theaters
5. Shoes and bags

Currently, if offers this service in Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Pune, Hyderabad, Chandigarah and chennai. You can get the latest deals on your phone or email. Give it a try, click here.

Taggle.com

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 17:50:00 +0000

Taggle.com is yet another Flash Discount web site that is trying to leverage the power of group discounting to create a win-win situation for Indian consumers. So far the service is launched only in Bangalore, and i did not see any great deals. Probably, its a soft launch phase and only offers i could see was related to a restaurant and a resort.

The only distinguishing feature that i see here is the availability of multiple customer touch points. In addition to web buying, you can now also buys deals over Phone or chat with a person in real time to get good deals. None of the sites that i have seen so far in this category provide these additional touch points. I wonder why no one has so far thought of using SMS as the most preferred touch point for receiving the deals.

However, the biggest challenge i see for these web sites is to convince the retail merchants to sign up for this channel!

See this interesting video on GROUP BUYING from taggle to know more about this concept here

snapdeal.com

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil) — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 15:18:00 +0000

Snapdeal.com is yet another popular Indian flash sales site. Instead of looking at a predetermined number of bookings for getting a deal, it adopts a token amount payment from the user. Everyday snapdeals offers a deal to its user on the web site that remains valid for a period of 24 hours. In order to book the deal, the user pays up a small advance which if i am not mistaken is snapdeal's commission. The remaining amount needs to be paid by the user to the vendor when he buys the product or service. Once the user pays the advance, he receives a discount voucher in email and unique code over sms. The user needs to print out the voucher and use it within the validity period mentioned in it which is typically valid for 2-3 months.

You can subscribe to daily alerts in order to get the latest deals from snapdeal.com. One thing that i have noticed here is that the sales are offered only for services and does not include any consumer good or clothing. This probably stems from the fact that Indian consumers are still not ready to buy products online till they touch and feel the product.

Overall, I liked the site for its clarity and simple user interface. It is currently offering local discounts for restaurants, spas, saloons, adventure holidays, hobby classes in Pune, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Hyderabad, New Delhi/NCR . Check it out here.

Koovs.com

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:52:00 +0000

Koovs.com is an interesting flash sales indian web site which offers online group discounts to its registered users. The company offers discounts from various associate vendors for a limited time period. The deal becomes active if it receives minimum number of orders within the limited time period. The company issues a discount coupon called "Koovs" which the user can print out and show it at to the partner vendor to avail discounts. The company is primarily targeting the local restaurants to woo the customers. This looks like an interesting concept though not new in the e-commerce world but definitely is unique in Indian e-space.

For the vendors it is a pretty interesting opportunity to get higher visibility and good promotion at a low cost. I haven't been able to dig deeper into the commission structure but i believe it will be lucrative enough for both the vendor as well as for Koovs to make this work in a profitable manner. For an Indian consumer its a win-win solution given his apatite for sales and freebies !! You can register at koovs.com to get the latest deals

PAPAM - indian e-greeting site

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil) — Sun, 23 May 2010 18:13:00 +0000

Looking at this years startup profiles, this site caught my attention for two reasons:

1. The name was very unique though in Indian context Papam means a "Sin".

2. In today's world of SMS's and e-greetings this one was a bold move to enable someone to send out a paper greeting card something which people have kind of forgotten and have replaced with e-greetings and SMS's.

Papam is truly an interesting idea given the fact that many of us have stopped using the paper greetings giving way to technology due to sheer convenience. Papam provides an interesting and convenient way for consumers to create, personalize and send paper greeting cards to anyone in the world. Business model appears to be straightforward - earn money by selling greeting cards and other gift items like flower, paper wall hangings, paper jewelery, personalized T-Shirts, Mugs etc.

There is a great opportunity for papam to tie-up with various existing e-gifting sites who lack the printed greeting cards and expand its business without spending too much on customer acquisition. Overall its a site worth trying to express your feelings to someone you love and care! Click here to access the site.

