Site Navigation

We spoke to Yusuf Motiwala from TringMe.com recently. The conversation covered various aspects including the technology involved, the revenue model, funding and staffing.

iLeher: How did TringMe come about?
Yusuf: We were looking to build a Voice 2.0 platform. This was the TringSwitch that we were planning to push to enterprises so that they could support all types of voice terminations - SIP, Mobiles, VoIP, IM (Jabber), etc. When we built this, we came up with TringMe as a way to demonstrate this platform that we had built and thats how TringMe came about. Then we got covered by TechCrunch and the site took off

iLeher: So how many users do you have now?
Yusuf: 60,000+ plus.

iLeher: Cool!
Yusuf: Yes, we are already generating revenues as well. A lot of these users pay to use the site.

iLeher: That brings us to our next question. Whats the revenue model that you are envisioning? Mostly the Skype-like Call In/Out kind of model?
Yusuf: Not at all. Like I already mentioned, we built a platform that we could sell to enterprises. That remains a revenue model we are going after.

iLeher: So you basically install the boxes in enterprise networks?
Yusuf: Not necessarily. We are also looking at Hosted Services where the enterprise need not spend extra on installing the box. We can take care of the back-end for them. In addition to this, we are looking at licensing our technology to different websites where a real-time interaction between different parties makes sense.

iLeher: Such as?
Yusuf: Dating, travel, reservations (for hotels, travel, etc). There are lots of areas one can think of.

iLeher: Alright. Any other revenue model?
Yusuf: Yes, we are also looking at partnering with developers who have ideas and are looking to build on top of this platform. We will provide them with SDKs which they can use to build their apps.

iLeher: So do you charge them for it?
Yusuf: Depends on the company. We could do a cash deal or take equity. Depends. We absolutely reserve the right to partner in these cases. We will evaluate the company and only then partner with them. Having said that, if we believe in the company, we will see how we can work with them.

iLeher: So what is next on the horizon as far as TringMe is concerned?
Yusuf: We have just announced a mobile solution for low cost handsets. You can check out the announcement on the blog. Our blog has a lot of information about our various offerings- what all we support, etc.

iLeher: Yes, coming to that. You support a lot of terminations. What is your team size and how long did you take?
Yusuf: We are about 9 people

iLeher: Thats all?
Yusuf: Yes, we started around May-June last year. I started the company and then slowly the team grew to its current size

iLeher: Thats a lot of work for this short a time and this small a team!
Yusuf: Well, we have a lot of experience in this field and we were able to apply it to get things working.

iLeher: How about money?
Yusuf: We are self-financed at the moment. Friends and family besides our own money.

iLeher: So are you planning to bootstrap your way to an IPO?
Yusuf: We will go in for a round of VC funding at some stage. We will let you know as and when that happens.

iLeher: Thanks a lot for talking to us
Yusuf: My pleasure!

We spoke to a Yusuf about a few other things which are already covered on the TringMe blog. Please hop over after leaving your comments here.

We wish TringMe all the very best for the future.

Yes I know, things have been slow at iLeher for some time. As Vivek pointed out earlier, the team members have been busy individually in their own stuff. Anyways,`I wanted to assure our audience that we are not fading away. The Internet activity in Indian space is as buzzing as ever. I was catching up on my reading and came across a couple of interesting thought-provoking posts by industry experts.

Darpan Munjal has this great post on ecommerce in India, where he talks about what are the gaps that need to be filled and what it might take to create a successful business in online commerce. I completely agree with him on all the points, and believe that starting an eCommerce venture is going to be much more challenging in India. It involves proving the audience about the value of online shopping, which of course can only happen if some one can execute on the points that the post talks about - not an easy ask. I have my own personal doubts on whether we have the critical online mass for that in India right now. But that doesn’t mean that now is not the right time to venture into ecommerce. I am sure there exists a model that will fit the Indian market and to get that model right, now is probably the best time to start, falter, learn, evolve and get the early mover advantage. What are your thoughts? When will we see an Amazon in India?

Anurag Gupta ponders on the much talked about web 2.0 brands in India. Whether Indian firms can compete with the global biggies. Do we have the resources, talent, mindset to come up with offerings that can pull users and make money. All I have to say on this is that web2.0 is just fancy term for a combination of some web technologies and business models that leverage the power of community. If there is a compelling online service that solves a problem or adds value (e.g. travel, matri, job sites) or even just lot of fun (e.g. orkut) to customers’ online experience, we can do just as good a job as any global biggie. Now whether a new site can start making money or not is a different question. If you ask me, if its pure advertising based model, I’d not bet my money on it today, but online advertising market is surely evolving. On the other hand, this presents an opportunity to invent new business models to leverage the online traffic maybe by adding subscription based premium services, sending leads to transaction oriented sites such as ticketing, online shopping etc.

