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Q&A
Michael Ripps, COO, Lycos Asia, talks to BT's Venkatesha Babu, on his network's plans:
A: Well, we have entered the market at the right time. We will have the late-mover advantage and will not repeat some of the mistakes made by other players. We clearly know what works in the Indian market and what doesn't. Besides, we've already tied up with a host of with vernacular content providers. What then works for, say, revenues? We are in India for the long haul. Lycos Asia has entered into a joint venture with Singapore Telecom with a total investment of $50 million. We both know that the e-commerce market in India will really take off in the near future. Meanwhile, we will generate revenues through targeted advertising and related activities. Lycos has Angelfire, Tripod, and Hotbot in its fold. But it does not have the mother brand status... The aggregation of various well-known brands in our stable is what sets us apart from other players. This not only enables advertisers to effectively target their audience but also helps users to more closely identify with their brands. We are confident that all individual brands with their collective pull will be able to generate the kind of reach we are looking for. Lycos has a free ISP in Europe and elsewhere. Any plans for India? We are closely examining the market. This is a probability in the future. We are talking to a couple of players in the Indian market. And acquisitions? Just now Terra and Lycos have come together to form Terra Lycos. While we are not looking for acquisitions at the moment, we will be interested if something which could add value comes at the right price. What about Lycos Web TV? Given the current state of telecom infrastructure in India, this might not become a reality. We will definitely consider it in the future. Prakash Bhalerao, a Valley-based angel investor, has 40 start-ups under his belt with an impressive success rate. BT's Roop Karnani asks him to rate Indian VCs... VCs cannot be mere financiers. There is a trend in the VC-community to go hire fresh graduates from universities who do extensive research. But these bright, young kids don't understand what business is all about. Don't get me wrong: these kids are smart, have a lot of analytical knowledge. But they don't know the pulse of the marketplace, which comes only with hands-on experience. Let me profile an Indian VC company: typically they are one-year-old, and run by management grads. They have small funds, invest in eight to 10 companies, and are on the board of directors of all these; but have no operating skills. What is required is that these VCs must have one or two analytical people and industry heavyweights with experience in building companies. The backdrop of the majestic Bangalore Palace rubbed off on the third edition of Bangalore it.Com, which was, by most accounts an unqualified success. Karnataka government officials claimed that business worth Rs 350-400 crore was generated by the 376 companies that showcased their it prowess in early November, 2000. Other states-ranging from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, to Sikkim and Meghalaya-were not lagging in trying to put on a show to attract investments. Marking trends is always difficult, but here are a few. Understandably, most companies were happiest when face-to-face with potential job recruits. Firms from Singapore, UK, Japan, and of course, the US were scanning the crowds for it skills. Competition came from South-east Asian firms scouting for projects. The Linux stall was one of the star attractions; its cult status reflected in brisk sales of Linux boxer shorts and other such trinklets. As usual, recruitment sites attracted considerable interest. The big horizontal portals were conspicuous by their absence. In these trying times, they obviously felt one it fair a year was enough. -Venkatesha Babu Fledgling it is, but the e-mail answering services industry is itching to get on to the next level of the value chain. Now can the industry secure premium pricing for its services? From simple e-mail, the next logical step for companies like Daksh Technolo- gies and iSeva is to offer different channels of service-voice, text-chat, and co-browsing for visitors to their clients' websites. Analysts bill voice-support service at 20 per cent more than e-mail services, and interactive chat still higher at 70 per cent. At an even higher level is consultancy services. The e-CRM companies say this could be offered by leveraging the experience in mining and analysis of the data generated by answering customers' queries. Says Gagan Sharma, CEO, iSeva.com: ''The client would like to know the history of each contact and this information can be used to increase their top-line revenues.'' However, to ensure that consulting adds up to a steady stream of revenue, clients need to develop some level of comfort with the service. Agrees Sanjeev Aggarwal, CEO, Daksh Technologies, which answers customer e-mails on behalf of Amazon.com: ''The biggest value in this business is the completeness of your offerings.'' Daksh is building a blended centre that will soon offer various services for its customers. The emerging opportunity is huge and research suggests that the global e-services market will peak around $20 billion by 2007. Says Nitin Shimpi of eGain: ''At present, there are 10,000 people in the outsourcing industry in India, each of whom is worth $20,000. I think that number (of people) can increase ten-fold over the next three years.'' The future seems flashy for an industry desperate to move up the ladder. -Ashutosh Sinha Back in internet time, circa December, 1995.
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