India could be the largest Internet market.Google
Printed From: The Equity Desk
Category: Investment Ideas - Creating winning portfolios!
Forum Name: Sector talk
Forum Discription: Discussion on sectors with regard to specific matters. We will be discussing the various sectors of the economy and how they would perform. Basically a top down approach.
URL: http://www.theequitydesk.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=403
Printed Date: 04/Apr/2025 at 8:42am
Topic: India could be the largest Internet market.Google
Posted By: basant
Subject: India could be the largest Internet market.Google
Date Posted: 24/Sep/2006 at 7:32pm
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India could be the largest Internet market - Google
The most dreaded word in investing is “It’s different this time”. The Indian Internet Industry seems to be echoing just that. After the eyeball (that went into tears) drama in 2000 the Indian internet market is singing a different tune this time. Thankfully this one is backed by revenues. The domestic broadband industry is expected to grow 15 times in the next four years to 20 million users in 2010 from a current level of 1.3 million users.
Google’s chief Eric Schmidt in a recent interview to the Times of India’s total online population currently stands at 37 million and is expected to grow to 100 million by 2007 Smaller cities and towns have shown a whopping 142% YoY growth and now account for 25% of all internet users. (Source: IAMAI). Among the top 20 internet using nations 1) Increase in broadband penetration would lengthen the time spent on the net 2) Increasing penetration of internet as a percentage of population. The average Internet user between the age group of 20-40 years is the right target for an advertiser. He is educated, independent and posses a high disposable income. Over the next few years a lot of advertisement could move from the print to the TV, and the TV to the internet. Over the past 7 years the Indian internet user base has grown at a CAGR of 60%+. The advertising market in the last 3 years has grown at a CAGR of 73%.
Source: www.iamai.com
Source: www.iamai.com No wonder the Google chief says that In December 2005. West bridge invested $7m in Times Internet (Revenues US $ 30 million), valuing the entity at US$240m.The market cap to sales of 8 times in a private equity placement speaks of the enormous potential this sector holds. I cannot find any listed players except http://www.theequitydesk.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=29 - TV 18 and to some extent http://www.theequitydesk.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=142 - Educomp (through their portals mathsguru.com and mentoraide.com) to play this http://www.theequitydesk.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=259 - huge opportunity . http://www.theequitydesk.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=221 - Bharti Airtel ,MTNL, VSNL and RCOVL shall be installing broadband connections but the proportion of internet revenues will be miniscule to their overall revenues. Sify and Rediff listed at the NASDAQ so those are out of contention but persons who are allowed to invest outside Over the next few years we could have a flood of Internet IPO's. The Venture Capitalists would need a space to get out and so would the employess who would need to get their options monetized. Thus even if the promoters do not want these companies would have to come out with an IPO (for the VC and ESOP monetization) and that should be an opportunity. The only caveat is if these companies head directly for the NASDAQ!
This is a link to a very interesting report on the profile of internet users. http://www.iamai.in/IAMAI_Research_Entertainment_Sector-Movies.pdf - http://www.iamai.in/IAMAI_Research_Entertainment_Sector-Movies.pdf
------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
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Replies:
Posted By: prashantmohta
Date Posted: 24/Sep/2006 at 10:12pm
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its a great oppurtunity to become wealthy but in india except tv 18 i dont find any stock to buy.i hold tv 18 since 3 years but one thing i noticed today after viewing this article that management of tv 18 is buying portals frequently and monecontrol.com could become one of the blockbuster for shareholders if they spinoff.here i am talking about the revenues of the websites, not like eyeballs bursted in 2001.
great idea and great oppurtunity but difficult to find.
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Posted By: Ajith
Date Posted: 24/Sep/2006 at 10:36pm
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No doubt about it there will be huge winners in the internet space but while some existing listed companies may benfit hugely in terms of spin-off benefits the real winners may be companies yet to be listed.Also mutual funds will certainly provide superb returns over the next 5 or 10 years as a result of the internet explosion in India.India is changing ,really gaining in the new global economic landscape.It would be difficult for political forces to derail this process. ------------- Ajith |
Posted By: manishdave
Date Posted: 24/Sep/2006 at 11:07pm
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Basant, How about theequitydesk.com?
Great thing abt portals is they dont have variable cost. So any growth in topline goes staight to bottomline without filtering any portion.
In US news papers are facing real trouble as they are loosing subscribers as well as advertisers to internet.
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Posted By: reetesh
Date Posted: 24/Sep/2006 at 11:14pm
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If India could be the largest Internet market then there will lots of Server put up in India then we can play this theme in a small way with APW President. http://www.apwpresident.com/ - http://www.apwpresident.com/ This company makes specialized SERVER RACKS and CABINETS, this is not only a Internet Boom play but also a Telecom expansion play, ITES, etc. ------------- When going gets tough, that’s when tough (people) gets going. |
Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 24/Sep/2006 at 11:30pm
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Ha! Ha! Ha! I remember you having made some profitable investments in SIfy some time back. Are you still playing the Indian internet stocks at the NASDAQ? ------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 24/Sep/2006 at 11:47pm
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Reetesh: While I am not disputing this but I have seen that it sometimes pays to be with the obvious. Technology is highly specialised and suppose some one comes up with the better product tomorrow then we could be in a problem. One stock that was recommended very heavily some time back was D-Link. We all use their modems; Moser Baer - We all use their CD"s but the stock prices have underperformed.
Also as Manish mentioned there are no inceremntal costs in a website/portal so the additional revenue flows directly into the bottomline not so much with these eqiuipment manufacturers. ------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: reetesh
Date Posted: 24/Sep/2006 at 12:02pm
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I totally agree woth you that if someone comes up with better product then there will be problem, but when you look at these kind of businesses where service is also very important than just delivering a product thats where APW`s strenghts comes in, they have thier own copy right products. As far as D-link is concern then they dont have any unique product(s) and quality for higher end customer but look at CISCO on other hand this is consistently growing and on much larger base. Product and Services both count in this industry. As far as Incremental cost in concern I am not comparing APW`s business with a Internet Company business, all I am saying is, it is a PROXY play, and mind you there is other kind of OUTSOURCING happening lot of companies are shifting there servers from US to India. ------------- When going gets tough, that’s when tough (people) gets going. |
Posted By: manishdave
Date Posted: 24/Sep/2006 at 1:30am
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I sold SIFY few months back as valuation went ahead. I am considering re-entry in SIFY and possibly in REDDIFF even though I don't prefer to invest in high P/E stocks. Moneycontrol could be big over the period VSNL is good internet play for near term.
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Google’s chief Eric Schmidt in a recent interview to the Times of
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I think what he ment was fastest 'growing' mkt rather than largerst mkt.
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Posted By: manishdave
Date Posted: 24/Sep/2006 at 1:34am
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Avaya has good IP technology but not sure if AVAYA GLOBALCONNECT will get that or Avaya bypasses Indian Company..
Another play is mro-tek... They make equipments and is reasonably priced...
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Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 24/Sep/2006 at 2:27am
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The Internet user base has grown 446% in China over the last six years while the growth has been 1100% in India over the same period - Source Internetworldstats.com. Guess how much did Somalia grow in this period 44,900%!!!
I am myself perplexed as how this could happen But just consider it this way Hindi is the world's third or fourth most widely spoken language but on the internet platform it is not even in the top ten. The real growth will come from the Hindi speaking belt. The latest survey showed that there was a 142% y-o-y growth in the internet users of smaller towns and cities.
Moneycontrol could become huge. It currently has a 90% market share in all financial news related portals of India and ranks number 3 in the world after wallstreetjournal and fool.com . http://www.theequitydesk.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=29 - TV 18 has been leverage\ing its 70 million audiance base with some real good effect. ------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: Ajith
Date Posted: 27/Sep/2006 at 2:03pm
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There are surely stocks with a potential of 40% of Google's achievement in India and the best indication of that is the growing Venture Capital interest in India. ------------- Ajith |
Posted By: investor
Date Posted: 29/Sep/2006 at 3:49pm
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im not sure about Avaya, but MRO-TEK has good prospectes looking forward. Could expect a yearly 20% growth rate from it.
