|
|
|
|
|
CYBERCHATTER Going by the Book By Arun Katiyar
There must have been considerable interest at India Internet World 99 in New Delhi to hear from experienced hands how much was spent on Internet advertising. No figure was thrown to the information-hungry audience. And with good reason: no one knows the correct answer; and there are no reasonable methods of arriving at a figure. Nevertheless, with the assistance of a helpful book titled E-Commerce, The Cutting Edge of Business (Tata McGraw Hill, Rs 350) by Kamlesh K. Bajaj and Debjani Nag, I'll do a simple calculation. According to them, "In India, major advertising agencies that have shown a keen interest in Internet advertising include HTA, Lintas and O&M." The authors add, "They already generate revenues from online advertising: Rs 10.79 crore, 7.61 crore and 4.58 crore." Assuming that all other agencies together spend an equal amount and clients directly spend twice that amount without going through an agency, we have a figure of about Rs 90 crore. Having done this seemingly naive calculation, I tried to check up at www.agencyfaqs.com -- the first Indian advertising portal started by Sreekant Khandekar, the founding editor of A&M -- but couldn't find a way to challenge this figure. Incidentally, I don't think the figure of Rs 90 crore is off the mark -- only the way of calculating seems iffy. But I'll wait for people, including Khandekar, to contact me with their calculations/vitriolic comments/research/guesswork. If you follow this column, you'll soon be updated. Meanwhile, don't miss the book by Bajaj and Nag. While lots of it may sound like technical mumbo-jumbo, it will end up enriching you about e-commerce in relation to India. It briefly explains the laws for e-commerce in India and helpfully provides the text of the Electronic Transactions Act of Singapore which the Indian government wants to use to model its own it bill. This is a good place to start if you are lost in the e-commerce maze. CARS... Incredible as it may seem, the Indian Internet scene appears to be gravitating towards cars. www.automar-tindia.com is growing at the rate of 500 secondhand cars a week for sale. While that's great, where does the upmarket auto fiend go? The URL is www.dc-designs. com where Dilip Chhabra, the car stylist from Mumbai, showcases his stuff. The site is a little dinky -- if you'll pardon the expression -- in terms of design and navigation, but the cars on display more than make up. Chhabra can take practically any car, from a Gypsy (his makeover called the RA is shown in the picture) to a Cielo and turn it into an envious machine. Even if you were looking for secondhand jalopies, you wouldn't want to miss DC Designs. ...CARS... A direct competitor to Mahindra & Mahindra's automartindia.com is www.driveindia.com from Tata Interactive Systems. You can buy (424 cars on sale last week compared to 3,000 at automartindia. com) and sell cars, check out vintage cars on sale, catch up with buying tips, the works. Naturally, the Tata site can't be exactly like the Mahindra site and, it isn't. There's a section of car pools (38 people registered as of last week) which, given the way the popularity of the Net is growing, can only grow at a furious pace. It's an innovative feature and one that will go a long distance in keeping site users happy. The other feature that driveindia.com boasts of is something called e-loan.car.d -- three simple steps can get you a car loan on this site, plus discounts on oil changes, mobile phones, car accessories, servicing and quite a number of other things. One of the best features of the site is its ability to tell you how many people have actually used the site for car financing and other activities. ...MORE CARS... Cybersteering, at www. cybersteering.com, is more like a magazine than a hard-core e-commerce site. It has articles on the Frankfurt auto show, auto industry news, a column by Murad Ali Baig and other information. In fact, it says that it is "your cyberguide to Indian cars". Is this a good position to take up? If you don't happen to be a car manufacturer, perhaps this is the best route to take: independent, unbiased and providing a service to surfers that no one else can. The good news is that it also tries and sells cars and bikes, along with car loans and insurance. Hopefully it will become a source of revenue for the site and Cybersteering won't have to depend on advertising from auto manufacturers. For the moment, if you are a car owner, don't forget to use their reminder service for insurance renewals, oil change reminders and other stuff that you normally forget. ...AND VINTAGE CARS The Vintage & Classic Car Club of India has an elegant site at www.vccci.com. Naturally, Pranlal Bhogilal is very much around as he should be considering he is the founder of the club. This is a very tiny site with little notes on the history of the club, a list of events through the year and a gallery that is under construction. But, don't miss the "forward" buttons in the navigation: they make the pages glide with the elegance of a vintage car. And that feature itself tells you the direction in which vccci.com is headed. Just wondering -- isn't it amazing that Bhogilal, with his love for the old-world, should opt for the Net? Honk! To celebrate the power of the Net. Arun Katiyar is Chief Operating Officer of India
Today Group Online. His e-mail address is akatiyar@lmindia.com |
|||||||
| Top |
 © Living Media India Ltd |
