The buzz in the virtual recruitment circuit gets louder with the global numero UNO staging a quiet entry. Vern domains get the green flag. VSNL slams through its SAFE project. And the Tata Group goes e-servicing.

By Aparna Ramalingam 

e-lead

The monster is here, finally. Monsterindia.com, the desi version of the global online jobs major, is a 65:35 venture of Monster.com and eCorp (an Australian Net investment company). But given the prevailing dot-gloom, isn't it a bit too late to tap an already crowded market? Answers Krishna Krovi, General Manager, MonsterIndia: ''We were waiting for the Indian market to mature. We feel the business is viable now and the category is established.'' Monsterindia is talking to a number of sites for 'alliances', though Krovi was unwilling to reveal names.

But the competition isn't quakin in its boots. Says Sanjeev Bikhchandani, CEO, Naukri.com: ''We are watching them with interest. They have deep pockets, but it's a question of how local they get.''

Monster.com raked in revenues of $400 million in fiscal 2000. Operating across 15 countries, it employs over 1,300 people. Initially, Monsterindia will focus on new-e segments like it, it-enabled services, and telecom, and happening function sales and marketing. It will then showcase job openings in areas like electronic media, insurance, and financial services. The company has already kicked off major marketing campaigns in Mumbai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad. Horror flicks invariably have sequels, so watch this space.

e-domain

Now, we can play the name-game in our own backyard. In what comes as a boost to the Rs 20-crore Indian domain registration market, VeriSign Inc has announced that its Network Solutions registrar will accept domain registrations in nine Indian languages-Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya, Punjabi (Gurumukhi), Tamil, and Telugu.

Analysts believe the move will provide a shot in the arm for localised e-commerce. Besides, it could revive the sagging fortunes of the name registration market. Says S.N. Shukla, Vice-President, Polar Software, a domain name registrar: ''The new multilingual registrations will grow the business.'' Polar, for instance, witnessed a 40 per cent reduction in domain name registrations over the last three months. Adds Jasjit Sawhney, CEO, Net4India: ''There will be a lot more available now in terms of names and extensions.'' An earlier attempt at Indianising the domains (and boosting business) through the dot.in registrations failed to take off.

The Indian domain name registration market is growing at 80-110 per cent annually. But, there is major bottleneck to growth. The process requires customised software. Such software has to reside across thousands of servers of ISPs across the world. In Southeast Asia, local domains became a hit because the character sets and keyboards were all in Chinese. ''In India, there are hardly any Hindi keyboards even in government offices,'' says Sawhney. Now, is the Indian geek diaspora listening?

e-news

• Friday Corporation has acquired a 100 per cent stake in Kotak Mahindra Finance Ltd's subsidiary Matrix Information Services, a content service provider. As part of the deal, Kotak Mahindra Investment has picked up a 7.5 per cent stake in Friday Corporation. So what kind of synergy does Friday Corp see vis-a-vis Matrix? Explains Vishal Dhar, CEO, Friday Corp: ''They have a large number of content alliances and a significant market base. This will give us the leverage to become the largest content provider in this space.

• Zee Interactive Learning Systems has launched its broadband-based interactive learning technology system. The system operates using VSAT-over-IP-multicast technology.

• VSNL has completed its South Africa Far East (SAFE) optic fibre cable landing operations. The 35-country project that is a JV between 42 companies, including VSNL, has Kochi as the landing point in the sub-continent for its submarine cable system. The $600-million project (India has contributed $50 million) has 12 landing points along a 28,000-km route from Cape Town in South Africa to Penang in Malaysia.

• The Tata Group has launched its internet services company, Tata Internet Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Industries. The new company plans to set up 40 public internet centres across 12 cities in the country. One of the first offerings of the company is Tatanova, a horizontal portal.

• There's more on the submarine cable front. A Chennai-based ISP, Dishnetdsl, has tied up with TyCom, one of the world's largest providers of advanced broadband communications capacity, systems, and services, for laying a 19,000 km-long South East Asian Network (SECAN). TyCom will design and build a fully protected high-capacity undersea ring network interconnecting Chennai, Singapore, Guam, Jakarta, and the US West Coast at an estimated cost of $1.25 billion.

• The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and the Institute of Companies Secretaries of India (ICSI) have decided to lift a ban on their members advertising on the internet. But the guidelines prescribed are pretty strict. For instance, they require the practising members to keep the institute informed on particulars of their online presence. And, only those details about the member that are available with the Institute, can be displayed on the website. Besides, server space for each website has to be limited to 2 MB, and to 5 MB if the space is to be used for e-mail. Well, that's as accountable as one can get...

Beam Me Back BT! 

Back in Net time hovering around April, 1996

• Neither the Net, nor the web; the year 1996 belongs to the great Java hype. Sun's 'write once-run anywhere' wonder gets another fillip with the release of JavaScript 1.1-a small but significant step towards realising that Bill Joy dream of converting Java into a full-fledged operating system. Side by side, big guns like Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi, and Silicon Graphics announce their intention to integrate Java into their respective operating systems. Even the almighty Microsoft is forced to acquire a Java licence.

• The Great Browser War begins quietly with Netscape rolling out the beta version of Navigator 3.0. But for the first salvo, we have to wait till August, when VER 3.0 of both Navigator and Microsoft's Internet Explorer are released, within a week of each other.

• In one of the first-ever web-integrated marketing strategies, Opel mounts a glitzy display of wheels at Opel.com. The site offers an online tour of the Geneva Motor Show, where the world's auto giants are displaying their models. And the site is trilingual-in English, French, and German.

• Direct marketing enters the limelight with Juno Online (a New York-based company) offering free e-mail access throughout America provided users have a pc and a modem. In exchange, the subscribers have to part with their demographic details and put up with advertisements in the corner of their computer screens. Call it permission based e-mail marketing.

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