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Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 03/Oct/2006 at 1:22pm
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Saw media reports that yahoo is looking at launching 6 portals in India (in regiional languages also) either new or through partnership with a local company. This space seems to be hotting up. ------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: Ajith
Date Posted: 03/Oct/2006 at 4:07pm
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Online shopping will surely boom.For example the whole of Kerala is really one city with houses one next to the other in a substanial part with great aspirations purchasing power and brand awareness and few retail outlets to cater to it. ------------- Ajith |
Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 03/Oct/2006 at 4:32pm
| Generally the online shopping market is around 2%-3% of the total retail market. Both http://www.theequitydesk.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=135 - http://www.theequitydesk.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=29 - |
Posted By: Ajith
Date Posted: 03/Oct/2006 at 9:01am
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Gati could benefit even if foreign logistics players move in .Even in portals there will be huge activity with many players but players with strong offline presence like Pantaloons or existing viewership base like TV18 (I would prefer Pantaloon for eventual success in the internet space because of its strong offline presence though I may be proved wrong by theTV18 team)could have an edge. Spin-off benefits may be another way to play.This may take time to emerge but certainly will. ------------- Ajith |
Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 03/Oct/2006 at 10:17am
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The more online shopping develops better it is for logistics company - some one needs to deliver the packets home. generally good courier companies should grow at more then 20% at least for the next 4-5 years backed by the buoyant economy. ------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 14/Oct/2006 at 6:53pm
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Mahesh Murthy is a sort of Guru in the Internet space. In this interview he explains how he invests in internet startups and what he looks for before investing in the dot coms.Mahesh normally dislikes any dotcom that spends on advertisements to draw up a user base.
http://ia.rediff.com/money/2006/sep/26inter.htm - http://ia.rediff.com/money/2006/sep/26inter.htm
------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: Ajith
Date Posted: 14/Oct/2006 at 10:42pm
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This is the real next big trend where we have,I think, an edge over China and will challenge USA-branded software products.
Great interview.I used to look forward to Mahesh' s column in Business World. ------------- Ajith |
Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 14/Oct/2006 at 11:02pm
| Murthy talks a lot of common sense backed by clear logic and his Businessworld columns are a delight to read.. I heard in a TV interview a couple of days back that he would invest in an internet company that was thriving without any advertising. He actually mentioned http://www.theequitydesk.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=29 - |
Posted By: Ajith
Date Posted: 14/Oct/2006 at 8:13am
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I have the latest Outlook Business which I must read today to get a clearer picture.
On present eyeballs,TV 18 looks good.
On Mahesh Murthy,his judgement is good as I e-mail -corresponded with him on his article and what he said then-2004-has turned out to be true now. ------------- Ajith |
Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 14/Oct/2006 at 9:03am
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Mr Ajith: What did Murthy prerdict in 2004 if you could share with us? ------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: Ajith
Date Posted: 15/Oct/2006 at 12:37pm
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I will let you know. ------------- Ajith |
Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 19/Oct/2006 at 7:58pm
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Now HT media is also planning to http://www.theequitydesk.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=261 - spin off its internet business .The company is planning to refocus on its dotcom business. This comes a day after NDTV announced similar plans. ------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: India_Bull
Date Posted: 19/Oct/2006 at 11:13pm
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Hi,
Infoedge looks very promising. Any idea about the price band and the date of launch. I have availed the service of the company for my professional resume development and they are excellent and very professional. Gr8 days ahead for the company... ------------- India_Bull forever Bull ! www.kapilcomedynights.com |
Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 19/Oct/2006 at 11:22pm
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Great company with huge potential. But at cuurent valuations I would prefer Tv18 but all internet companies will do well. Naukri is No.1 after Monstor how do you find JobsStreet.com (if you have used that)? ------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 23/Oct/2006 at 5:18pm
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For the past few days I have seen Yahoo advertise aggressively on the TV specifically the English news channels the ad talks about opening email accounts in yahoo.com. - never saw this before. Probably this is another signal to the internet boom that we are to see in India over the next few years. I also read a report where it was indicated that yahoo is eager to buy out a few properties in the hindi version of the internet space in India. Hindi is virgin territory for the Internet market ------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: BubbleVision
Date Posted: 23/Oct/2006 at 5:25pm
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yahoo is eager to buy out a few properties in the hindi version of the internet space in India.
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Any such propetties available for a buy out? ------------- You can't make money if you are unwilling to lose...It's like willing to breathe in but not willing to breathe out. -- ED SEYKOTA ....Read Disclaimer! |
Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 23/Oct/2006 at 5:32pm
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No idea but they would probably look at a very small niche play and then take it on from there. ------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 28/Oct/2006 at 8:31pm
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India's first Hindi search engine http://www.raftaar.com - www.raftaar.com has been launched. But before you go to that please read this since you would need this to surf the hindi search engine.
http://www.theequitydesk.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=150 - http://www.theequitydesk.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=150 ------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: prashantmohta
Date Posted: 29/Oct/2006 at 7:26pm
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E-commerce in India is set to jump 95 per cent from Rs.11.8 billion to Rs.23 billion in 2006-07 on a whopping Rs.2.18 billion advertisement-spend, a new survey says. This is largely because India's current 38.5 million Internet users will shoot up to 100 million by 2007.
The internet is learned quickly. Like driving a car, everyone can do so with a couple of months practice but first you have to be able to afford the petrol. Indian’s middle class is already “rubbing shoulders” and as the cost of computers fall, internet usage will continue to expand exponentially.
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Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 05/Nov/2006 at 5:39pm
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Infoedge at Rs 300 is a good investemnt.Companyshould do an EPS of Rs 10 in Fy 07 and Rs 16 in Fy 08 Fy 07 revenuees should be Rs 120 crores and Fy 08 revenues should be Rs 180 crores.
So with a PE of 40 times Fy 08 the stock could see a level of Rs 640 and that should be a fair value. I know the whole town could frown but the point is that 240 institutional investors who applied for the IPO still have not been able to quench their thirst.
At Rs 640 the Infoedge would trade at market cap of Rs 1700 crores and Tv18 currently trades at a market cap of Rs 1700 crores. Fy 08 or 09 both should be equal on sales/porofit front. That means that the other businesses of Tv18 are available for FREE. Either Infoedge will come down or Tv 18 will have to go up from these levels also.
All internet companies are not the same FOr instnace TV 18 is coming out with a Home shopping network channel now the profits of this channel is transaction based and would not contribute that much to the bottomline as would money control. The online brokerage sites are also like that they make 0.5% of the transaction at most. So the idea is to look at pure internet portals with a niche such as moneycontrol, naukri etc.
It is very difficult to create a niche in the internet segment and then remain a leader but once a leadership is established it is very difficult to push it.
For example I cannot think of any leader except moneycontrol in the Indian financial news space - that is because of the business channel CNBC Tv18 so each one feeds the other to maintain its position.
Zodiac is great value - Does it still hold shoppers Stop?
------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: manishdave
Date Posted: 05/Nov/2006 at 11:07pm
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How popular is rediff as a portal? Is is no. 1 portal? If not who is no. 1? |
Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 05/Nov/2006 at 9:35am
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In the list of top 50 websites that I had posted Rediff is the number 1 Indian portal.But people use it more for their email here seldom seen people using it for news because political news is available on Tv and ibnlive + ndtv for cricket we have specific portals so I am not sure but a bits and pieces startegy would not be that good on the net especially when everything is available for free.. ------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 06/Nov/2006 at 3:16pm
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Om Shivaya makes a decent point. Now it has gone up 40% but look at the PE's NDTV trades at more then 50 times CY not sure of Tv today so there was no busines for Tv 18 to trade at such low PE's we are just seeing the stock being rated to a valuation it so painfully deserved. If it starts going up with a fall in fundamentals then I would be worried. I have mentiuoned this before also and I am repeating it that the http://www.theequitydesk.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=382 - maximum money is made in PE rerating and thst is what we are witnessing right now.
