Did Europe get a Deal or was it an ILLUSION

Europe’s leaders did better than expected, but expectations were low to start. They announced a greatly strengthened financial rescue plan that includes bigger write-downs of Greek Debt and new injections of Capital into weakened European Banks. Still, far too many of the crucial details have been left to work out over the days, weeks and months ahead.

Until  those are known, it will not be clear if Europe has finally mobilized enough cash and political will to stop the unraveling that now also threatens Italy, Spain and even France. And Europe is still only grappling with the financial systems of the crisis, not the underlying causes.

One of the biggest of those is that while Europe has a unified currency, and independent Central Bank, it has no lender of last resort - like the Federal Reserve – that can supply unlimited emergency funds to Governments and banks that need them.

This week, the write-down plan has advanced to a different level altogether. Greece’s Non-Govt. Creditors – Banks and Private investors – were told to agree to “VOLUNTARY” swaps and rescheduling that would yield them roughly 50 cents of every dollar now owed to them. Markets value this debt at close to 40 cents on the dollar.

Writing down Greek debt will show how dangerously low on Capital major European Banks have become. Markets are understandably wary. None of these would be necessary if the  European Central bank was authorized to act as a lender of last resort. Without that, Europe’s crisis will continue and continue to threaten markets worldwide.

The news of such DEALS will only show momentary upsurge in Indian markets while the actual global recovery might take weeks, months and years………

So are we ready for the unexpected in the days to come ????????

Venture funds shift attention to seed investments

Seed stage has become the new battle ground for investors. Relatively large venture capital investors are focussing their attention to small investments as at least seven new firms seek to build a business out of funding early-stage companies.


Competition in the space is intense, but deal-making activity has been robust. Seed-stage deals nearly tripled in the first 10 months of the year compared with the corresponding period of last year. Until 20 October, 24 seed-stage investments worth $12.6 million (aroundRs. 63 crore) took place, up from nine such deal worth $2.8 million in the same period the previous year, according to VCCEdge, which tracks venture capital and private equity transactions.

Seed investments refer to deals anywhere between $500,000 and $750,000 in startups, which are typically less than two years old.

It’s for the first time that big funds are diverting their attention to seed-stage investments.

“For big funds, it’s a bit of a spray and pray kind of an investment approach, where they write small cheques…..amounts that do not really matter to them much,” said Deepak Srinath, director of Bangalore-based boutique investment bank Viedea Capital Advisors.

One winner out of these small investments can offer them stellar returns, covering all potential risks, he said. Large investment funds in India such as Sequoia Capital India, Norwest Venture Partners India (NVP), Nexus Venture Partners and Draper Fisher Jurvetson India (DFJ) have started focusing strongly on their “seed” initiatives. Over the last one year, Sequoia has made at least nine such investments. 


Helion Venture Partners, SAIF Partners and a few others incubate start-ups and continue to back them in their next rounds of funding.NVP, Nexus and DFJ India have started their own seed capital programmes.Blume Venture Advisors has done more than a dozen deals even as it is still in the process of fund raising.

Prominent seed-stage deals include My First Cheque’s investment of an undisclosed sum in MeriCAR Workshops, which runs MeriCAR.com, India’s first dedicated car servicing portal.

Adepto Solutions Pvt. Ltd, Mumbai-based developer of the social commerce platform Trol.ly, raised $300,000 from Blume. Gurgaon-based Bright Lifecare Pvt Ltd, which runs India’s first e-health store healthkart.com, raised around $1 million from Sasha Mirachandani’s investment firm KAE Capital and Sequoia Capital.

MeriCAR plans to expand its network further across the country and service a larger base of car users. “It is not easy for yet-to-be validated business ideas to attract funding. I had to convince the investors to have faith in my and my business ,” said Rakesh Sidana, chief executive officer, MeriCAR.com.

The seven new investors that have made their debut deals this year are Nirvana Capital Advisors, Omnivore Capital, My First Cheque, KAE Capital, Hyderabad Angel Ventures, Blume Advisors and Seedfund II.