Craftmygift.com

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:22:00 +0000

Craftmygift is the latest addition to the personalized gift creation site in the indian e-gifting space. The whole concept revolves around you specifying your gifting requirements and the team on the other hand thinking of creative gifting ideas and come back to you with different options for you to pick one. You make 50% payment and your gift will go into production. You will get a chance to review the design work during different stages. The available library of products include a personalized magazine, short story of a person(autobiography), artistic portrait, gift cards etc. I was surprised to see the pricing which ranges from INR 900 to INR 3500, which in the current market is highly overpriced. Why would someone pay that kind of amount when you have alternative cheaper and equally innovate gifting solutions available both online as well as in-store. There are sites like pringoo.com or myantra.com which provide tons of gifting ideas at a cheaper price and in a more simpler manner. Though this concept is worth appreciating but will be difficult to scale up specially if it is relying the traffic to come through internet only. I think the team of craftmygift should definitely study the existing sites to get a sense of what is realistic in today's market scenario. Click here to check out who else is competing in this market

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 18:57:00 +0000

mChek is an easy mobile payment technology which has revolutionized the Indian m-commerce industry! I had last year looked at ngpay which I thought was one of the premier payment gateways but truly mChek appears to be the market leader with the host of services that it offers. I decided to check out mCheck features as a novice consumer and this is what I could accomplish:
1. In order to use mChek as a payment device, i registered my mobile on mcheck web site which sent me a download link for installing mChek application on my mobile which i downloaded and installed in no time.
2. The application required me to activate my account and setting up mcheck activation password. It then offered me to set up my debit or credit card. I added details of my debit card which mCheck sent out to my bank for verification. Within 3 minutes, I got an sms from my bank confirming the activation of my account for use with my mChek account.
3. Happily, i decided to settle my Airtel landline bill using mChek. This turned out to be a very simple process since all it required was to send an SMS to Airtel with the due amount. I got a confirmation SMS with payment receipt on my mobile. This was really COOL...!! since i never had to go to a Airtel kiosk or web site to make payment.
Some of the other services which mChek currently support includes buying bus tickets, payment of insurance premiums, and paying Tata Indicom phone bills.. The web site claims to increase its coverage for extending its services to even making m-payments for buying stuff online on certain indian web sites.....! This is definitely an application worth trying !!

billbuddy.com - online bill analysis company

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil) — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 21:45:00 +0000

I came across this very interesting site called billbuddy.com and decided to explore it in detail. The web site requires you to upload your mobile bills or requests you to authorise them to access your service provider account and download bills for past couple of months. It then analyzes the uploaded bill and gives you your spending pattern. Based on your call analysis, it will review the existing mobile plans from various service providers and will recommend you the cheapest one. I tried the service though it could not download the bills directly from my service provider but did a pretty cool analysis once I uploaded my .pdf bills. The company has tied up with all major service providers - Airtel, BSNL, Idea, Tata Indicom, reliance, Aircel and Spice. It's worth trying this service. I haven't tested different scenarios to check the efficacy of its recommendations but on the whole i found the concept quite ineteresting. Do try this web site if you are not convinced with the mobile plan that you have got from your service provider.

Happy New Year

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 03:21:00 +0000

desimartini.com - where young boys and gals meet!

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil) — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 18:50:00 +0000

I am finally back with a first look on an Indian social networking site called desimartini.com! The web site was launched way back in 2006 by a 26 year old young business school graduate, Vivek Phawa. It was later sold in year 2007 to media giant, Hindustan Times Media which owns Hindustan Times, Mint and a radio channel called Fever 104. This web site targets average Indian youth of our times by providing common social community features. I would divide the features into following key areas:

1. Network creation: Profile creation, group creation, search and add friends

2. Communication: chat, send free SMS, blogs, polls, discussion forums, local questions etc.

3. Content creation and share: Ideas, photos, videos, music

4. Sticky content and tools: games, celebrity news, horoscope, love meter etc.

5. Events: Online events and contests like surveys with free prizes etc.

Overall, I found the site neat and simple from the usability perspective. The revenue generation primarily appears to be dependent on ads and online games! However, long-term given its existing user base, it can be used by marketers to influence buying behavior significantly! also do visit www.makkadman.com for some interesting STUFF :) !! check it out if you have some time !

Internet community/networking sites in India

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:36:00 +0000

This week I got a chance to look into the community sites that are making in-roads in Indian e-space . I was amazed to see the number of sites that have evolved over a period of time. See for yourself ...