ABout the Google business we would have had *** failures for one google but had any one identified google or yahoo or amazon or ebay (ALL SECTOR LEADERS) we would have not done badly. That is why I like being with the sector leader the pain is lesser here. ------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: omshivaya
Date Posted: 06/Nov/2006 at 6:35pm
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Investor
I fully agree investor. It is very correct of you to be watchful and advise others to do so too. Thanks for that. But, I am seeing a trend emerging. Slowly broadband is penetrating in a big way and you know there are more mobiles than PCs today. And there is IPTV(Internet Protocol TVs). The difference between Internet and Television will slowly blur as almost everythin will be using internet somewhere as a connection tool.
Mobile content should be high growth drivers. Whatever content you watch on TV, can be provided on your handset too. All the shows on your mobile, thru broadband and internet somewhere in the middle. Already I at the end of the day go to this link: http://video-audio.moneycontrol.com/cnbctv18/live_video_audio/live_videohigh.php - http://video-audio.moneycontrol.com/cnbctv18/live_video_audio/live_videohigh.php
to watch the daily views on TV18. Plus they have live shows running online on internet.
So, it would be very difficult to define what content basically falls under TV or internet and almost everything COULD be routed through the internet. One case being IPTV, where you can surf and watch TV and the same time on the same device.
Plus, I believe that with moneycontrol.com TV18 has got a big "first-mover" advantage. No other website I have seen which is so comprehensive and includes so many things. Moneycontrol and TV18 channels can be leveraged in a big big way for anything TV18 wants.
However, your point TAKEN.
Always good to be cautious and conservative. That is why I will always use a 30 PE forwards for TV18 for my investment calculations, even though it may currently be above 50.
Thanks for your good points investor...and Basant ji! ------------- The most important quality for an investor is temperament,not intellect.A temperament that neither derives great pleasure from being with the crowd nor against it |
Posted By: omshivaya
Date Posted: 06/Nov/2006 at 6:44pm
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By the way, interesting to see what "positive structure" has set the target for TV18. When you clck the above link, on the left hand side for "6 nov 2006", you shall find the TV18 links.
Good way of knowing what's the mood like with the analysts. Just for fun maybe, but better than sit in front of TV all day long. ------------- The most important quality for an investor is temperament,not intellect.A temperament that neither derives great pleasure from being with the crowd nor against it |
Posted By: b_kothari2001
Date Posted: 06/Nov/2006 at 8:16pm
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Hi Basantji,
Sorry to disrupt you, In USA we view rediff for Indian news highlights, it has good covarage. I saw few of my friends also using this site for the same reason.
Rediff shopping also good, prices are reasonable.
Cheers,
Bharat
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Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 06/Nov/2006 at 8:52pm
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Thanks for that input on rediff. Shopping is not that exciting as website ad revenues. Shoopping has associated cost ad revenues flow directly to bottomline. ------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 06/Nov/2006 at 10:45pm
I hope you are right ------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: b_kothari2001
Date Posted: 07/Nov/2006 at 11:06pm
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Related information:
Rediff.com India Q2 net income zooms 383%. Revenues during the quarter under review rose 53% to $6.66 million.
http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage_c_online.php?leftnm=11&bKeyFlag=IN&autono=17270 - http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage_c_online.php?leftnm=11&bKeyFlag=IN&autono=17270
Cheers,
Bharat
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Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 11/Nov/2006 at 1:53pm
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Reetesh: I heard you talk about IOL broadband some time back the co. is making placement to Bennet and Colman of 500,000 shares @ Rs 100 each. the company has aligned with MTNL and BSNl to provide IPTV. I read that the co. is laready delivering 24 channles and has a tie up with STAR TV. ------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: reetesh
Date Posted: 11/Nov/2006 at 2:11pm
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Yes Sir, I wrote when I was comparing a similar company Level (3) Network of US with I think Manish Dave.
Manish was looking to buy VSNL and he was comparing Level 3 with it, then I told him that for IPTV you have pure play that is IOL Broadband at that time they were doing pilot project with MTNL, I am watching this stock from 45 level one of smart investor N. Jayakumar of Prime Securities has bought stock around 60-70 level, the problem is performance is not picking up, but it has potential. Between 85-90 several FII`s has picked up stake.. There is hardly any information about market size of IPTV, if you can do a detail study on this, then we can have a look at this.... ------------- When going gets tough, that’s when tough (people) gets going. |
Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 11/Nov/2006 at 2:25pm
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IPTV will become huge no need to worry on a study and JaiKumar is smart he bought Aban Lloyd before it became a 20 bagger!!! ------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: reetesh
Date Posted: 11/Nov/2006 at 2:28pm
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I know this, I bought Aban before him.... ------------- When going gets tough, that’s when tough (people) gets going. |
Posted By: reetesh
Date Posted: 11/Nov/2006 at 2:40pm
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Will it be able to survive competition from Bharti, Rel. Comm. etc? ------------- When going gets tough, that’s when tough (people) gets going. |
Posted By: reetesh
Date Posted: 11/Nov/2006 at 4:26pm
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Sir, jab apne bat ched hi diya hai to please do some number crunching on this IOL Broadband. Most important question in my mind is will it be able to compete with likes of Bharti and Rel. Comm....
------------- When going gets tough, that’s when tough (people) gets going. |
Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 11/Nov/2006 at 4:42pm
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Reetesh: I do not understand these businesses. The only reason why I want to understand the business is to ensure that whether these companies would exist after say 5 years. See what happened to Visual Soft. they were touted as the next Infy in 2000 and their product Viusual Shift flopped or god knows what happened and the stock fell like a pack of cards.
By the way Nilesh Shah of PruICici bought a big chunk of Visualsoft at Rs 130 earlier this year. Again I do not know what he saw which I could not.
The problem is only that financials can always be analysed but more to that tech companies should be evalauted on business model more then financial. Please start a topic with the business model (the techies on this forum can chip into that) and we can add on the financials there. ------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: psimajin
Date Posted: 11/Nov/2006 at 4:50pm
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Competition will be huge from Bharti,Reliance ,bsnl,Idea,Zee.... but it is only pure play in the field. market is big ... future of TV will be INTERACTIVE.
May be after 5 Years we could say I bought this scrip at 100 odd level.(Basantji's Pantaloon at Rs 50).
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Posted By: prosperity
Date Posted: 11/Dec/2006 at 5:23pm
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http://sify.com/finance/fullstory.php?id=14347917 - SimplyMarry.com launched ------------- |
Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 11/Jan/2007 at 10:56am
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I was told that IPTV is doing well in Bangalore with people trying to access the Tv from their computer. ANy one knows something about this? ------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: investor
Date Posted: 11/Jan/2007 at 11:07am
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Basant, I am in Bangalore and i dont see anything like that having really kicked off as yet. But i think the potential is huge, because the main requirement for this is bandwidth, and with BSNL now upgrading everyone for FREE to 2MBps, we should see this take off in 2007.
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Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 12/Jan/2007 at 3:31pm
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The only play in this sector is IOL broadband which many argue could become big take a look at the prominent shareholders:
------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: investor
Date Posted: 12/Jan/2007 at 3:49pm
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Very interesting, all the big boys seem to be in it. RJ has a huge stake in it, but i dont see his name here. Are any of his investing companies on this list? And the other important question is, when did all these guys get in? Did they all get in very early or recently? As a theme, it looks very good and i am really looking to invest in it, but the only fear is the recent 200% upmove. Dont understand how to value it either. Also, when asked about this in this weeks chat, RD said he dosent track the story but one of his close friends is very very bullish on it - he was clearly referring to RJ. It would be great if anyone on this forum can up with some soprt of analysis/writeup about the potential of this, and whether there is any merit in investment at around current levels. |
Posted By: nikhil090
Date Posted: 12/Jan/2007 at 3:49pm
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I have raised some concerns regarding couple ofpoints earlier.
