Lime Spot, a forward looking web product development company recently launched LimeExchange-”The first socially networked online services marketplace”

LimeExchange aims to provide global talent on demand. Read the entire story here.

Blog moved to My Site.

Claims

Market size of Rs. 58 crore, expected growth 50%
-Source

On a, all-India basis, about 30-50 people get married through Bharatmatrimony.com daily. These are counts based on people who inform us about it. Some of them don’t inform, so the count could actually be higher.
-Source

Market Share

TOP INTERNET GAINERS FOR THE YEAR 2005 E-matrimony:
Shaadi.com
Bharatmatrimony.com
timesmatri.com
jeevansathi.com
-Source
When it comes to matrimony sites, Bharatmatrimony and Shaadi have the highest preference among consumers and fight it out for the top position in that category. Shaadi.com and Bharatmatrimony.com are the two biggest websites in the online matrimonial space, each with 33 per cent user preference. They command an almost equal share of this classifieds vertical. Some 16 per cent of those who search for their significant others on the web head to Jeevansaathi.com. Interestingly, Jeevansaathi has entered the top three rung this year; last year, it did not even make it to the top five slots.
-Source

Recent Investments

Shaadi.com received funding in March’06 and now yahoo invests in BharatMatrimony.com
-Source

The Changing Direction – Assisted Internet

Well, majority of online consumer base at these matrimonial sites happens to be NRIs. The market seems immature to embrace online matrimony. The other problem is internet penetration, so setting up centers in cities helps, but the first issue remains.

An Interesting Revenue Model – iRishta

iRishta.com, the free matrimony site, has come up with a very innovative business model, using which they claim to create waves in the online matrimony market.

“We would make money by advertising our competitors.”

I am not aware of any particular business management term for this, I’d love to call it “parasitic existence“.

(How else would we survive?. The very fact that the last post on the blog is dated “June 12, 2006″, points to the dormancy of the site, or is it active?)

Opinion:
It would still take some time for this market to boom. The changing consumer mindset and social structure leading to more independent thinking would certainly help these sites cash in.

Quick Comments/Review(My personal opinion)
1. Shaadi.com – Good UI, very popular with NRIs, decent features with astrology and video club
2. BharatMatrimony – Just average UI, offers verified profiles, average number of Indian profiles
3. JeevanSathi – Below average UI, good number of Indian profiles, decent customer care.
4. iRishta – I’ve already written enough about this one

In case you are looking for online movie tickets to any of the following cinema halls in India then in highest probability you would be redirected to MovieTell.co.in

• Velocity III – Indore
• SRS – Faridabad
• Wave – Noida
• Wave – Kaushambi
• 24 Karat – Mumbai
• DT Cinemas – City Center
• DT Cinemas – Mega Mall

I decided to dig deeper into movietell.co.in site and tried buying some movie tickets. I was surprised to see that they are charging Rs. 10 per ticket as convenience charge. Which is not shown when you select the ticket (as depcited in the following image)

Only after I made the payment did I realize that I had been charged Extra (Rs. 30 for 3 tickets). When they actually show the breakup.

I don’t think this business model could ever work in India. First off having hidden charges is ridiculous, second Rs. 10 per ticket isn’t justified (when you don’t even deliver). I believed TicketPro guys could think of better revenue models then to charge 5-8% as convenience charge.The user anyways pays 2.5% as transaction charge. So in effect if you are buying online Tickets from MovieTell then you are paying approx. 10% extra.

I need not re-iterate, cool ajax based UI alone won’t take any one far, you have to actually add some value if you expect to be paid extra.

M-Ticketing, a lot has been happening in this space. Here are some companies operating in this space in India.