1. desimartini.com - your place to connect with other cool guys and girls
2. bumpedinto.com
3. goyaar.com
4. apnacircle.com
5. ibibo.com
6. hareepa.com
7. indyarocks.com
8. imom.in
9. bigadda.com
10. minglebox.com
11. toostep.om
12. instablogs.com
13. thebig.tv
14. injoos.com
15. desiji.com
16. dekhona.com
17. xbhp.com and more.....!!

However, the Indian space is still dominated by orkut.com !! I will be capturing more about the community sites in India in coming weeks !

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:44:00 +0000

Tata group and NEN (National Entreprenuerial Network) have announced the TATA NEN hottest startup awards to promote Indian startups in various sectors like agribusiness, consulting, education, IT, manufacturing etc. The awards are based on nominations made by people at hotteststartups.in. The awards will be announced after December 22nd. So far around 588 nominations have been recieved across various categories. Bangalore tops the list with maximum number of startups followed by Mumbai and Delhi. Nearly, 70% of the startups have been started by individuals with their personal savings. To review the list of nominated startups visit hotteststartups.in !

MoCoLife - free SMS broadcasting solution from indiatimes !

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 13:09:00 +0000

Mocolife, is the latest value added services from Times Internet Ltd. It is powered by indiatimes 58888 which is the first premier SMS brand code in Indian mobile solutions space. Mocolife provides free SMS messaging service to Indian consumers. You can now do bulk SMS broadcast in India, subscribe for content, set up reminder services to remind you of important days through free SMS, gift a ringtone to your loved ones. In addition you can use short codes to define your number on MoCo Life which your friends, business associates, customers can use to send SMSs. For example if you are running a restaurant, you can define your Moco identity by a Moco keyword called "FOO". Your customers can then send SMS Moco FOO at 58888 in case your number is busy. Your customer will get an auto response that you will call him later while you get a SMS with your customer's number. Though this concept is similar to the missed call alerts that most of the mobile operators provide, but I see this concept evolving in future to transform into an individuals text based mobile identity! a concept similar to your email id. This has the potential to transform the way we brand products, services, people, places over mobile! For example instead of remembering a restaurant's mobile number I may send a short SMS to FOO and reserve space! While this is a free service for consumers but most of us will not know that when we register for this service we are explicitly signing up for receiving advertisements from the advertisers of Times Internet Ltd. This clause is mentioned at the bottom of the "User Agreement" option available on the registration page, which would be rarely seen by an average user !! A smart tactical move which is not in the best interest of we - the consumers! On the whole, I would still like to appreciate the initiative which may open up new avenues of increasing consumer reach for businesses. For people like me who are not good at remembering birthdays and anniversaries, this is definitely a great service. Give it a try here!

ngpay - The mobile shopping mall

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:51:00 +0000

ngpay is a smart mobile shopping mall which enables you to to make purchases and payments related to host of services. You can use ngpay services to buy air and railway tickets, cinema bookings, bank transactions, books and gifts etc. It has tied up with a number of leading players in the Travel, Entertainment, Banking and Services sector. The service is free to use. All it requires you to download the ngpay application from its web site on your mobile handset. You need to provide your mobile number on the ngpay website which in turn will send you the link in an SMS response. It pretty much acts like a tradition e-commerce web site. You can select a product or service that you want to purchase. The application walks you step-by-step through each product purchase process. Once you are on the payment screen it will ask you for payment options. You can choose to pay through credit card or debit card or even pay using ITZ cash cards. You get confirmation of your transaction over SMS and email. Overall I found the application convenient and easy to use! This is a great initiative towards using your mobile handset as a payment instrument. You can see a demo here !

Indian corporates all set to cut jobs to remain afloat !!

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:26:00 +0000

If recent views from Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) d to believed, many Indian corporate houses are planning to cut 25% of jobs in next 10 days. The companies wanted to initiate this process prior to Diwali but for humane reasons it was deferred. The key industries which will be impacted include real estate, steel, cement, IT enabled services and financial services sector. This would ideally mark the beginning of real economy slow down with average people facing the real brunt. There are currently no measures taken up by any of the trade organizations to avoid this since the problem is spreading like a plague across the corporate world.