1. Frequent and fast equity dilution - 13 cr in March 06 to 21+ cr right now 2. Promoter holding of less than 10% 3. Nothing has been seen in terms of execution capability etc.. any comments on these?? |
Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 12/Jan/2007 at 4:02pm
RJ is not in this but Jaykumar of Prime securities. ------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: BubbleVision
Date Posted: 12/Jan/2007 at 4:06pm
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Important Name is number 12 on the list which has been talking about this stock for quite a while in the Media. However they have been talking about this from 100!
Reetesh also has been talking since 100... and he is the guy who can talk more about it.
I know Number 20 also on the list and will try and talk to them. ------------- You can't make money if you are unwilling to lose...It's like willing to breathe in but not willing to breathe out. -- ED SEYKOTA ....Read Disclaimer! |
Posted By: psimajin
Date Posted: 12/Jan/2007 at 4:39pm
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IOL was first discussed at 70 odd level... |
Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 12/Jan/2007 at 6:34pm
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Yes, Reetesh started the discussion. This is the link:
http://www.theequitydesk.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=361&KW=iol - http://www.theequitydesk.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=361&KW=iol ------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: manishdave
Date Posted: 12/Jan/2007 at 9:58pm
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IOL or any small other player wont be able to match muscles of Bharti, Rel etc but it wont go into obliviation. They would be bought.
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Posted By: jstk
Date Posted: 13/Jan/2007 at 1:00pm
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the potential is definetely there, but a bit of unpleasant history too.........
http://www.petitiononline.com/mno87918/petition.html - http://www.petitiononline.com/mno87918/petition.html
http://pd.cpim.org/2005/0213/02132005_surjeet.htm - http://pd.cpim.org/2005/0213/02132005_surjeet.htm
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg22152.html - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg22152.html
http://www.india-today.com/btoday/20060129/features3.html - http://www.india-today.com/btoday/20060129/features3.html
company may still do well and go places, who knows..........people & things change everyday ............ ------------- If you buy for a non-value reason, you will end up selling for a non-value reason. |
Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 13/Jan/2007 at 1:17pm
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Thank you for that interesting link. How do you get so much information? ------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: jstk
Date Posted: 13/Jan/2007 at 3:29pm
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Have been sort of following reports on the company on the web since the initial news about the relationship broke, then discovered that they own an underground backbone network in mumbai which bharti, hutch etc were using. Maybe if i had not known about the link up part, might have invested [ it was trading between Rs.7-10 between jan & april 05 .......i guess just shows that sometimes ignorance is bliss ! ------------- If you buy for a non-value reason, you will end up selling for a non-value reason. |
Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 13/Jan/2007 at 3:38pm
Absolutely. Too much of information is certainly not the best thing but that happens because when we research a company we are unable to know which information is meaningful and which one is not. I almost fell in this trap with Pantaloon and Tv18 but just that I came out of it each time. But with IOL I agree someone who did not know so much was better placed in the shorter term , but in the long run he would give it away. SO while I agree that researching so much could have been detrimental for your investing into IOL broadband in the longer run it would have given you some excellent rewards which I am sure you would accept.
------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: jstk
Date Posted: 13/Jan/2007 at 4:13pm
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agree 100%..........as someone once said....' If you think education [information] is expensive, try ignorance.......' ------------- If you buy for a non-value reason, you will end up selling for a non-value reason. |
Posted By: nikhil090
Date Posted: 20/Jan/2007 at 11:10am
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Some projections on growth in online travel business in india
http://ibef.org/artdisplay.aspx?tdy=1&cat_id=60&art_id=14597&refer=d04&x=115&y=453 - http://ibef.org/artdisplay.aspx?tdy=1&cat_id=60&art_id=14597&refer=d04&x=115&y=453
New Delhi: Online travel bookings are set to boom with the industry doubling its revenues in less than 12 months. Industry sources say that the $460 million Indian online-travel industry is slated to become $1-billion industry by the end of this year and $2 billion by end of 2008. On one hand, global players like Washington-based Expedia and Texas- based travel portal Travelocity are entering the Indian market, on the other hand, Indian players are looking at tie-ups. For instance, Indiatimes.com travel will soon enter into a revenue-sharing arrangement with a global player to increase its inventory of holiday packages and hotels. To spice up the scene, Tripmela, which publishes top 10 deals available across Indian travel portals every week, is also active in the area. It is in talks with various Indian travel portals for an investment of around $1 million. To capture the growing potential of online travel market, Travelocity will start its India-focussed website in February. Tripmela, US-based website, targeting Indian market, is also eyeing Indian travel. “Indian online travel market has great potential which we want to capture ,”says Jared Blank, CEO, Tripmela.com. The online travel market is at present dominated by players such as indiatimes.com, makemytrip.com, yatra.com and travelguru.com. Indiatimes travel will be tying up with a global online travel portal soon. “The tie-up will help us in accessing their inventory of hotels and packages and will help them in getting more customers,” Sharat Dhall, e-commerce head, Indiatimes.com told ET. Yatra.com, which has Reliance Capital, Television Eighteen and Norwest Venture Partners as its investors, is also open to the idea of tying up with a domestic travel portal. “A tie-up can get us new customer segment, though currently we are looking at domestic players only. Next six months will see the online travel space getting very aggressive and competitive,” says Dhruv Shringi, co-founder, Yatra.com. The company’s revenue projection for the year ending December 2007, is $100 million. According to industry heads, the online travel space in India is registering almost a 100% growth year-on-year. “The rapidly growing online travel space will see lot of consolidations along with expansions and new entrants,” says Sachin Bhatia, co-founder, makemytrip.com. The portal’s expects a revenue of $121 million this fiscal. Tie-ups, expansion, consolidations and a lot more - all to woo the Indian travellers seem to the new motto for the travel portals. “Travellers will surely get great deals online this year with increased competition among players,” says Ashwin Damera, CEO, Travelguru.com. The website’s is expecting a turnover of $25 million this fiscal. Yatra.com will have to remain in top 3 to be meaningful in the face of the competition------------- |
Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 24/Jan/2007 at 3:58pm
In the internet business the winner takes all. So we may have a yahoo search but everyone would like to search at google first so the majority of cuctomers would go to google - this would enable google to spend on technology and maintain its position also.One powerful website is moneycontrol.com. This captures more then 80% of the revenues of the Indian financial market on the world wide web.