According to Mohanjit Jolly, managing director, DFJ India, seed investments have become crucial as valuations are on a steady rise even in the so-called Series A or first round of venture capital investments for companies that begin to show market traction.

“This interest is a function of fear and greed. Investors are afraid that they would miss (out) on a great deal if they do not enter early,” he said, adding that it also builds a pipeline of deals for later stages.

The dynamics of the VC industry are changing in India as well as in mature markets such as the US. In the US, large funds with deep pockets have now shifted their attention to start-ups after small funds, which reaped sizeable returns on VC investments, showed the way.

“Now, they want to be the ones to get in early,” Jolly said.

No casual approach

Investors say while more investments are being closed in the seed stage, it doesn’t indicate that they have a casual approach to start-ups in terms of due diligence or consideration of the risk-reward ratio.

Abhay Pandey, managing director of Sequoia Capital, said the space has evolved quite fast.

“We can’t wait for winners to emerge; better approach is to do these deals early,” added Pandey. “We are not as casual about these investments as the term ‘spray-and-pray’ denotes; we have a thesis on what companies, sectors, business models, and teams need to be backed.”

Investors say it is yet to be seen if the dedicated or relaxed investment approach will pan out well in the longer run. “Such a strategy tends to be more successful at seed stage or at incubation, where it is the survival of the fittest,” said Niren Shah, managing director, NVP India.

However, seed deals are not an easy investment spot. Seed stage investing requires a very different focus and commitment as these companies are very small and at times merely a business idea.

“An investor needs patience and expertise of a different kind to make these investments work,” said Prashanth Prakash, partner, Accel Partners India, one of the seed-stage investors in the country. “Entrepreneurs are smart, they will choose funds that specialize in true seed-stage investing over others whose core early stage strategy is spray and pray”.

Experts say the number of managers in a fund can be a constraint for handling these investments. While having five-to-six companies is optimal under one partner, there could be more depending on the stage of investments.

“It’s only in the last two-three years that segmentation is becoming visible and hence even the VC firms’ strategy is changing,” said Sanjay Anandaram, an entrepreneur-turned-investor, who also mentors start-ups.

by- Deepti chaudhary
      Shraddha nair
source- livemint.com

LIST OF QUESTIONS AN INVESTOR WOULD ASK AN ENTREPRENEUR

How much capital do you require?

They want to know how much of their capital will be needed to start, run and make the business profitable. They will also want to know how these investment funds will be utilized, and if additional rounds of capital will be required.

Who are your competition?

This is also a highly asked question from investors. Every business has some form of competition. Discuss the competitors in your industry, how their product/service is similar to yours, and how your product is better or more usable than that of the competition. Present the SWOT analysis.

Entry Barrier?

Investors are not keen in any venture which has low entry barrier which implies that this business model can be replicated easily. So as an entrepreneur you should be in full command to highlight why your business model cannot be easily replicated. Investors are keen to know if you can have patent protection.

What is the current state of the venture?

Investors are keen to know the current state of your venture to understand the progress of the venture and also where funds will be utilized. Investors want to see that you have something tangible to offer rather than just a good business plan or business concept. Prior to raising venture capital, you should try to move the business along as far as possible.

Do you currently have paying customers?

Paying customers definitely brings credibility to your product since Investors perceive it as a validation for the product and would like to talk to your customer to understand their viewpoint about the product.

Founding Team Experience? 

Investors look for dynamic and extra ordinary founders to back them, a great leader can develop a very good business from an ordinary idea. They will want to know if you have the proper educational background, experience, and contacts within your field to make your venture successful and profitable.

How will Investors Exit? 

Investors would like to see a hefty return of their investment. They would like to exit the venture either by company’s IPO or strategic sale of their equity to a large company or a PE firm.

Now buy “BHAAJI” on the Internet delivered to your Doorstep

Now buy “BHAAJI” on the Internet delivered to your Doorstep

The India Online Ecosystem has Entrepreneurs entering into a space where one can buy “BHAAJI” online and that too delivered at your doorstep. Online shopping in India is taking a new shape beyond the usual apparel or electronics items.