Word of caution "Stick to your current jobs and prove your worth to the organization where you are working"

Online Photo companies -Marketing Strategies

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 19:11:00 +0000

The Online Photo Printing companies use different types of market strategies to attract user attention. Some of these include:

1. Integration with other photo management sites: Some of the online web sites offer integration with Yahoo photos or Picassa in order to import photos into the user's site specific account. This allows the user especially NRI's to deliver photos in prints to India without re-uploading the files.

2. Referral Schemes: many e-tailers provide the user's with referral schemes. A user can get "N" number of prints free if he provides genuine referrals to the web site.

3. Signing Offer: Almost all the web sites offer free 5 - 10 photo prints to a registered user on its web site.

4. Affiliate model: Some of the web sites are also offering affiliate relationship in order to drive traffic on their web sites

5. Selling Consumer's Photos: Another strategy which is used by these web sites is to allow the registered user to sell his photos through its web site. The consumer is given a commission on every sale that is being made through the web site. This is a pretty decent incentive for consumer's to upload their creations on these web sites.

6. Photo Contests: Some of the web sites also organize events like photo contests to drive traffic

Business Models in Online Photo Gift Products business

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil) — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 11:02:00 +0000

Online photo gift product business is slowly gaining momentum in Indian market place. The key market players are this space include picsquare, iTasveer, snapfish, snapgalaxy, photohugs, zoomin, merasnap, printcamp and gkvale. A closer look at the background of these online shops brings out the nature of business models which are in play in this space. Broadly, you can see the following models:
A) e-commerce: Most of the players in this space largely generate revenue by selling photo based products online. Mainly, these involve taking online orders for printing of digital images uploaded on the portals and selling personalized photo based products. However, many of these portals do not have their own photo labs and have partnered with various local or regional photo studios that print and deliver these photos on behalf of these portals. The key cost centers for these portals include:
- Procurement of products like mugs, key chains, mouse key pad, T-Shirts etc. which are used for building personalized photo products.
- Printing of photos on these products
- Printing of photos by a third party studio
- Distribution cost
- Web site management cost
B) e-Stores: Some of the web sites also provide its users to set up online stores for uploading and selling its designs which the customers can use for personalizing their products. Companies like Pringoo.com are providing users with the capability to set up their online stores and earn commissions on sale of every product which goes out to customers with their designs.
C) Brick and Mortal model: The existing photo studio labs are the next emerging players in the online personalized photo product business. Regional companies like G K Vale, Bangalore have emerged as one of the strongest players that have cost advantages due to its age old photo printing business.

Satguide - GPS navigation tool available in your nearest stores!

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil) — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 00:45:00 +0000

I have been thinking about covering the increasing penetration of GPS products in India but was not sure if it had made in-roads to consumer market till I read about SatNav technologies recent foray. It is first Indian company which brought GPS navigation to India. Finally, it has announced that the GPS navigation tools will be available at major Indian retail chains. This would include Staples, Reliance, E-Zone and Croma to begin with but will soon make way to your nearest super markets!

Interestingly, the company offers satguide based GPS navigation tools for a number of mobile and PDA softwares. The company claims to have detailed maps of 200 + cities. The software offers turn-by-turn navigation with voice prompts in English and different Indian languages which makes it all the more interesting. As of now it is available in all major I cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, Ahemdabad and Gurgaon.
For more details visit : http://www.satguide.in/

Face recognition - Google's Picassa rocks !

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil) — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 16:36:00 +0000

It's all about Google this week! First its latest browser chrome and now the announcement about its face tag capability on its online photo album web site Picassa. Google has added the face recognition web site which was so far being largely utilized for security solutions. Google has extended this feature to an average home consumer. If you have an account with picassa, you can try this feature. Look for adding the "Name Tag" feature and click on it. This will start the face recognition exercise in the background. You can come back at a later time to see the processed images. The system will tell you the number of faces that it has identified. You will be required to label those faces. Amazingly, I had my daughter's images right from 6 month old to 2.5 years old and it can group them together as images belonging to one person !!!! Once you label individual photos, the picassa can identify the labeled photos in group photos. Try it out it's truly mind blowing !