------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: sanjay3
Date Posted: 24/Jan/2007 at 6:24pm
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The amazing story of Naukri.com
They were hiring MBAs as Management Trainees who would be given a one-year training and graduates would be given two years of training and they would be equalized after three years or so. We were actually the first batch of graduate hires. For a year I was in Delhi then I was transferred to Mumbai. I then wrote the CAT and went off to IIM Ahmedabad. Typically, in an ad agency you have this thing about meeting clients and then wanting to be on the other side of the table since an Ad Agency executive is typically at the lower end of the food chain. So I decided I want to be on the other side and in Marketing. I got a job at HMM, which is now Glaxo SmithKline. I was in brand management, handling Horlicks. I was there for a year and a half. But all along, ever since I was in school, I was pretty clear that I was going to do my MBA, I was going to work for a few years and then start my company. This was there since I was 12 or 13. Were you clear even in those days what was involved in running a company? No clue! But I knew that I didn't want to join government service, after my father's experience, because in government, you are financially very badly off if you are honest. There was no way I was going to be dishonest, because those were not the values we were brought up with. Since I wanted independence, it had to be in a business. This was my dream, a distant goal till I passed out of college and joined Lintas. By then I had decided that I would work for 2-3 years and then start out on my own. So I worked at HMM, came back to Delhi and within a year-and-a-half I quit. I started a company called Info Edge. That is still the name of my company, Naukri is the brand. I started it with a partner and we soon set up two companies, one was for salary surveys and one was a database of trademarks on which we were doing searches. In October 1990, we were operating from the servants' quarters above the garage at home and were paying my father Rs 800 as monthly rent. What form of searches were you doing? They were trade mark searches. We launched a salary survey in Info Edge and with the money we made from that, my partner had another idea. He said the trade mark registry in Bombay has a library where you can see pending trade mark applications. The government takes five years to approve or reject a trade mark application so if you thought of a brand name today, you apply for it, launch it in six months and five years later if the government rejects your application you are dead, especially if somebody else is already using it before you. People used to hire a law firm which sent out people to do a manual check in the library and assess whether the trade mark is likely to be accepted or rejected. This library is opened to public inspection. So we sent in 20 college students to note down all information filed under pharmaceuticals in all 134 classes. We dumped this data in a computer and we wrote software to search it. We then began to call pharma companies -- there were 5,000 of them -- saying if you are making a trade mark application talk to us. For Rs 350 we give you a printed search report. This was a massive hit. How did you deliver this? We put the information in a computer. There were no online database searches then. So we said, you tell us what you need, we do a search, prepare a report and send it to you by courier. In 1993 my partner and I decided to go our separate ways. I kept the salary survey company Info Edge and since the trademark thing was his idea he kept that. I moved back to the servants' quarters and started afresh. Over the next three years I kept costs low and made some money. How did the survey work? We used to do entry level salary surveys -- what companies are offering MBAs and engineers at the entry level. We would do a report and send it to maybe a 100 companies. It was not customised. It was a standard survey sold at Rs 5,000 to maybe 100-200 companies. As the price went up we sold at may be Rs 10,000. We used to speak to students who got offers usually from top ten engineering colleges. It worked well. Where did you get the idea? When I was in HMM we didn't have offices with partitions like we do today. It was an open hall where you could see, hear and speak to everyone. I noticed that when an office copy of Business India came in, everybody used to read it from back to front. It had 35 to 40 pages of appointment ads in every issue. At that time Business India was the No.1 medium for appointment ads for managers. And people would openly talk about jobs that were available or slipping out of their hands. They discussed opportunities. Nobody was applying, nobody wanted to leave because they were in a comfortable MNC job with good brands, good pay packages etc., but they used to talk about it. From these conversations I figured that even if you are not looking for a job, you look at a job. You are constantly looking for a new benchmark and checking if you are missing out on anything. Also, every week 2-3 head-hunters would call offering jobs. There must have been 100 headhunters out there and each of them probably had four to five clients. These jobs were never advertised because we never saw them in Business India or elsewhere. I figured, what is appearing in the newspapers is the tip of the iceberg. There is a massive market below the surface, highly fragmented and scattered across HR Departments and placement consultants. If somebody could aggregate it, it would be a powerful product where you could somehow make money. I knew this by 1990. When you are trying to become an entrepreneur there are a thousand ideas -- this was one of them. Where would your money come from, in a model like this? I had no clue. This was only an idea and I knew something would come out of it but I didn't know how. It was just one of a thousand ideas -- file and forget kind of thing. By then I had quit my job. The Department of Telecom had put an ad on the front page of a newspaper saying it was looking for private information providers to launch a video text service, like the one in Paris. They would put up a server. . . I didn't even know what a server was those days. . . and there would be terminals in 45 telephone exchanges and 50 other public places from where information can be accessed for a fee. They said, we want people who will own and maintain the databases and will not charge us anything; but when the user pays we will do a revenue split. I spoke to my former partner and said let's make a proposal where we get jobs from the company head hunters free of cost and put them here and charge 50 bucks per search, so Rs 25 will be DoT's and Rs 25 will be ours. He agreed we put in an application, were short-listed and they called us. We found that around 30 to 40 people had turned up, some wanting to put up tenders, others planning something else. So they said, fine, we have plenty of proposals so now we can move to the next stage and get into details. We got a plan ready, produced documentation and end user schemes with classifications for every industry type. That was in 1991, before the Internet came to India. They approved our proposal and said they will get back to us on implementation. But the project was cancelled. So we had this concept ready in 1991-92 and didn't know what to do with it. But by then I was charged up on the idea and wanted to try it out. We tried franchise models, couriered floppies, etc. We kept getting data but whatever we tried it didn't look like it would work. It was too cumbersome. Meanwhile, I and my partner had parted. This idea came along with me while he kept the trademark thing. In October 1996 I attended the IT Asia exhibition in Delhi which is held every year. Usually at IT Asia they have one pavilion with 100 or more tiny stalls where one always found a lot of interesting things. I saw one stall with www written on it. So I asked this guy what it meant, he said it was the World Wide Web. I asked him what that meant and he said it was the Internet and explained it to me. At that time there was no TCP/IP access, only black and white monitors on which he gave me a demo. He was a retailer, reselling VSNL e-mail accounts. I said I don't want e-mail, show me the Internet. So he took me to a site called Yahoo!, showed me how to search, browse, check other sites -- there was lot of information. I asked him how many users are there in India. He said 14,000. So I said, 'Wow!' I told him I don't want an e-mail account but I want to set up a Web site, show me how to do it. He said I can't help you there because there you need a server and all servers are in the US. My brother is a professor at the UCLA business school, so I rang him up and told him I wanted to start a Web site. I told him to help me hire a server, but didn't have the money and said I would pay him later. We were really struggling financially those days because in 1996, if you recall, there was a recession. He said, no problem, I will pay for it and you pay me when you can. You didn't ever regret having moved out of a cushy MNC job and the long struggle? I struggled for 10. . . no, 13 years. I had moved out of the MNC job rather early. My salary was Rs 80,000 per annum. This was decent in 1990 but I was not giving up a Rs 20 lakh (Rs 2 million) job to come to a zero rupee salary. In those days you could not buy a car for three to four years even after you passed from IIM Ahmedabad. I had a two-wheeler. I had not seen the higher salaries so I didn't miss it. What happened over the years when I was struggling is that my friends changed because they were doing different things. They used to go on foreign holidays, visit hotels and bars, which I simply could not afford. Over time, of course, I have re-established contacts. Were the adjustments easier because of your family background? Well, for the first three years, my wife was in Nestle and the company couldn't pay me. The next two years, the company could pay me and my wife was still in Nestle so we were okay. She quit in 1995 and around 1996 I became the Consulting Editor of The Pioneer's career supplement called Avenues. That gave me a monthly cheque; we were not well-off but we got by. By that time my reference group had changed, so I was not seeing what my batch mates were getting. In 2000 when we got venture capital from ICICI, I had been through the second round of not taking salary for three years -- 1997 to 2000. That was tough. During that time my wife was not working, so I had to do a second job. I got up at 6.00 in the morning, dropped her to the bus stop, was in the office by 7.00, worked till 12.00 then would go to The Pioneer come back and work till midnight again. This went on for three years. That was tough, but the thing about doing your own business is that you are probably very happy even though you are not making money, for the simple reason that you are in control of your life and priorities and that is important to me. Was there the fear factor -- wondering how long you would have to keep struggling? I got over the fear factor in the first two years. I realised that for an entrepreneur the real risk is often a lot less than the perceived risk before you jump. You learn to cope, to manage -- you find your cushions and buffers. But sure, you have to be willing to say that I won't have a fashionable lifestyle, I am okay not buying a big car or owning a house. And it is easy if it is early in your career. So, in 1997 my brother paid for the server and I gave him 5% in the company. At $25 a month he got a good deal for the server. I went to another friend who is a very good programmer and I told him about my idea to start a Web site. I gave him the old file and I asked him to do the programming. Since I didn't have the money I gave him a 7% share in the company. He was a freelancer working from home. Then there was another friend, a year junior to me, called Saroja. She was also doing an independent consulting project. I told her that I am doing a second job in the afternoons and will she be interested in coming in for six hours a day. I offered 9% in the company and she agreed. Then we had some data entry guys and support staff from our other regular business. We went to the Central News Agency and brought back some 29 newspapers with appointment ads. We built the structure of the database and told them to input the jobs. We got a thousand jobs, then I took a floppy to my techie friend and told him here is the menu and the navigation we want and he built the Web site -- Naukri -- in one week. We launched on April 2, 1997. It was a very rudimentary site. If you look at it today it was really embarrassing. For the first six months I did not have an Internet connection. But a good thing happened to