FMCG companies and retailers have started using the online medium not only for brand promotion but also for sales. a Cash-on-Delivery model would work better unlike other categories such as electronics and other big purchase items for which the consumers make advance payments.

It is probably the last big segment / sector that is still largely out of the online commerce ambit and represents the next big challenge.

Grocery has a very high share of wallet of the Customer. Also, with more and more people getting Employed, staying away from homes, online shopping is a better alternative to have Grocery delivered at your doorstep rather than asking Maids/Servants to shop for you. Similar models are already in existence, where small vendors carry grocery in a Cycle-rickshaw van serving a particular locality.

However, the Cost of Logistics,  the changing lifestyle, and “Touch & Feel factor” are the various challenges, the adaptability according to Indian Scenario by the Entreprenuers in the space might be interesting to look forward to.

These technology driven platform that enables your neighborhood kirana (grocery) stores to have an online store-front without disrupting the brands’ existing logistics, distribution & pricing mechanism, rather it seamlessly rides on the same.

 

Online Grocers in India

Bangalore-nammagroceries.com ( Present only on FB- Last post in March),atmydoorsteps.com ( Present on twitter and FB.Twitter last tweet in March but active on FB),towness.com ( not present on either )

Chennai-anytimegrocery.com ( not present on either ),chennaionlinegrocery.com ( not present on either )

Delhi - mygrahak.com (FB Page doesnt take to their page),aaramshop.com (FB,Twitter and LinkedIn - Active on all three ! )

Faridabad-easyration.com ( not present on either )

Gurgaon-groceryshop.in (only like plugin ),Farm2kitchen (twitter,facebook and Foursquare )

Hyderabad-vokav.com (present on twitter,FB and flickr - but not active)

Kolkata-mylocalbazaar.com (on FB but last post in June )

Mumbai-freshndaily.com (present on FB and active )

Clearly aaramshop and farm2kitchen emerges as winners when their activity in social media space is concerned !

INVESTOR FLAVOURS START-UP’S IN 2011

INVESTOR FLAVOURS START-UP’S IN 2011

Start ups in India is a flavor of the year 2011. January till July has already witnessed more than 93 deals worth U$D 510.98 million compared to 69 deals worth $ 282.21 million in the corresponding period in 2010. In 2010,147 deals worth U$D 728.52 million took place as investments.

International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) has been building direct relationships with entrepreneurs that can help them grow in the business for the past two years. It has recently partnered with Streetline Inc., a start up developing technologies to shorten driver’s search for an empty parking spot. Companies like Naaptol.com - a product comparison engine, Snapdeal.com – a daily deals website, Cocoberry – a frozen yoghurt chain, or Shear Genux Unisex Saloon – a saloon chain are no longer stranger. These companies are just 12 to four years old.

The ecosystem for the entrepreneurs who were dependent on just family and friends to fund his venture has now evolved into a comprehensive one. The segment of VC Market is maturing in India been it in any stage – Start Up, Angel, or early stage funding.

Emergence of Entrepreneurship Culture has come from India’s Growth. Past Experience of First Generation Entrepreneurs has given confidence to try and innovate new things to others.

A significant shift is also vision in the VC Funding segment. Power of VC Community is shifting from Venture Firms to Entrepreneurs and more VC firms are looking forward to late stage funding.

Can Amazon be "the Amazon of India"?

In any country there are e-commerce firms that want to be the "Amazon" of that country. Ironically it's also what Amazon wants to be outside the U.S.!

But in three of the largest and fastest growing emerging market e-commerce economies--China, Russia and Brazil--the leading online retailer is not Amazon. It is not even present in Russia and Brazil. "The Amazons" of China, Russia and Brazil are 360buy, Ozon. ru and MercadoLibre, respectively.

Will India be any different?

What Amazon Can Do
There are lots of news and rumors regarding Amazon's India entry. Amazon did not respond to repeated Forbes India queries on this story. However, multiple media reports and e-commerce entrepreneurs say that Amazon is hiring employees and renting warehouses for an India launch.