ConvergeLabs
Funding $11 million
Key Investors: Walden International, Anthellion Capital, Global Catalyst Partners, Dot Edu Ventures, GVFL M-Ticket, ConvergeLabs’ leading application, allows mobile users to buy tickets from their phones. Instead of standing in long lines, concert and theatergoers get a special barcode on the screen of their phone, which they swipe over a scanner at the event to gain entry. –Source: RedHerring

Then there’s Moveo:

Moveo

Seed Funding $1 million

E-ticketing will soon be passé. M-ticketing is going to be the rage. M-ticketing (tickets on the mobile) is one of the applications that Moveo, the latest Indian start-up in mobile applications is coming up with. –Itwire

PVR Plans to roll out m-ticket

Indian Airlines, Spice, Indian Railways and others are coming up with m-ticketing.

Despite all this buzz about m-ticketing TicketPro (MNC having prensence in many countries) has recently started operations in India under the name of MovieTell (The reason I liked this particular site is that they have a cool Ajax based interface unlike ugly TicketCounterIndia). Why?

Because there still remains a lot of potential in just the movie e-ticketing space. The shear volumes of movie tickets sold in India make it possible.

Even at a pessimistic estimate of just 30 percent of the showcased numbers, it’s possible to sell Rs.1 billion worth of movie tickets through online sales.”
–IMAI

And if still somebody is not convinced with the figures have a look at these Google trends:

Top cities searching for “online movie tickets” around the world:
1. Hyderabad, India
2. Chennai, India
3. Bangalore, India
4. Mumbai, India
5. New Delhi, India
6. Delhi, India
7. Raleigh, NC, USA
8. Reston, VA, USA
9. Calgary, Canada
10. Denver, CO, USA

Indian cities top the charts.

The reason is simple not all multiplexes or cinemas have the infrastructure and volumes to host their own e-ticketing systems as PVR and famecinema have. There is HUGE potential for any web site trying to bring all of them under one hood. A concept similar to Fandango.

This is just the beginning, there still is huge potential here, probably more than m-ticketing which initially would be limited to big players!

Definitely a win-win situation for small Cinema Owners and the consumers.

consumer-internet-india

I strongly feel that Indian Market is just right to start a business in Consumer Internet. There’s nothing really bad about building a clone of a service which is successful in US. Afterall you are entering a new Market, a Market offering more than 18 million online users.

Online DVD rentals, which was an unexplored territory until last year, now happens to have quite a bit of competition with many services starting in India. Following are some of my thoughts:

1. Challenge: Indian Mindset! Still, most of the people aren’t willing to make payments online. They would still like to see the face and whereabouts of the party they are paying to. Fortunately, the scenario is changing atleast in the Metros, but still would take some time to spread. (That’s the reason we say it’s the right time to enter Indian Market).

2. Are online DVD Rentals a threat to local DVD Rental Operators: Immediate, NO!, long term YES!, only when people realize the value add of an online service and the professionalism it offers in all it’s dealings. (I am absolutely satisfied with CineSprite’s services in terms of customer care. How long?)

3. Who gets the princess? – It wouldn’t be about better UI, niether would it be about Site Speed, it has to be about Quality of Service, better service plans and supporting revenue models, probably, online stores, advertising on delivery envelopes, web advertising etc.

There certainly is going to be more competition here

And WOW!! Seventymm receives $7m

consumer-internet-india

The fact that India has over 18 million Internet users in the age group of (15+) (Source:http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=137510) inspired me to do some research around social networking sites coming up in India.

It seems a lot is happening:
www.peopleaggregator.net – Open Social Networking, *Open Source P2P Social Network Engine*, Marc Canter (Broadband Mechanics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Canter)  started it. Based on FOAF. v1.1 is  already live.
Read more on http://slashdot.org/articles/04/03/30/2333258.shtml

Upcoming Social Networking Sites in India
www.Fropper.com – Gaining momentum in India, they are marketing heavily in India
www.yaari.com – Lot of Buzz around this, upcoming social networking site, customized to Indian user’s needs, that’s what they claim on there blogs.
www.linknsurf.com – Mobile Social Networking
www.goyaar.com – beta live

www.humsubka.com – Seems to be a MySpace clone

It’s interesting to note that, mobile social networking has also started to pick up in India.

I’ve been trying to figure out exactly what features are customized to India. Next post probably!