Google launches Map Maker in India

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:47:00 +0000

If you have been wanting to know details about your neighborhood, locality or district using a detailed map, you do not have to wait for Geographical Survey of India to update and publish them which I do not even know will ever happen. This is because Google has launched its Google Map Maker utility in India. Google Map Maker is a service which allows you to add or edit features, such as roads, offices, buildings, shops etc., at anyplace on the published map. For example, you can add the name of shop, building, college, school in your neighborhood within the map and publish it to the larger audience. The map allows you to add all the details like address, draw a road, river, mark a playground, park etc. something which can definitely benefit the masses. However, the biggest challenge that I can think of is the accuracy of the details. Nevertheless, I think it is still a novel idea coming out of its idea repository!

Do try google map maker at http://mapmaker.google.com

Momail - World's smallest mobile e-mail now in India

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:24:00 +0000

Momail, a Stockholm based company has launched its popular mobile product in India today. It provides a complete email solution to consumer on his mobile phone but with a difference. It offers a unified email inbox for all your different email accounts from Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail etc. You can send or receive emails from your mobile using momail. Currently, Momail has opened its Indian site http://www.momail.in/ for around 100,000 beta users. You can be a part by signing it online with a password momailrox on its web site. The company claims to support over 1100 different mobile models. The service is free during the beta period but will eventually be launched as a paid service. I tried the service today. Though the registration was straigthforward - register on website, provide your Mobile number, the site sends all the settings as a message to your mobile. You need to open the message and save it which results in default configuration of Momail on your mobile phone. That's really a cool feature especially for consumer market ! However, I was unable to access the emails using my phone due to connectivity issues which I reported to its customer support which was gracious enough to respond within 2 hours :) ! Do give it a try and let me know what you feel about the product.

Economic Times Business Spaces Conference BEC Mumbai 29-30-31 Aug 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 05:43:00 +0000

If you are looking out for a commercial space in India don't miss the Economics Time Business Spaces exhibition to be held on Aug 29-30-31 2008 in Mumbai, India. It will have real estate projects from all over Indian with a focus on malls, IT parks, SEZs available for lease or outright purchase. In addition the event will also host a 3-day conference with eminent speakers from government and private sector sharing their perspectives on the current and future prospects of real estate industry in India. For details check out:
http://www.99acres.com/mailers/templates/business-space-conference.htm

Bausch&Lomb - Eye care online !!

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil) — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 15:25:00 +0000

Bausch&Lomb does not need an introduction in the consumer eye health care market. It's products are used in more than 100 countries and has world's most oldest brands to its name in this space. In the Indian marketplace too it is the market leader but what caught my attention was it's e-initiative to reach out to wider Indian audience. Recently, I got a promotional e-mailer inviting me to get a trial pack at my doorstep:

"Get a Bausch & Lomb Contact Lens Trial Pack Delivered at Your Doorstep"

This led me to its Indian web site which provides host of information about its Indian products. The web site allows you to drop in your queries regarding purchasing contact lenses with its team of Optometrists. In addition you get tips on Lens Wearing and Eye Care. You can directly get in touch with the team for all your queries by dialing in a toll free number +91-9910339830 or SMS Lens to 56161. It is interesting to see how corporate houses are leveraging the power of internet to reach out to Indian consumers.

99acres.com - buy, sell Indian residential properties online

noreply@blogger.com (Nikhil) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:45:00 +0000

It is probably too late to write a review for Indian real estate portals like 99acres.com but looking at the emerging potential in this space, I decided to spend some time on this vertical. 99acres.com is another successful portal from promoters of naukri.com, i.e. Info Edge India Ltd. It provides a perfect platform for various stakeholders like buyers, sellers, brokers, builders etc. in the real estate market to do business online. At a high level here are some of the key features that this web site offers to different stakeholders in this value chain:
A. Consumers: You can search to buy, sell, or rent out a property based on your budget, housing requirement, location. You can also look out for a PG accommodation.
B. Builders: You can publish your properties under various listing schemes depending on your budget on the web site. The web site offers different kind of promotional tools and packages to advertise your property on its web sites
C. Property Dealers: You can separately register yourself as a property dealer under this category on the web site giving you instant visibility
In addition you can also use its home financing services. You can apply for an online home loan, use various calculators for determining EMI or Amortization, home insurance, and various other informative content. Site also offers specific services for NRIs to make the real estate investment a smooth process. On the whole its a pretty comprehensive web site which aims at bridging up the home buying and selling a smooth affair. Interesting thing would be to tie up with government agencies to allow online property registration !!