August 5, 2010
For those of us who remember the year 2001. Two things come to mind, the 9/11 bombings
and the dotcom bubble in the
Qns: What is happening to the internet, how can one present a
business case for it?
Ans: The number of users of the net has really not gone up significantly
from the 45-50 million number that has been thrown around for the last 2-3 years.
But what we have seen is sharp growth in the number of folks who use it daily and
the time that they are spending on the web. That means a whole host of services
such as entertainment, gaming and e-commerce are potential businesses. Payment options
remain a challenge to make the latter happen. Payment providers are going to be
key business drivers on the net. I feel that if entrepreneurs get the proposition
right then the internet era could finally be upon us in
Qns: What do you mean when you say payment providers and the
services that they can offer?
Ans: I mean payment providers like Pay Pal. In almost every large
country, there is a different payment service which is dominant – Paypal in the
Qns: Now what else will trigger this internet opportunity?
Ans:I feel that the 50 million internet users should become 100
million users in the next 2-3 years. It is likely that the devices these people
use to access the web will go beyond PC’s. The mobile space will be large and is
throwing up several opportunities. With Reliance entering broadband, it is only
a matter of time that this market will get a major boost. 100m users will create
scalable opportunities that entrepreneurs can capture and for funds such as us to
invest in.
Qns: What is happening to the world of print, will content online
draw more revenues?
Ans: It is a tough call. The coming decade print will be challenged
as digital platforms gain wider usage. On the other hand literacy is still growing
in