us then. We were the first site that was targeting Indians in India. All others like rediff.com, Khoj and Samachar were all targeting Indians in the US. At around that time, journalists in India had begun to write about Internet and were looking for Indian examples to talk about. So we began to get massive coverage. In the first year itself we had two fat files of press coverage and that really helped us. Because we got coverage without trying, we also got traffic. Our contact strategy was very good -- we would always allow you to log on free. Because we were sure that with 14000 people accessing the Net, we had a small base of users and we had to get people to keep coming back. So where did your revenue come from? We were doing salary surveys still remember? In year one in Naukri we did Rs 2.35 lakh (Rs 235,000) of business and 80% of the jobs were free. In year two our figures jumped to Rs 18 lakh (Rs 1.8 million) and that is when I realised that we had a serious business possibility here, although I was not able to pay myself a salary. The company was, quite frankly very very stretched even though we broke even. What I did was to shut other parts of the business and all workstations and people were working on Naukri. The next year, turnover jumped to Rs 36 lakh (Rs 3.6 million) and we made Rs 1.8 lakh profit, but that was because I did not take a salary. I was now clear that I would grow to make Rs 50 to 60 lakh (Rs 5-6 million) and then the profit could be around Rs 10 lakh (Rs 1 million) and I could even take home Rs 5 lakh (Rs 500,000). In 1999-2000 we did Rs 36 lakh, but by October we were sure we would go to Rs 40-50 lakh. So we were very optimistic and thought we will do well after 10 years of struggle. Then, around May-June 1999, we began to get phone calls from people saying 'we want to invest in your company, why not take money from us'? We found it surprising, but I said we don't need your money, we are going to break even and are concentrating on profits next year, so please go away. Then we learnt that funded competition was coming in and the game was going to change. Suddenly, I realised, you cannot be a Rs 50 lakh Web site and make a 10 lakh net profit; you will have to be a Rs 5 crore (Rs 50 million) Web site and make a Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 million) net profit -- that is the only way you will survive or else you will die, because the game is going to change. Sure enough, Jobs Ahead was launched on the India-Pakistan Sharjah Cricket tournament. We didn't know what the budget was but somebody told us it 'it is twice your turnover.' That is when we called back the venture capitalists and said look we have changed our minds. So they said, sure thing, write your business plan. So we went back to them, the terms sheets were signed and due diligence done and April 8, 2000 we signed the agreement and they cut their first cheque. We got lucky. If we had taken the money six months earlier we would have spent it foolishly. The market melted down around that time. We were the last or second last dot-com in India to get funded. By March the meltdown had started but people did not officially acknowledge it till September-October. They kept saying it is a technical correction. We got the money on April 8th and we just put it in fixed deposit. We had done business for three years and we knew how tough it was surviving on the Net so when the market crashed we knew it was a real crash. We knew of it six months back because we were in the business so I told ICICI that this is a real crash, we have to build the business slowly. ICICI, to their credit, never ever asked us for revised valuation and did not hold back subsequent tranches. Was this only for you or for everybody else? For us. For whatever reason -- I don't know what their thinking was and why us, but the fact is they gave us the final cheque at the same valuation a year and a half after April 8th. We began to invest in servers, technology, people, products, sales offices and we began to focus on growing the business -- not just by spending but through better products and a feet-on-the-street approach. Around this time the IT meltdown began. This was in November 2000. Then 9/11 happened and although we continued to grow, we were very scared. There was a time when we had only two years of money left. And then slowly the revenues caught up. We made two years of losses and then we broke even and made a one crore profit. Going forward, we see there has to be solid emphasis on product and technology so in the last two years we have invested a lot in these and will continue to do so. We need a lot of innovations and scaleable technologies because funny things happen when traffic suddenly goes up. It is easy to run a Web site when there is low traffic but you are really tested when traffic goes up. Does your application still perform and your service still deliver? You don't realise that until you face the problem. We have invested a lot in scaleable technologies, in new products and features and in bringing mobile and Internet together as well as voice and SMS. In our scheme of things, the first priority is the product, the next is the brand -- we spend a lot of money on advertising both online and offline. The third is the sales force and sales network in order to sell. We have 400 sales people all over the country so we can reach many more companies and service them better. Where are you vis-�-vis your competition? There are two publicly available sources of checking who is bigger. One is Alexa.com where you can check out the traffic of various sites. The other is a paid site called Matrix. As per Alexa we got over 75% to 80% share of job traffic in India and according to Matrix we got between 60% to 65%. In terms of revenue share -- we roughly estimate that we have around 55% of the market. But the metrics we really look at is how many CVs we are adding everyday, how many applications are going daily from our Web site? On all these metrics we have no competitive data but we estimate we are ahead by 30% to 40%. How are you advantaged or disadvantaged vis-�vis well known brands such as Times which is also in this business now? Times of India obviously is a big company with a huge print presence and they are able to support their online presence through print. However, so far we have not been challenged in our market share or traffic share. I think with online media a lot depends on your product instincts and qualities. How fast is the site? How many CVs do I get? How many finds do I get? We are in a situation where it is very easy for the customer to evaluate competitive offerings because you can measure how many responses you get and how many you hire. But what about your original insight that people look at Business India from the end, even though they are not really looking for a job. Are you able to give that window shopping experience? Yes, some people are looking for jobs, some people are just looking around. While you can browse through the site we do have an issue about the window shopping experience for passive job seekers. We recognise that. A newspaper goes into the house for some other reason and you see jobs there. You don't have to make a separate effort. What we are able to do with technology is that if you register your resume with Naukri, the headhunters will call you. But newspapers have a massive reach within the city on a given day. So if you are doing a walk-in interview, thousands will be walking in, after reading a newspaper ad. But then the Net is not expensive and will deliver results over a week, ten days or two weeks and it will deliver the results from all over the country. So, it is not as if the Net will replace print, it's just some of the stuff which is going into print will rather be on the web. Besides, employees can themselves search nearly 2 lakh (200,000) job listings -- they can search, they can browse, they can set job alerts -- there are a lot of things the Net can do that print cannot. Do you expect Jeevan Sathi and 99 acres to be successful as well? As of now, Naukri accounts for over 80% of my turnover. Jeevan Saathi and 99 acres are plays for the future. If you look at our strategy there is a pattern. We started with Naukri -- a classified listings kind of business, a database search kind of business. The market structures of the other two are very similar. There is big market in print, there is a segment which is run by consultants, there is an intermediary in the market -- a placement consultant, there is a job seeker, there is a final employer. We are creating a platform. Our job is to enable a handshake and we are charging for the prospect of enabling a handshake. Jeevansathi.com is similar. There is a large print market, there are two parties who frequently use the services of marriage brokers. So again there are similar players. It is the same in real estate. So we have actually gone after markets which are very similar in structure and are financially viable in print and hence not risky. So we expect to do well, but don't know how well. Jeevansathi is the No. 3 matrimonial site in the country; when we bought it in September 2004 it was distant No. 3 and now we have narrowed the gap substantially and I think we should be No. 2 in the not too distant future. For 99 acres, there was nobody else of any significance so we launched in August 2005 and we are No. 1 already. What is your special input in 99 acres? Why have other property sites not done well? I don't know. May be they were too early in 1999-2000, may be their strategy was different from ours, maybe they were not neutral platforms, may be they did not aggregate enough content. We have 55,000 listings on our site right now and have a whole tele-calling team which calls up brokers asking for listings on the phone and give them free trials. So it is a question of intuition also. The basic funda is the Naukri funda -- we have got the most jobs so we get the most traffic, we get the most traffic so we get the most response, we get the most response so we get the most clients, we get the most clients so we get the most jobs -- it is a virtuous circle like in any other media market. It is the same in newspapers and the same in Jeevan Sathi or 99 acres. Looking back, what advise would you have for young entrepreneurs with your mindset? I would say that frequently the perceived risk is lower than the real risk but nevertheless you should understand the risk and try to reduce it. It is a myth that entrepreneurs are not risk averse. I must be the most risk averse person I have met in my life. I am really scared of risks. The point is to keep de-risking at every opportunity. So first, I did not quit my job until after I got married knowing there is income in the house. I began to teach on weekends. If I had been single, or my wife was not working -- in fact she was the fist angel investor -- it would have been a lot more difficult. I may not have done it. These were all de-risking strategies. When you start out you don't know where you are going to end up. When we launched Naukri and you had asked me what is your vision I would say there was no vision. All I thought was, if I get a thousand companies to pay me Rs 500 a month to list a job and this would be every month I can do a Rs 60 lakh (Rs 6 million) turnover in three years time I will multiply the turnover of the company five times, that was the opportunity I felt. Somewhere down the way this dot-com thing happened, then venture capital happened, the meltdown happened and if somebody had told me that I would do a Rs 84 crore (Rs 840 million) turnover five years from now I would say he was joking. Our projection to ICICI in our business plan was Rs 25 crore (Rs 250 million) for this year. So a lot of things are also unpredictable. What do you see happening in the business in future? I think there is lot of growth left in the company, there is more business that we can do. I think that there is a lot of improvement to do in product and technology to make it a world class company. I don't see us diversifying significantly outside the Internet, at least as of now. We are not evaluating a fourth portal. The reason is we want to at least make sure that Jeevan Saathi breaks even and makes a profit. If we were only in Naukri and Quadrangle -- the recruitment part of business -- our pre-tax profit would be about Rs 28 crore (Rs 280 million) just last year. So we don't want to spread ourselves too thin, particularly from the management point of view. In our business, the constraint to growth is not money but execution and leadership. URL for this article: http://www.rediff.com///money/2007/jan/24inter.htm ------------- |
Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 27/Jan/2007 at 11:31am
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Likewise a Infy in future may deserve lesser P/E than a Naukri.