That's surprising because the current retail FDI regulations do not permit Amazon to set up a majority owned Indian subsidiary. And that is why it needs a local partner.

"There's not much local knowledge involved in selling standard products like books, mobile phones or home appliances. That comes from categories like food, groceries or apparel," says Raghav Gupta, a retail consultant with Booz & Company.

Which means Amazon can replicate most of those using its own resources in a relatively short while. "Amazon has global relationships with many multinational vendors, so it may get better prices from them even in India. That is an advantage," says K. Vaitheeswaran, co-founder and COO of Indiaplaza, at 12 years the oldest e-commerce site in India.

R. Sriram, co-founder of consulting firm Next Practice Retail and ex-CEO of Crossword Bookstores, says, "If Amazon's goal is to be the dominant online business covering every possible category then what 'Step One' is does not matter in the medium or long run. Their customer traffic from India is already four times that of the top online Indian retailer."

Given that Amazon is not the leader in China, and is not present in Brazil or Russia, the assimilation of local knowledge may not be a trivial matter. So, Amazon will do well to get a local partner on board. And most likely the partner would not be a conventional retailer because none of the large retail groups have been approached by it yet. It will also not be the local e-commerce darling Flipkart because buying a chunk of Flipkart would be very expensive. Flipkart is angling for a valuation of $500 million to $1 billion (CEO Sachin Bansal refused to admit it) on a monthly revenue run-rate of $10 million (which Bansal says will be crossed in September).

"I would almost bet Amazon won't spend anywhere near a billion dollars on an India acquisition," says Kartik Hosanagar, an associate professor at the Wharton School of Business. It will most likely be a less expensive e-commerce company.

Emerging Market Lessons
Once the local partnership is in place, Amazon could do with remembering its China experience. In 2004, Joyo was China's largest e-commerce player before Amazon acquired it. Today, that title belongs to 360buy. com, that started in 2004 and is planning a U.S. IPO worth $4billion to $5 billion, the largest ever. Amazon China and Dangdang, a smaller competitor to Joyo in 2004, which wisely refused a buyout offer from Amazon for a reported $150 million, are both one-third the size of 360buy. The other big player is Taobao Mall, part of the Alibaba Group.

In two of the other leading emerging markets, Russia and Brazil, Amazon is missing in action. That leaves India as the only large emerging market where Amazon still has a good chance of becoming a market leader. But for that to happen, it'll have to unlearn a lot.

"It's not a given that a global player will succeed in Indian e-commerce. E-commerce in the West was built on solid, existing logistics; sourcing too was different. Amazon will need time to figure it out," says Mukesh Bansal, the founder and CEO of Myntra, the biggest online retailer of apparel in India.

A prime example of that is logistics. One of the reasons Amazon tripped up in China was because it closed Joyo's internal delivery operations after the acquisition. By the time it re-established it in 2007, it had lost valuable time.

In India and China, unlike the West, third party logistics networks are of low quality. Across cities in Russia, China and Brazil, it is common to see e-commerce couriers on motorcycles, vans or even bicycles, rushing around delivering orders. Many of them even allow competitors to use their delivery networks for a fee, like Ozon.Ru's 97-city strong O-Courier network in Russia, which is used by 60-odd e-commerce companies. Flipkart too has its own network.

Amazon will need to master Cash on Delivery (CoD) as well. In the West, two out of the three critical flows for an e-commerce company--cash, goods and information--are deftly handled by third party providers, something that Amazon cannot expect in India. In India, like in China and Russia, more than 80% of the transactions are CoD.

All of these tend to delay profit breakeven. In China, none of the e-commerce firms reportedly make a profit, in spite of the market estimated to touch nearly $22 billion this year.

India is equally tough because retail margins here are among the lowest in the world.

Impact on Indian Retail
Amazon's entry will also aggravate tensions for large offline retailers who, till now, have been bumbling along on their e-commerce attempts.