On a side note, do you think Reliance Entertainment is worth $3 billion ?!

I wrote about VAKOW earlier and how much I liked their interface; but I could never use it to forward these awesome jokes to my friends in India. This new year I wanted to wish family/friends in India through SMS. I wanted to do the same thing around Diwali. Every time I want to do so, VAKOW comes to mind but being in USA I cannot register on their site. So far you can only register on VAKOW if you have a (+91) number. RG, one of the founder tells me that it is on horizon. Here is why they haven’t done it so far

“mostly because of higher pricing and seemingly less demand in certain geographies/economies. We believe that SMS Forwarding is a very developing economies phenomenon where other means of entertainment are few”

I can understand the high price concern, but I am not sure SMS forwarding being only in developing economies. I do know people out here in USA who are constantly texting. Maybe not as much as being in India, but VAKOW can bridge that gap for the Indians residing outside.

Good news is they are going social. They have Orkut integration where one can forward SMS to their friends scrapbook. Not exactly SMS to SMS but this is SMS to social networking. And it seems to work. Yesterday, VAKOW took this social integration one step further. They have launched VAKOWAPP. VAKOW’s facebook application that I can use to forward SMS to my friends in my network.

RG tells me that this should solve half of my problem before they launch international registration. And he is right. I am loving this integration.

I would like to think of this as their second step

1. First step was to launch a great interface around a simple idea (SMS-> SMS)

2. Second step is to provide SMS -> social networks (Orkut/Facebook/Opensocial)

3. What is third? May be this is the time they should start thinking of mobile advertisements? What do you think are different ways of making money around VAKOW?

Let VAKOW know what you think of their facebook app !!

I have been approving some interesting comments on our earlier posts. But I have seen that they do not usually stir interesting conversation. If the comment is a direct question to the company/people mention in the post or some earlier comment, they usually don’t get replies. We do show the latest comments in the sidebar but the shelf life of that is less. Also people who are using RSS subscriptions cannot take a note. This question is for all the bloggers out there. Do you see the same problem ? How do you solve it ? Are there applications out there that addresses this problem ?

Here is my stab at it. I would publish interesting orphaned comments (verbatim) in a single post as roundups. Here are some interesting ones that I think deserve attention.

1. Just read this post, I think it is a great idea specially the new feature described in the comments of store & sget. Also i guess these kind of features can be paid to monetize the site. I am sure you had thought of that Great work guys
   Tarun 

    View Comment in Post ” Vakow - it is all about execution !! “

2. i felt that in rural areas people are sufferinf from due to lack of mandatory facilities also. so that definetely we have to target the rural area for the marketing of companies and to enhance the facilities to fulfil the needs of the people and to aware of all the society. View Comment in Post “Opportunities in rural India?”
3. I just got to know about ZoomIn via FaceBook and the fact that it’s an Indiancompany got me interested, all right. I’d, any day, opt for an indian company for my solutions than any other. Anyway, after I got myself registered, I realized I could copy my galleries from Picasa and flickr into ZoomIn and since the very reason of leaving Flickr (best photo sharing service I’ve personally used) was that the number of my pics had grown well over 200, I’d decided to look elsewhere. However, it’s been almost 15 minutes now that ZoomIn has been shifting photos from Flickr and it’s still at it. I hope the rest of the experience happens to be satisfactory!View Comment in Post “Is there room for another photo site?”
4. It is bewildering why ecommerce pundits do not concentrate on the cultural issues associated with eCommerce in India. Though it is true we Indians have tendency of blaming cultural subtleties for every business which does not work here, but eCommerce has a strong cultural angle to it. Indians still consider shopping to an event which needs to be “celebrated” than something which is just a necessity. However with changing demographies eCommerce would fine critical mass of consumers who are willing to buy eCommerce arguments. Despite all the hoopla the eRetailers are not doing any good by providing flawed service. For example purchasing books online, the retailer would quite any damn book on its website (i.e. with the back end retailer) however the database would not have been updated for long. Then when the order is processed it is realized that the book is not physically present with the supplier. The reverse logistics of credit card payment being reversed is equally shabby. Its a vicious circle, to begin with the consumers do not believe in eRetail and hence retailers do not feel pressing need to develop viable online business model, and when they offer substandard services online, they alineate the consumers further.View Comment in Post “”We are sitting at the verge of a perfect storm” - Darpan Munjal on ecommerce in India”
5. I think penetration of internet may not have the intended local language impact. Indian’s colonial mindset considers English speaking to be elite and people would like to use English language search engines and portals as soon as they can (though they might be handicapped by it). Even if large crowd uses local language content it would try to “graduate” to the “higher language” engine. In China, people are comfortable using their language without having any inferiority complex. Moreover in India local content needs to be converted into too many languages unlike China where Mandarin works for everyone. Therefore comparing Baidu with Indian language internet initiatives is not correct.View Comment in Post “India Internet - status check”

I would like to thank all you curious souls who like to be a part of conversation and learn from each other. People who are commenting around blog posts are the ones making blogosphere so interesting.