________________________________________________________
Very compelling argument. I think both of you are from the Tech industry. How long would you think these brands would take to become as powerful as you expect. 5 years or more then that. ------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: ramki830
Date Posted: 28/Jan/2007 at 12:07pm
Yes I am working in Tech Industry... probably my views could be biased and critical due to this ....
I feel that Web Portals in India are in same situation as satellite television channels were in mid 1990s.. we have few established players, trying to build a solid base and some more newcomers knocking the door. Maybe 8-10 years from now, when some 200-400 million Indians use Internet regularly, the top web portals like naukri or bharatmatrimony or zapak would be as valuable and powerful as a Zee or Star or SUN is today (in TV space).
PS- Again could add that not all portals are same in terms of business prospects - a job portal like naukri is inherently cyclical, but that is the only listed portal play in India. A bharatmatrimony would be like an Airtel in Web Portal Space.
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Posted By: ramki830
Date Posted: 28/Jan/2007 at 2:56pm
Wish to say that Yahoo is not much perceived as a search engine, but more as a Emailing System/Instant Messaging (IM) and a Generic News Medium.
Yahoo's Headstart w.r.to Google dint help it retain its dominance in Search Engine, but still in IM and Emailing, Yahoo is competing well with the new commer Google.
Right now it is not able to monetise, but it will all change in future. Some time in future, Email Providers may together levy a small subscription fee , that would help them get dependable revenues. And people would pay the fee rather than change email address and take the pain to inform everone about new email address.
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Posted By: kulman
Date Posted: 30/Jan/2007 at 10:36am
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I couldn't decide suitable thread for this editorial in TOI:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/OPINION/Editorial/TODAYS_EDITORIAL_Its_Immaterial/articleshow/1541364.cms - It's Immaterial
Have you googled today? A few years ago, the question would not have made much sense; today, the query is commonplace. Born as an Internet search engine, Google today has found its way to English language dictionaries as an adjective as well.
Its growth and dominance of cyberspace is evidence of a simple but often glossed over fact ideas matter. In the list of influential brands released in an international survey recently, ideas have pride of place; Google beats Apple for top spot, video-sharing website YouTube debuts at number three, followed closely by online encyclopaedia, Wikipedia, at number four. Apart from being stars in the Internet firmament, what these brands share in common is a big idea one that anticipated consumer needs and a commitment to keep the end-user in firm focus. Google's primary selling point was indexing the world at the click of a mouse; it has rapidly diversified by adding advertising, e-mail and blog services as well. Wikipedia hosts research material on almost everything conceivable and is mostly user-generated. YouTube operates on the same principle, allowing users to share videos with a global audience without spending a penny. Little wonder that in an ever-shrinking world, they have impacted people more than any physical product. The intangible, more so now than ever, is pre-eminent.
A product cannot make the leap from being a commodity to a brand unless an ideational dimension has been added to it. The purer the idea, the greater the brand's chances of succeeding, despite the ups and downs of the global marketplace. The premium now is on innovations that are a cut above the rest, reinvent the way we think, exchange and live. Some of the most successful ones have stuck to time-tested logic less is more. Simple, relevant and, above all, user-friendly, they are propositions that found instant takers. Hotmail, for instance, changed the way in which the world connects and corresponds and Napster redefined the concept of sharing music. Communication technology has made it imperative for industry, especially media and advertising, to constantly think out of the box to capture consumer interest. Even in the real world, companies that have made the idea component integral to their products have been most successful. Starbucks gives more than just coffee for the buck, Apple's iPod has revolutionised the way one listens to music. When Pacific Southwest Airlines pioneered low-cost airlines in 1949, it gave wings to many dreams: the humble Cup Noodles is a cult in its own right. The beauty of the big idea is that it is a great equaliser; its power allows the little fellow take on the big boys. ------------------------------- TOI's quote for today is: IF AT FIRST, THE IDEA IS NOT ABSURD, THEN THERE IS NO HOPE FOR IT---Albert Einstein ------------- Life can only be understood backwards—but it must be lived forwards |
Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 08/Feb/2007 at 5:23pm
Source: Indiantelevision.com ------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: kulman
Date Posted: 08/Feb/2007 at 9:42pm
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M/s Sardesai & Manchanda of GBN mentioned about online media potential briefly during today's interview.
------------- Life can only be understood backwards—but it must be lived forwards |
Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 10/Feb/2007 at 7:14pm
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Can anyone tell me whether the business models of http://www.cnet.com - www.cnet.com and http://www.tech2.com - www.tech2.com + http://www.compareindia.com - www.compareindia.com . are alike. ------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: Mohan
Date Posted: 10/Feb/2007 at 12:25pm
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India could be the largest market is true.
The question is which companies will be the beneficiaries.
How will people access the Internet ?
Broadband, cellphones ,wimax ?
------------- Be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy when others are fearful. |
Posted By: omshivaya
Date Posted: 10/Feb/2007 at 2:00am
Large scale internet penetration should happen with hand-held devices such as Palmtops, cell phones. However, initial it will be broadband to PC or IPTV. ------------- The most important quality for an investor is temperament,not intellect.A temperament that neither derives great pleasure from being with the crowd nor against it |
Posted By: omshivaya
Date Posted: 10/Feb/2007 at 2:06am
Tech2.com + compareindia.com > cnet.com (product offering-wise).
Cnet focuses primarily on Tech. equipments only, whereas compareindia as of now also focuses on things such as kitchen equipment and as time goes by, I think more stuff to compare may be added.
However, the business model seems to be quite the same. But having said that, I see compareindia.com to be having a potential for wider array of products and service offerings(besides technology) and tech2.com would be more or less oriented towards tech. products. ------------- The most important quality for an investor is temperament,not intellect.A temperament that neither derives great pleasure from being with the crowd nor against it |
Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 10/Feb/2007 at 9:15am
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Om I have been trying to do an analysis of the internet properties with Web 18 and Cnet trades at amarket cap of US $ 1.5 billion plus. Now if India is to become the largest market all business models that have worked in the US would work in India as well. I am deraming about that at the moment! I will try and put up a list of the web 18 properties along with their international comparisions and then we could start a debate on that. ------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: omshivaya
Date Posted: 11/Feb/2007 at 6:43pm
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Yes sir, I did get a hint on that. Thanks very much for that. You were also talking of analysing what CAS/DTH/IPTV effect on stocks such as TV18 India and Network18 would be by 2010. Are you on way on that one. Planning to post soon enough sir? Just enquiring...please take your time as I know you had loads of work too! ------------- The most important quality for an investor is temperament,not intellect.A temperament that neither derives great pleasure from being with the crowd nor against it |
Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 11/Feb/2007 at 7:38pm
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Yes, I am almost doen there.But before we do that I would like to have some opinion on the properties Web`18 is building - I feel they could be huge! ------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: omshivaya
Date Posted: 11/Feb/2007 at 9:20pm
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Yes surely sir. Can I help you with finding anything else? Am eagerly looking forward to both your above analysis.