"Aggregators like Amazon and Flipkart worry them, because they can optimize the supply chain across categories to make consumers 'captive'. No consumer prefers going to Futurebazaar for one category, Shopper's Stop for the second and Reliance for the third. Instead, they'll prefer a single site," says V.V. Preetham, founder and CEO of Quantama, a provider of technology-assisted shopping solutions for offline retailers.

In most cases, retailers are caught in a chicken-and-egg situation: Online revenues for them are still miniscule, so they don't devote management bandwidth, capital or resources to it.

Online, they also need to offer lower prices to be competitive. They are conflicted by this, as they are used to much higher prices in their stores to justify real estate and associated costs.

"What they don't realize is that this conflict is only in their minds, not the consumer's," says Vaitheeswaran.

Technology is an Achilles' heel for most large retailers, till recently powered by staff provided on contract by Infosys or Wipro. Amazon can employ cutting-edge programmers by the thousands, ones who know how to create scalable delivery platforms that deliver millisecond-level responses.

"It's ironic that businesses on the ground with track records of growth, profitability and customer service are valued lower than their newer online counterparts, most of whom don't know what profits are. This hampers their ability to raise capital, leaving them with limited options to place their bets," says Sriram. Existing e-commerce firms ought to be paranoid about Amazon, as it has deep pockets, years of experience and a determination to make things work in India.

In volatile, fast growing markets it can be hard to predict the future. China's 360buy is today three times Amazon's size in China, indicating how fast a new entrant can become a leader. With broadband reaching only 2 to 5% of Indians, the potential market is much larger than the current one.

By Rohit Dharmakumar
This article appears in the October 7 issue of Forbes India, a Forbes Media licensee
source-forbes.com

Indian E-Commerce Thriving On Strong Investment, Start-Up Action

Of late, e-commerce is sizzling and entrepreneurship is at an all-time high in India. Already, it is a $5 billion market and according to IAMAI estimates, it is expected to touch $10.27 billion by the end of this year.  In fact, the future looks brighter than ever.

Horizontal e-com firm Infibeam.com’s CEO Vishal Mehta has told Techcircle.in that by 2015, he expects an e-commerce retailer to become the largest retailer in the country, in terms of revenues. Infibeam has gone off the beaten path to become a supply chain management company and opened up its e-commerce software platform BuildABazaar to allow merchants to set up their own sites and grow the market.

Rival Flipkart.com has also been painting the town red, first with its TV ads and then with high profile investors joining the board. Flipkart raised $20 million from Tiger Global and it is now learnt that the company is raising $150 million in a PE round of funding from the General Atlantic Partners, in line with its target of Rs 500 crore, to be achieved by March, 2012. It plans to expand into printers, Mp3 players, televisions and audio systems.

Another fast-rising star is Homeshop18.com, from the Network18 group, which has steadily climbed up in terms of traffic and notched up revenues of Rs 71 crore in the year ended March, 2011. It has recently acquired Coinjoos.com, an online bookstore, to supplement its books retail category and is raising Rs 100 crore from its existing investors – SAIF Partners, Network18 and GS Shopping – for scaling up logistics, warehousing and technology platform.

The pull of e-commerce was too hard to be resisted by Reliance Entertainment, one of the country’s largest media and entertainment companies. So, it chose to shut down its social networking and blogging site Bigadda.com and converted it into an e-commerce site called Big Adda Shop. By July, Big Adda Shop crossed Rs 2 crore worth of gross transactions per month and now, the company is planning two more e-commerce storefronts.

But there are more horizontal players coming up. Indiaplaza, backed by the Indigo Monsoon Group in India, raised $5 million in venture capital funding from NEA-IndoUS in July. Another Internet group ibibo is focused on enabling a Cloud-based ecosystem on its e-commerce portal Tradus.in. However, eBay India is still at the top, selling over 2,000 categories such as technology, lifestyle, media and collectibles. It is now investing in a real-time customer support system via social media, along with mobile apps and payment processes.

