Columns: Arun Katiyar

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The last edition of Cyberchatter arrived at the conclusion that online ad spend in India was around Rs 90 crore. I have in the past 15 days got mail from more people than expected -- some even went to the extent of giving me a call and sending messages through colleagues. Thank you for the response -- it has been most educative. But what of the bottom line on the topic?

To start with, experienced hands in the online marketing division of a publishing house tended to agree with the figure and sent their estimates via a colleague. No names are being mentioned because, I am told, soto voce, that people will lose their jobs. One person who put his name to his message was Sumeet Pahwa, who has corrected my earlier impression that no one at India Internet World '99 provided ad spend figures. "Internet advertising was stated to be at Rs 6-7 crore. All the speakers agreed to this figure," reports Pahwa. "It may be another matter that these are debatable but a mention was made." Thank you for sending in the figure. The truth may lie between these figures, going by the furious math which made its way to my mail box.

I am briefly reproducing the logic of Sreekant Khandekar of agencyfaqs.com -- who, as it turned out, arrived at the figure of almost Rs 90 crore in a completely different manner. His logic: If HTA, Lintas and O&M contributed Rs 22.98 crore in Internet ad spend, the question to ask is, "Do these three agencies represent the universe?" Khandekar's answer to the question: yes, because of the spread of their clients and between them they account for 36 per cent of the billing figures for 1997-98, according to the A&M Agency Report (Rs 5,330 crore for 131 agencies). If business grew by 15 per cent in 1998-99 and you top the new figure with another 25 per cent to account for agencies that didn't figure in the report and assume that billings will grow at another 15 per cent in 1999-2000, you have Khandekar's figure of Rs 8,810 crore. Assume that the net accounts for 1 per cent of ad spend in India. A per cent of that figure would be Rs 88.1 crore. As Khandekar says, "It is incredible that even using a totally different logic, I arrived at virtually the same figure you've estimated." Anyone with a last word on that?

Remember the excitement over LiveAid as hundreds of musicians got together in 1983 to make the world a better place? On October 9 this year, millions of students watched a live webcast on Internet2 (www.internet2.edu) aimed at collecting funds to end hunger, help refugees and save the environment. Cisco Systems and an American university used IP Multicasting and IP/TV to source and webcast concerts and backstage interviews with artists ranging from David Bowie to Puff Daddy from New York, Geneva and London. Organised by NetAid (www.netaid.org), the beauty of the webcast was that only four engineers were involved in placing the content online.

While most people are attending lectures on e-commerce and examining laws (non-existent in India) to see if they can sell on the Net, a handful have already begun business. Tata McGraw-Hill (www.tatamcgrawhill.com) is among the more refined examples. Backed by excellent technology and a good list of titles, their site asks you to put in your Indian credit card number and assures you that your card details will be kept confidential. That's the power of a reliable name. You won't think twice about providing your card details to a company of repute. Do visit this site, and if you harbour ambitions of authoring a book, get in touch with editors of Tata McGraw-Hill online.

Want to know how to build a real smooth site? Try www.ehow.com -- it's actually a site about getting things right: how to cheat at Quake II, how to buy stockings, how to compliment a woman who catches your eye, create a chat room persona, master e-mail slang, know if you are pregnant, live within a budget, boost your energy level in the afternoon, upgrade your airline ticket, ask for a raise (No. 1 ehow on the site) just about anything. Among the cutest features is how to do things shown live. I watched a biochemist from North California show the world how to change a door knob and plan to go back for more interesting lessons.

There's quite a confusion over cyberlaws. No one is really certain what is meant by copyright. An American company, a participant at India Internet World '99, thought it was okay to pick up text, images and cartoons from another site as long as they gave credit for it! So, here are a list of resources you can visit when in doubt: www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html,whatiscopyright.org, both sent in by Veeresh Malik of www.cybersteering.com who has been attempting to explain a thing or two about copyright to a major Indian ISP. Here are some more links: yorkies.com/copyrights.html, www.cyberspacelaws.com and www.widowsweb.com/widows/plea.html -- the last one especially for web designers who think they are smart.

Arun Katiyar is Chief Operating Officer of India Today Group Online. His e-mail address is akatiyar@india-today.com

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