Thank you very much in advance. ------------- The most important quality for an investor is temperament,not intellect.A temperament that neither derives great pleasure from being with the crowd nor against it |
Posted By: deveshkayal
Date Posted: 07/Mar/2007 at 1:12pm
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Indian online businesses can take heart from this news item. India has emerged as the fastest growing country of Internet users, surpassing the growth rates in the US, China, Japan, according to a survey by http://www.feedblitz.com/t.asp?/88627/1654639/http://www.comscore.com/ - comScore Networks . The internet population in India grew at 33 per cent, while the world average was 10 per cent. India ranked eighth in terms of number of internet users as of January 2007. ------------- "You don't need to be a rocket scientist. Investing is not a game where the guy with the 160 IQ beat the guy with a 130 IQ. Rationality is essential"- Warren Buffett |
Posted By: Mohan
Date Posted: 07/Mar/2007 at 9:43pm
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Comparing Apples and Oranges
Headlines are to attract attentionThis is how companies tell us what we like to hear.
Let me give you an example.
India had over 21 million Internet users
India's population over a Billion. Penetration level 2 %
The US has the largest internet population of 153 million
US population is over 300 million. Penetration level 50 %
India, though ranked eighth in number of users, can take heart from the fact that it’s ahead of countries like Canada
Canada's population is around 30 + million, around 3 % if India's.
you do the math
The whole world is looking at india to grow sales.(Read make money)
------------- Be fearful when others are greedy and be greedy when others are fearful. |
Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 07/Mar/2007 at 9:50pm
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And when that penetration level reaches 20% we should outdo the Us in terms of internet users. 20% is not that big a deal with 30 crore middle class Indians and language not a barrier - internet can be accessed in hindi also. see raftaar.com!!! ------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: nikhil090
Date Posted: 10/Mar/2007 at 8:34pm
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Some more progess in terms of reaching the numbers..
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Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 11/Mar/2007 at 9:35pm
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MSn has launched its hindi portal.
http://content.msn.co.in/Hindi/Default - http://content.msn.co.in/Hindi/Default
Just goes on to show the potantial of the internet in India. ------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: BubbleVision
Date Posted: 11/Mar/2007 at 10:02pm
Great news that MSN has had a Hindi launch! Visiting it often would improve my Hindi! ------------- You can't make money if you are unwilling to lose...It's like willing to breathe in but not willing to breathe out. -- ED SEYKOTA ....Read Disclaimer! |
Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 11/Mar/2007 at 10:55pm
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Bubblevision if you want to give a touch up to your Telgu Billu Bhaiya has a new site for you
http://content.msn.co.in/Telugu/Default - http://content.msn.co.in/Telugu/Default
MSN is going really aggressive with its vernacular editions. ------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: omshivaya
Date Posted: 16/Mar/2007 at 6:35pm
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Anil Ambani company Reliance Entertainment is working on a social networking portal that they intend to launch shortly. The site will be similar to Orkut, but with additional features. More details when we have them. A social network seems to be the ideal platform to connect the many
Reliance Entertainment ventures: Zapak, Adlabs, BigFM. Zapak had a http://www.contentsutra.com/entry/zapaks-launch-budget-at-2-mil-online-cricket-tournament-in-jan-feb-surfgold/ - launch budget of $2 million
Source: http://www.contentsutra.com/entry/419-reliance-to-start-social-networking-site - http://www.contentsutra.com/entry/419-reliance-to-start-social-networking-site ------------- The most important quality for an investor is temperament,not intellect.A temperament that neither derives great pleasure from being with the crowd nor against it |
Posted By: kulman
Date Posted: 19/Mar/2007 at 10:17am
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http://www.livemint.com/2007/03/20023500/Techs-telcos-team-up-to-set-I.html - Techs, telcos team up to set Internet TV standard (source: livemint)
Companies which provide television over Internet technology (IPTV) joined forces on 19 March to set a single global standard, so that all systems would work together.
The Open IPTV Forum is backed by companies including Ericsson, Matsush*ta’s Panasonic, Philips, Samsung Electronics, Siemens AG Sony Corp, AT&T, Telecom Italia and France Telecom.
Not on the starting list are Alcatel-Lucent and Microsoft Corp, the market leaders and alliance partners in IPTV networks and software.
Film makers and TV production companies were not on the list either, but the forum said everyone could join.
“The forum will be open for participation to any companies, which share the goals of the forum and are willing to actively contribute to specification development,” the Open IPTV Forum said.
The nine founding companies said they want results fast and will hammer out technology requirements by September and a first set of technology specifications by year-end.
If all IPTV systems work together flawlessly, it would be easier and cheaper for consumers to buy and use IPTV systems and services.
For technology companies and operators it will be cheaper to build systems, because they can be made for a global market.
The forum will embrace existing standards that address part of the inter-operability challenge.
It said it supported the work of IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) for unified Internet service delivery and the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) that aims to make it easy for consumers to use their digital music, films and other content across their home or private network. Most of the nine companies are already active in one or more of these other standards-setting bodies.
------------- Life can only be understood backwards—but it must be lived forwards |
Posted By: praveenmbd
Date Posted: 30/Mar/2007 at 4:58pm
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Yahoo! tie-up to yield good earnings: Jagran Prakashan
http://www.moneycontrol.com/india/stockpricequote/mediaentertainment/jagranprakashan/20/05/pricechartquote/marketprice/JP12 - Jagran Prakashan and Yahoo! India recently announced the launch of a new co-branded Hindi news and current affairs Internet property. The new property will integrate Jagran content with Yahoo! India’s online presence. The partnership will see Jagran’s content across news, current affairs, sports, entertainment and other features complemented by Yahoo!’s internet products and services. |
Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 30/Mar/2007 at 5:05pm
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Just shows how long India can go on this internet bandwagon! Yahoo/MSN are all getting very aggressive in the regional space. ------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: psimajin
Date Posted: 01/Apr/2007 at 12:49pm
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Please check this link
http://www.google.com/tisp/install.html - http://www.google.com/tisp/install.html
Free BROADBAND for life
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Posted By: kulman
Date Posted: 01/Apr/2007 at 12:59pm
Ha ha ha 
Does your 'body system' need RJ45 jack compatibility?
------------- Life can only be understood backwards—but it must be lived forwards |
Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 07/Apr/2007 at 12:37pm
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The latest issue of Business world has an interesting argument on the exploding internet space in India. It is a must read. It would be very nice if anyone could post a weblink for that . ------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: India_Bull
Date Posted: 07/Apr/2007 at 12:43pm
Here is the link Basantjee you are talking about I guess 
http://www.businessworld.in/content/view/1300/1357/ - http://www.businessworld.in/content/view/1300/1357/ ------------- India_Bull forever Bull ! www.kapilcomedynights.com |
Posted By: basant
Date Posted: 07/Apr/2007 at 12:51pm
On yes! That was some quick work and how much did it take 360 seconds between me writing the post and you getting to read it and also find the link and put it up here ------------- 'The Thoughtful Investor: A Journey to Financial Freedom Through Stock Market Investing' - A Book on Equity Investing especially for Indian Investors. Book your copy now: www.thethoughtfulinvestor.in |
Posted By: India_Bull
Date Posted: 07/Apr/2007 at 12:56pm
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Basantjee,
That is just because of my IT background and what to look where etc (I dont want to blow my trumpet here ) and you know I am handling 50 stocks and so I have to do lots of homework nowadays !!! ------------- India_Bull forever Bull ! www.kapilcomedynights.com |