Some of the e-commerce trends have been summarised below for a fast read:

Daily Deals Boom

Spa deals, tattoos, restaurant vouchers, tee-shirts, footwear, digital cameras, handsets, chocolates, books and pen drives – everyone is heading to daily deal sites to get the best prices for all these products and more. The popularity of daily deals reached a new high in April, when Snapdeal.com announced that it had sold 30,000 deals on a single day, led primarily by mobile recharge coupons. Snapdeal.com had recently raised $40 million from Bessemer Venture Partners, NEA Indo-US Ventures and Nexus Venture Partners at a valuation of Rs 1,000 crore.

On the other hand, New-Delhi based e-commerce firm BenefitsPLUS Media Pvt Ltd has been snapping up e-commerce firms – first Snowball eRetail Services and then Koovs.com – to offer a combination of B2B and B2C e-com in the country. It set aside $5 million for these acquisitions and now plans to carve Koovs.com into a specialised e-com play. NASDAQ-listed Rediff.com India Ltd has launched a sub-site called Deal Ho Jaye while Times Internet has launched Timesdeal.com. Mydala.com, which raised Rs 9 crore from Info Edge India Ltd in May, is adding an average of one million users per month on its group buying site.

Gadgets Rock

Expansion beyond services like tattoos and spa deals and a move towards lifestyle products and gadgets led to a spike in user base growth for the deal sites. In fact, products are already becoming a significant component of revenues for the sites. SnapDeal, for example, expects consumer electronics sales to contribute to 30 per cent of its business by year-end. Also, consumer electronics-focused e-commerce site LetsBuy.com had raised $6 million in its first round of venture capital funding. It had raised monies from Accel Partners, Helion Ventures and Tiger Global in January this year and immediately invested $2-$3 million in scaling up the infrastructure and improving delivery time for Indian buyers. The founders have now set a target of Rs 150 crore in revenues for 2011-12.

Online Fashion Is Hip & Happening

The flash sales concept was replicated in India with websites making high fashion accessories and designer wear available online. Sites like Exclusively.in, 99Labels and BagitToday, Yebhi and Naaptol Club have started drawing in the crowds with their viral referral schemes and exciting discounts on global fashion labels.

In May this year, Exclusively.in has raised $16 million from Tiger Global, Accel Partners and Helion Ventures to bankroll its international expansion plans. 99Labels has found an investor in India’s top Internet companies Info Edge, which runs the recruitment site Naukri.com, while Bangalore-based start-up ThePrivateSales.com has sold part stake to a private company for $5 million. Entrepreneur Abhishek Shah, who co-founded group buying platform WanaMo.com in November, 2009 (which later became Dealsandyou.com), came up with a private fashion sales club aimed at men (Fetise.com). Meanwhile, the Smile Group, which is behind Fashionandyou.com and Dealsandyou.com, has launched a third site called BeStylish.com for international, high street and regular shoe brands and targets men, women and kids. It is up against Yebhi.com, whose co-founder Manmohan Agarwal was formerly the CEO (Corporate Affairs) of Vishal Retail. Sportswear is huge for Myntra.com, which had to reposition itself into a lifestyle and ‘casual brands’ portal, following consumer demand. It has raised $14 million from Tiger Global, IDG Ventures and Indo-US Venture Partners in March this year.

We also caught the launch of ZOVI, a clothing company which is exclusively online (there’s no offline storefront) and which delivers shirts in well-branded packaging. ZOVI has raised $5.5 million from private equity firm SAIF Partners and some angel investors, such as MakeMyTrip’s founder Deep Kalra.

Niches Get Captured

Baby care, flowers, handicraft, jewellery and home décor are emerging as popular categories which can be stand-alone ventures. Chennai-based Caratlane Trading Pvt Ltd, which runs online diamond and jewellery portal CaratLane.com, has raised $6 million from Tiger Global Management LLC in June. Online baby products shops are also finding quick traction, especially in far-off towns which do not have access to the best toys, furniture and other relevant products. Incidentally, Firstcry.com has raised $4 million from private equity major SAIF Partners while Babyoye.com, another online retailer of baby products, has raised $2.5 million from Accel Partners and Tiger Global. Flower retail chain Ferns N Petals’ e-com section is also equipping itself with a new technology platform with best-of-breed components. The company is also increasing its number of outlets, as it aims to double its revenues this year.