Its time to take a look at my 10 predictions for 2007 before I can welcome 2008. Here is what I think how things shaped against my predictions. I will put (*) in front of the prediction number where a single (*) means not worth talking about in 2007 to (*****) meaning the prediction is now ubiquitous.

*****1. Broadband growth in India will continue to disappoint by not showing an exponential growth. As against the target of 3 million broadband connections till 2005 end, only 0.18 million were achieved. At end-October, the total number of broadband connections stood at 1.92 million. The target till 2007-end is 9 million and 143 million by end of 2010.

I think I could not have been more correct on this.  Read the TRAI 2007 telecom report for full scope of how disappointing 143 million figure now looks like. This figure has been revised to 20 million by 2010 but even that is doubtful given that we will have 3.2 million broadband connections in India by end of 2007, with a penetration rate of 1.6%. In a study, eMarketer projects that India will have only 10.5 million broadband connections by 2011. Broadband here is defined as >=200kbps. Content Sutra says that We added only 750,000 broadband connections between October 2006 and September 2007.

Even Subho Ray, President of the IAMAI sounds worried, saying that 40 percent year-on-year growth (of ever Internet users) is not satisfactory: “If the broadband targets are not met in the Year of the Broadband there is a possibility of missing out on creating a virtuous cycle of better connectivity, better content and more users.”

***2. WiMax will not be able to solve the last mile challenge; instead we will see a realistic alternative in cellular. Surge in Wi-Fi enabled devices will increase the number of ways people get online.

I think I did average on this one. At the end of 2007 and I don’t see WiMax as a clear winner but I agree that lot of progress has been made on fixed WiMax this year. I think that eventually everyone would need connectivity in some form (am sure no one doubts that). Question is what will be the most common medium. Along with WiMax, cellular alternatives such as WCDMA, EV-DO are gaining momentum. This slide shows why 3G is better suited for India(slide #10 here). Internet users almost doubled this year in India and majority of this increase came from mobile. I am still looking for a study that shows how many of these are using IP based networks vs cellular network.

from this post in BS

Wimax is poised to be the next big thing in the world of wireless communication. 3G proponents would, however, differ with this statement. Nevertheless, with heavy investments in the advanced forms of communication, companies such as VSNL, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telecom Nigam Ltd (MTNL), Bharti Airtel and even smaller firms like Microsense, jumped on the wireless bandwagon and have started offering fixed WiMAX networks as pilots.

Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operators like Reliance Communications, too, are offering CDMA Evolution-Data Optimised (EV-DO) or its nextGen 2.5-2.75G wireless networks for hi-speed data and voice access. Even equipment manufacturers like Nortel, Alcatel, Nokia and Motorola are mulling the launch of these services.

India Broadband Wireless and WiMAX Market Analysis and Forecasts’ by UK-based business information provider, Report Buyer, estimates there will be up to 21 million WiMAX subscribers in India by 2014.

Read the rest of this entry »

On “web-to-store” shopping behavior

Research by Kapston.com, an Internet business consulting firm in association with GadgetsGuru.com and HolidayHangouts.com on products listed online and websites in India indicates that people spend 10 - 20% more on products they don’t research online.

Indian consumers are embracing Internet increasingly to research products, before making a visit to a local store; the response from various web-to-store operators in India during the past year shows web-to-store shopping behavior increasingly outpacing online buying.

Web-research before shopping was by far the most popular in comparison with word of mouth, newspaper ads, TV ads and various other means. This across the channel shopping demographic is comprised of younger, wealthier and more experienced online consumers. This group earns much more than other shoppers.

International research says that offline buying (any service / product) after an online search is $180 billion and online research leads to online buying around $160 Billion globally in 2006.

Majority of the Indian Internet users reported that there are a multitude of products they prefer to buy in person rather than using an online transaction. Most of these products, they research Internet before making the purchase. This mainly helps them save time and allow them to make informed choices before they actually hit the street.

The pioneer in this segment in India is OffersForShoppers, which started operating in early 2006, reported a sudden surge of activities from the smaller cities in India and noticed the trend is gaining momentum in Bangalore and Delhi. The CEO, Kumar Setu says Home decor and Appliances in couple of years will surpass Consumer Electronics and become the #1 category. www.offersforshoppers.com is planning to start operations in 5 more cities in India by the end of 2007.

