..| .. |
October 1-15, 1999 CHIEF GUEST |
|
|
"Free Access to Net Should Be a Constitutional Right"
How hard is it to set up a Net business? I think the hard stuff is in the beginning, when you're unknown. You think of big ideas, start talking to people and 99 percent of the people are going to be sceptical. Most people would just quit in the face of scepticism. I was an engineer in India, I didn't have any idea of finance. I'm not an MBA. You're an outsider, not because you're an Indian but because you're not part of the set of people that work together. Getting connected, building a network of people is very hard. There is also the constant fear of running out of money. Also on the other side, it's not an immediate payoff. So if you have real passion for a product and a real passion for being independent-then you do it. About 3 percent start-ups in Silicon Valley become successful. So, you're dealing with a 97 percent failure rate. Is it better to follow proven paths like selling books and CDs a la Amazon.com in India? If you start thinking of an India Wide Web, focussing on one or two million users here, it's a bad choice. You are overlooking the 200-million audience. Look around.. there are plenty of ideas that people are going to come up with but keep being global. Take a look at Yahoo, they figured a directory was needed on the Web, Hotmail realised the need for free E-mail, Junglee figured it was possible to make databases out of Web sites. What's the point of an E-mail if you're only dealing with a million people? As far as electronic goods or consumer white goods are concerned, there might be an India market. But there's no India market on the Web. Sell churan, but don't sell it for India only. There are probably 50 million Indians settled all over the world and a lot of them are wealthy. So there probably are six to seven millions at anytime on the Web who might be interested in buying churan from you. Think global. So you are totally against selling what others are selling on the Net? There are exceptions. Have you heard of 123 India.com or bluemountainarts.com? The latter is the world's top greetings card business. They have about 12-15 million customers. In Calcutta, about two or three million people get greetings cards from 123India.com. For example, on a certain day last year there was a Jewish holiday. I visited amazon.com, mountainarts.com, and 123.com. The last had greeting cards ready for this obscure Jewish holiday. So clearly they are addressing a global market even from India. Why is the failure rate so high on the Web? For the start-ups, it's a big ups and downs game. One day you feel great because the customer you were trying to get to, you got to; other days you feel horrible because somebody didn't return your phone call or what you wanted didn't get done. I'll give you a Jeff Bezos story of Amazon.Com. When they first started in 1995, nobody used to give discount. So how do you sell? The book industry was asking that you'll get a discount only if you take a minimum of 10 books. Let's say somebody wanted to buy a book of Arundhati Roy. You might not want to carry 10 copies of her but you have to do something like that if you want a discount. So Bezos found an obscure book on Lichen which he bought nine of, and then added the tenth book of Arundhati Roy. He got the discount and then returned the nine books on Lichen. And the billing system of the distributors didn't know how to charge it back and take away the volume discount on one book. Would the pure Internet players like Amazon.com be more successful than companies like Dell, Intel or Cisco who've got a base but are also selling on the Net? What is the importance of manufacturing? Both Cisco and Amazon have very complex logistics associated with shipping their products. Both have brand names. Over time, Amazon has developed a great portfolio of virtues. The top is personalisation-to know what book to recommend to you next. It doesn't matter whether one manufactures or not. It would be enough if they know how to retail, both need a lot of customer loyalty. For Amazon, customer database, product database, computer system...these are the assets. Today, business has to do with satisfying customer needs. And then generate repeat business. What is a bad Internet idea? To start an Internet grocery site in India. Still if you do, send groceries to Fiji, maybe. Export, have a global market. Another bad idea would be setting up a portal site and compete with Yahoo. What did you learn from your experience in setting up Web ventures? Dream big. Fall frequently and make new wishes. Never give up. In your execution, GBF-Get Bit Fast. Be a leader and spend where it most impacts your employees. Put customer above all else. And for God's sake, celebrate the success. You talked about selling on the Net...how do you sell the Net in India? It's in the government hands. If we ever have a chance of becoming a superpower, it's now, with the Web. The government should bring all the barriers down and make free access to the Web a Constitutional right. Every Indian should have free access to the Web. Let Dell, Microsoft, AOL to come, and do business. Get VSNL out of the way. If AT&T wants to lay fibre optic cables across the country, let them do it. It is the next wave and the next wave is always a level playing field. |
|
Issue Contents Write to us Subscriptions Syndication INDIA
TODAY | BUSINESS
TODAY | INDIA TODAY PLUS | TEENS TODAY © Living Media India Ltd |
 |
 |
Rakesh Mathur, the founder and CEO of Junglee, is the
proverbial Web millionaire. Not many care to remember that he developed the first portable
computer. Mathur became a digirati when Amazon acquired Junglee for $180 million in 1998.
After a year in Amazon, Mathur is on the prowl, looking for ideas to invest in. He already
has two new ventures-Elance.com and Yodlee.com-under his belt. In a long chat with Computers
Today's Atanu Roy during
the India Internet World, Mathur scrolled his rich experience in offering a roadmap for
budding Netpreneurs. Excerpts: 
