January 25th, 2009
In 2008 Google HR set up a private Google Group to ask former employees why they left the company. I am not privy to all the reasons for leaving that were given, but I am sure there my have been lot of ranting and raving. Criticat offers a more public forum to do exactly that – rant, rave and rate your current and / or previous employer.
I am profiling Criticat here because it is a company started by an Indian, based in India. However, there are multiple other sites that launched in 2007 and 2008 that are in the same space – Glassdoor, Jobvent and many others.
January 23rd, 2009
According to Comscore, the number of people on the internet crossed the one billion mark in December 2008.
One aspect that really stood out for me was the vision that Comscore CEO Magid Abraham painted “Surpassing one billion global users is a significant landmark in the history of the Internet. It is a monument to the increasingly unified global community in which we live and reminds us that the world truly is becoming more flat. The second billion will be online before we know it, and the third billion will arrive even faster than that, until we have a truly global network of interconnected people and ideas that transcend borders and cultural boundaries.”
However, the rest of the report and the numbers is debatable. Here are the stats that Comscore released:
January 21st, 2009
Online shopping in India is no longer a novelty just for Internet enthusiasts. It’s gradually becoming one of the channels that consumers consider when planning a purchase. The Indian e-Commerce market seems to have had rapid growth over the past two years – some reports estimate a 30% year over year industry growth between 2006 and 2008, and estimated to grow to more than Rs.12,000 crores in 2009.
Some of the interesting facts that I am interested in, and trying to gather online are:
- What number and % of the Indian population in the Top 10 “wired” cities are buying and selling online?
- How does the growth in online shopping in India compare to online shopping in some of the other Asian countries like China, Japan, Vietnam, Philippines, etc.,?
- How much money do consumers spend online?
- What do they buy?
Ebay India had done some interesting data analysis based on consumer buying and selling behavior on ebay.in during 2007. Here are some interesting nuggets that stood out:
- The Top 3 cities in terms of buyer and seller traffic were – Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad
- The Top selling item in Mumbai was Diamond; The Top selling item in Delhi was Stamps; Hyderabad stood out for having computer hardware and software in its top selling list
- On an average day on eBay India:
- A piece of jewellery sells every 6 minutes
- A piece of apparel sells every 11 minutes
- A coin or note sells every 12 minutes
- A stamp sells every 14 minutes
- A storage device or drive sells every 14 minutes
- A mobile handset sells every 16 minutes
- A book sells every 26 minutes
- A watch sells every 32 minutes
- A health or beauty product sells every 34 minutes
- A MP3 player sells every 38 minutes
- A piece of home décor sells every 44 minutes
- A movie sells every 44 minutes
- A digital camera sells every 46 minutes
- A toy sells every 59 minutes
January 19th, 2009
I managed to convince my mother-in-law last weekend that she should buy a digital camera. She is an avid photographer – not a professional photographer, but a very keen hobbyist. She has probably taken pictures of every event and location that she was present in. She bought a new analog Olympus camera about six years ago (yes, when digital camera was in the in-thing). The analog camera died a few weeks ago. The repair cost – Rs. 7000.
I told her that she can get a 10 MP, auto, zoom-enabled camera for Rs.7000 or a little more than that, and she should upgrade – she will get all the benefits of everything digital – clicking away, deleting, printing and sharing. The push back I got was very well justified! “I can’t delete the photos that I have taken!”, “There won’t be any excitement of waiting for the prints to arrive; I would have already seen them many times on the camera and the computer”, “I don’t want to go through the hassle of selecting photos on the computer and selectively picking which one’s to print. Moreover, I don’t know where to get these printed.”
That is when I realized that the digital camera is not just a straight replacement for the analog camera – it actually requires people to alter their behavior to taking, storing and printing photos.
I am very passionate about digital photo printing in India and will cover some of the startups in that space in future posts. For now, I would be interested in gathering some data on your interest in digital photography. There are a couple of polls after the jump
January 17th, 2009
In a survey launched by McKinsey in November 2008, executives from around the world indicated that they expect 2009 to open with a global recession and continuing high volatility in equity markets. However, the survey also indicates that despite the dire straits of the world economy, emerging markets continue to hold significant promise for the tech industry – and India leads the way in that optimistic outlook – at least for the first quarter of 2009.
This survey was conducted among 1424 executives of small and private companies across these nations, and indicates more optimism among them than others in these markets. 33% of Indian respondents believe that the economy will be better in 2009.