Prem Kumar, the Director of HolidayHangouts.com says that he is getting a lot of queries from the Internet for his 2nd home and vacation home business in India. Internet is by far the most effective medium in his advertisement campaign. HolidayHangouts has sold its vacation villas in Kerala to customers from Germany, South Africa, United States, UK etc.
He also said he could garner international and national level customers by investing a fraction of traditional media.
The growth of the OffersForShoppers.com network is testimonial to customer demand for a local shopping tool. We are the first company to come up with the click and brick model in India” says Kumar Setu.
Key Takeaways

• Buying a service or product after online search is $180 Billion
• Online research leads to online buying around $160 Billion globally.
• People in India spend 10 – 25% more on products they don’t research online
• Use of the Internet for in store shopping grows 23% in 2007

Most of the web-to-store companies use coupons to track the conversion and effectiveness of online advertisement. With a one time set up charge and cost per sales or cost per leads model insulate them from potential technological pitfalls. Web-to-shop also allows them to reach certain cross sections of wealthy customers without big investment.

This is a welcoming trend for small and medium sized retailers who do not have online presence and necessary know-how to market their shop online. As for the not so Internet savvy reluctant Indian merchants, these web-to-store websites are a risk free investment. They are beginning to feel the potential of Internet as a sale promotion tool.

The biggest challenge associated with web to store in India is to reach the remote merchants who do not know how Internet works and how they can utilize it. The other challenge is in putting local offers online and to track them and update them regularly. The other difficulty is to change the mindset of merchants to re-allocate the advertisement budget to this new form. Success of a business largely depends on the marketing strategy. This holds well if your business is run completely online or it is an extension of an offline business. Internet presence and website marketing opens more avenues for merchants to sell their products and scale their business than most other media.

I cannot stress the title enough. I wrote about SMS forwarding back in January. Here is an excerpt from the post “sms backup and storage“.

“- Service should be dirt cheap, almost free. This needs innovation at multiple levels.
 - Service should be transparent to the end user. Something like automatic backup at the gateway. Just like an email server.
 - once stored, these messages should be easily browsable, searchable, taggable and shareable (fwd, download etc). “

And this is what Vakow has accomplished !!! Except the point on transparent backup which I am so glad they did not do to begin with. What I like most about the execution is “it’s so simple”.  If I was to go and execute on my thoughts I dont think I could have done a better start. I was thinking too complex a system. This is way up there. Kudos to RG and Amitu for pulling this off so well.

 It is still to be seen how they make money of the site. I dont know what these guys are thinking on business side but on execution side they have a great kick start. Site is doing really well as far as I could tell. Its lot of fun to spend time in shuffling though little pieces of text. Specially for someone like me; Being in US I don’t enjoy the universe of Indian texting.

Here is one joke I just read from the site:

How to catch a squirrel?

Climb up a tree & just be urself..Squirrels will come to u on their own..They just love nuts !!

While I was copy pasting this joke, I wished there was a Vakow widget for jokes. They can do all sort of stuff that applies to any social platform or micro-blogging platform like twitter or chittr. But can they remain simple ??

India Ka Hero is trying to ride the popularity of TV reality contests and taking it online. It has four talent contests and it is offering prizes in each contest. Users will vote for each entry and they will select a winner based on these votes. Votes can be casted only by registered users and this is how they are trying to prevent spamming. These contest has a definite end and I don’t know if IKH plans to stick around after that. A similar online contest (bunkd) ended after a lot of buzz and hype. Question is if IKH wants it to be more than just this one contest. I will assume that IKH wants to create a platform for online talent contests. IKH wants to create a brand advertising channel where brands can hosts online contest to promote their products. A good example would be Lego sponsoring most creative Lego brick arrangement concept online.

Online/offline contests that use voting system are generally based on “wisdom of crowds” principle where we trust individual votes to select the winner instead of a group of elected judges. There are lot of online sites and variants that work in similar area. Two that I would like to call out most similar to IKH are contest2win (India focused) and bix (yahoo owned)

Why do I think IKH should not become another contest2win? I have been thinking about why I couldn’t have simply created an online singing contest on contest2win. Do I get a share of ad-revenue for traffic generated to contest2win site ? There have been lots of sites that have come and gone using online voting concepts. There are lots of rating sites to rate everything you can imagine. But if IKH has to make a mark, it should not follow the same path. It should be a true online talent contest. It should try to bring more and more factors of TV reality concepts online with interactive experience that web can only provide. I would let users create talent contests and make revenue out of it. Just like a TV channel, if your show/contest TRP (in our case it will be votes & traffic) sky rockets, you make money along with a cut to IKH. To really innovate in this space, one would think about factors that make reality TV contest so sticky. Multiple rounds eliminating entries after every round. To be able to capture/attach emotions with every elimination. Get real prizes / career break for contest winners. Do real life events to map to online contest deadlines. Goes w/o saying this would require funding and creating thinking.

Read the rest of this entry »