Web 2.0 Companies in India

There has been a lot of interest of late in the Web 2.0 space. Of course there are global biggies like MySpace , YouTube , LinkedIn, Ryze , Hi5 , Orkut , Filckr , Del.icio.us , Blogger, Digg etc etc.

A recent news of great interest in this space is Google’s interest in acquiring YouTube. Read Washington Post’s article

There have been loads of Indian Companies foraying into the Web 2.0 space. One of the recent more high profile joinees of the bandwagon is MIH with Ibibo (I build I bond)

I just wanted to compile a list of the Web2.0 companies, I am sure this will not still be a comprehensive list and I encourage readers to contribute to make it as exhaustive as possible. I could not resist adding Indian Search Engines to this lot though they are not Web 2.0 play. Well here it goes:

Social Bookmarking

Yahoo My Web 2.0
Indiagram
PutVote
HumDigg
ForumsofIndia
NewsCola
IndianPad
IndiaMarks
Rambhai
IndianBytes
Jhanki

Photo Sharing / printing

Yahoo India Photos
Ibibo Albums
MeraSnap
PhotoBaaz
PicSquare
Windlows Live Spaces


Blogging

Indiatimes Blogs
Rediff Blogs
Burrp
Windows live Spaces
TechTribe
Ibibo Blogs
Gandhigiri
Expressindia Blogs
IBNLive blogs
Moneycontrol Blogs
NDTV Blogs


Social Networking

Rediff Connexions
Yahoo Groups
Indiatimes Clubs
HumSubka
Sixer – Social networking for cricket fans
Wah India – Social networking for bollywood fans
Yaari – Social networking for youth (Hi5 of India)

Indian Search engines

ByIndia
Guruji – Yet to be launched
OnYoMo – Short form for On Your Move - Local search with maps.


Even globally, the Web 2.0 companies have not yet defined a very clear revenue model and path to profitability for themselves. So it will be very interesting to see who survives and thrives amongst the clutter of the Web 2.0 companies in India.

Related links

http://www.contentsutra.com/more-indians-join-the-web-20-bandwagon
http://www.watblog.com/index.php?content=detail&id=149
http://www.indianpad.com/view/10167
http://www.alootechie.com/liveserver/news_detail.asp?id=1545

When will we see a global Indian Internet consumer brand?

Yahoo India, MSN India, eBay India, Google India, Monster India – these are some of the most popular digital consumer brands in India – what do they have in common ?
Answer: None of them are Indian brands!

Not that there are no home-grown desi digital brands – Naukri.com, Indiatimes.com, Shaadi.com, Rediff.com , Bharat Matrimony.com, and MakeMyTrip.com among others have carved a space for themselves in the Indian consumers' mind. However, there is no Indian Internet brand which has either gone global or shaken the Internet world by sheer innovation.

Why is that despite having a talent pool of good technology & business professionals and despite VC/PE money chasing Indian Internet business ideas we do not have even ONE global internet brand! More so, when the playing field is really level in the digital world – after all isn't that what internet is all about?

Forget about creating a global brand, where is India's answer to China's Alibaba or Sohu, which can get a Google or Yahoo to sit up and take notice.

Why is it that in Web 2.0 there is no Indian company doing anything exciting? Why can't we create a del.icio.us or a digg.com? Simple concepts but which have become a rage.

We as Indian businesses need to really think large and place some big bets to address global markets. Our businesses need to plan more investments in Technolgy (R & D / engineering) for us to be able to complete with global Internet brands. Why Internet, even our software industry has not been able to turn around even a single global brand.

I hope in the next 4-5 years we should see some larger Indian Internet & software brands competing in the global markets with the global biggies!

Related link

http://www.alootechie.com/liveserver/news_detail.asp?id=1396

From problem of too few to problem of plenty…

During the dot com 'golden era' between 1998- 2000, India had less than 5 million Internet users and around 50 million phone users. There were various kinds of sites looking at chasing eyeballs to selling various products. Such was optimism at that time that business plans were almost an after thought. Main objective of an Internet business was getting VC funding. Not surprisingly, most of them folded up in the infamous Dot-com bust.

Cut to 2006, the situation seems to have reversed, this is the era of Internet 2.0 in India. There are 30-40 million Internet users and more than 150 million telephone users (More than 100 million are mobile phone users). Internet firms have matured, many online business models have got established. Dotcoms seem destined for a good run in their second coming. However, multiple players have cropped up in most of the spaces. Sample partial list of players in different spaces:

• Email: Almost a dozen players including horizontal portals like Yahoo, MSN to ISPs like VSNL, Airtel broadband etc.
• Travel: More than 15 travel players along with most airlines offering online ticket booking. I had written about this in an earlier post
• Horizontal portals: Yahoo, Rediff, Indiatimes, Sify, MSN
• News sites: Times of India, IBN Live, NDTV, Samachar, HT.com, Jagran
  Financial sites: Moneycontrol, Economic Times, Indiainfoline
• Shopping : Indiatimes, Rediff, eBay, Fabmall,
• Share broking: ICICI, HDFC Securties, Indiabulls, Sharekhan, 5paisa.com , Investmart
• Mobile VAS players: As per last count there are more than 3,000 short coded in India.
• Jobs – Naukri, Monster, Jobs Ahead, Clickjobs, Timesjobs along with a dozen smaller sites / aggregators
• Matrimonial: Shaadi, Bharat matrimony, Jeevan Saathi, Timesmatri.
• Real estate : 99Acres, Indiaproperties, Magicbricks
• Auto: Automart, Carwale, Cybersteering (Read more here)

With Online advertising also growing at 100% y-o-y, even eyeball chasing models besides commerce generating models have begun making sense when we compare it with the Internet 1.0 era.

Several players operating in the same spaces will surely lead to expansion and development of the market. This however triggers a key question-will all of them survive? I feel that over the next couple of years we will witness consolidation with only the top 3-4 players in each vertical surviving & more importantly thriving.

The key for survival and growth will be differentiated offering, better user experience and more importantly deep pockets leading to sustenance power.

Moving on....

After a four year action packed stint with Indiatimes, I have decided to move on. I will be shortly joining Mediaturf as Executive Vice-President and Director. With the Online Ad space growing close to 100% yoy, I see tremendous opportunity in creating value with Mediaturf.

I will be based out of Delhi and will aim to take Mediaturf's business to the next level by getting into new businesses like mobile marketing, retail advertisement, trade advertising solutions in addition to scaling up the existing business of Banner advertising & search marketing. I will also be setting up the Northern India operations for Mediaturf.

Related links

Anurag Gupta quits Indiatimes, to join Mediaturf as EVP and Director

Anurag Gupta quits Indiatimes, to join Mediaturf

Industry Moves: Anurag Gupta Joins Mediaturf As EVP