Travel Gets Competitive

Travel still contributes to 80 per cent of the entire e-commerce market. In April this year, online travel sites in India reached a peak of 18.5 million visitors, according to comScore.

Indian Railways’ IRCTC was the clear leader with 8.4 million visitors, while NASDAQ-listed MakeMyTrip saw around 3.9 million visitors. Cleartrip.com had 2.1 million visitors while Yatra had 3.5 million visitors. The US-based Expedia Inc. also witnessed 1.8 million visitors. In March, however, Yatra had briefly overtaken MakeMyTrip in terms of unique visitors, driven by a surge in online visitors.

MakeMyTrip listed on the NASDAQ in 2010 and has shown an increased focus on the hotels and holiday booking business ever since, which is reflected across other travel operators. In April, Yatra has raised Rs 200 crore for an acquisition that will supplement its hotels business. Expedia’s Hotels.com has also arrived in India to start lapping up the hotel inventory in the country and Hotels.com now offers bookings for 2,300 hotels. Cleartrip has received an investment of $40 million from NASDAQ-listed travel management solutions provider Concur for a minority stake and a marketing partnership. It has then turned to small and medium businesses to offer customised services and announced an investment of $10 million in the Middle East market. Incidentally, the Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, Sherpalo Ventures, DAG Ventures and Draper Fisher Jurvetson-backed company’s management faced allegations made by another online travel agency Travelocity. However, Travelocity’s civil suit, seeking damages of $ 37.5 million, was recently squashed by the Bombay High Court. Via, a Bangalore-based online travel agency, is also trying to raise $100 million to expand to more countries. It reaches users in 1700 cities, through 50,000 offline and online partners in India.

Most recently, MakeMyTrip and SAIF Partners have acquired a majority stake in travel meta-search engine iXiGO.com. According to the industry body Internet and mobile Association of India (IAMAI), the 2010 online travel market was at Rs 25,258 crore gross merchandise value and is growing at 50 per cent.

Cautious Retailers Give E-com A Try

This year has also witnessed large Indian retailers taking baby steps towards e-commerce. For instance, Tata’s consumer electronics retail chain Croma has started setting up an online storefront. Aditya Birla Retail has decided to launch a pilot in Bangalore for its megastore chain – The More Store – driven by a 3x increase in unique visitors to the website in six months. The company plans to sell large household appliances. Globus and The Bombay Stores have made a start as well. Kishore Biyani’s Future Group expects 10 per cent of the company’s total retail sales from the digital medium through its portal Futurebazaar. France’s Carrefour has announced that it will set up a business-to-business e-commerce portal that will connect retailers and the National Small Industries Corporation Ltd is readying a portal similar to Alibaba.com, to be launched in October. Meanwhile, upscale retail group Macy’s Inc. has extended the reach of two websites – Macys.com and Bloomingdales.com to India. However, delays in updating FDI norms for multi-brand retail in the country continue to be a cause for concern among e-commerce companies.

Entrepreneurs Gain Confidence

A website that allows you to order groceries, another that duplicates the concept of an online library and a group buying site for larger home electronics, desktops and automobiles – these are just a few examples of the thousands of start-up enthusiasts who are stepping forward this year. Developers associated with e-commerce technologies are also finding adequate number of investors. Take, for instance, Adepto Solutions Pvt Ltd, which has the social commerce platform Trol.ly and has raised $300,000 (Rs 1.3 crore) from the seed fund Blume Ventures and a consortium of angel investors led by Rajiv Dadlani.

Spurt In Branding & Advertising

E-com ventures are no longer tucked away in oblivion. On the contrary, they are grabbing the eyeballs in a big way. Snapdeal.com and domain name registrar BigRock (Happy Recovery Agent ad) have announced Rs 10 crore budgets on advertising. Travel portal MakeMyTrip has made a telly commercial on an amnesiac who only remembers his exotic vacations while Flipkart has chosen a fairy tale theme. Mohit Gupta, CMO at MakeMyTrip.com, has told Techcircle.in that the company's growth is driven by marketing efforts to acquire more and more customers through online and offline marketing channels. “With the Indian online audience and e-commerce reaching the critical mass, TV has emerged as an attractive media option for building the brand, as well as acquiring new customers,” said Gupta. Tradus has also announced that it will spend anywhere between $150,000 and $200,000 per month on advertising and is readying a TV campaign for Diwali. Meanwhile, Yatra will invest in branding to woo users in tier II and tier III cities. Last year, the travel site has spent Rs 50 crore in various activities, including branding and promoting its offline storefronts.

Global Entrants May Find It Difficult

Germany’s largest online shoe retailer Zalando by Rocket Internet GmbH, had to shut down its operations in India after investing in the venture for six months. In fact, global models may not necessarily work in India and need to be altered to suit the local market. The pioneer of coupon sites Groupon is also facing problems in the country as it is plagued by cyber-squatting and branding issues.

Amazon’s Entry To Push E-com?

It is expected to cause considerable fracas in the Indian e-com space. According to Rahul Sethi, ibibo president for e-commerce, the next 12-18 months will see a “massive filtering” of players and verticalisation will be the key to success. Mehta of Infibeam believes that the entry of Amazon will grow the market by pushing companies to innovate and reach out further.

by Preethi J

source-vccircle.com

Goldman Sachs reports second ever quarterly loss

US banking giant Goldman Sachs has reported a loss of $428m (£272m), worse than analysts had been expecting.

The group, delivering its third quarter results, confirmed it had made only its second quarterly loss as a public company, following forecasts last week from analysts it would post a loss.

The loss of $428m compared to profits of $1.7bn in the third quarter of 2010, and meant the basic loss per share for investors was $0.84, compared to a profit of $3.19 in Q3 2010.

Analysts had forecast a loss of just $0.16 per share.

Revenues across the whole company fell from $8.9bn to $3.6bn year on year, down 60%, and was also 51% lower than Q2 of this year.

Chief executive Lloyd Blankfein pointed to difficult market conditions and a lack of confidence among investors and corporate clients for the poor results.

"Our results were significantly impacted by the environment and we were disappointed to record a loss in the quarter," Blankfein said.

The group's Investing and Lending division took the biggest hit, according to the results, with a loss in revenue terms of $2.48bn.

The loss was caused in part by an investment in Chinese banking giant Commercial Bank of China. Goldmans said the position lost the division $1.05bn.

Shares in the group rose 1.26% despite the loss, although they remain 42% down year to date, having dropped sharply in the recent market sell-off.

by Nick Paler

source-investmentweek.co.uk

7 Tips and Tricks to Using LinkedIn for Your Small Business

Are you looking for a business tool that can increase productivity, cut costs and expand your client base? Do you want a platform where you can share ideas, find information, and locate who or what you need without spending even a single penny? If yes, you can check out LinkedIn, which can be used as a social media marketing tool. Running small business doesn’t mean you have to develop a website and wait for business to run itself.

Whether you are looking for job or doing your own business, you will get the benefit of the connections in your network. Networking has always been important for business and today with the growth of the internet and the many social websites it has become a lot easier to promote your business and make contacts. One of the most popular sites for many entrepreneurs and business owners today is LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is a social networking site especially for business that enables you to promote your profile and your business. It makes it possible for you to build a professional network of contacts and stay up to date with the latest information from your connections.
With 116 million user, it gives you an opportunity to make business connections that can help you to promote and increase your business. With so much potential, it is important for small business owners to be able to utilize and leverage the concept in order to use it to their advantage.

Here are some tips on how to use LinkedIn effectively:

1. Profile: Your profile in LinkedIn is your online business card so it is important to use it correctly in order to connect with potential clients and partners. Having a photo of yourself and a small intro text is important to look professional and also it will enable you to be found using a search engine. You can also add your skills and experience to your profile and it is also a good idea to keep it up to date.

2. Make a page for your company: You can also make a profile page for your company. You can add the details of your company which will help to promote it and you can add your location and a feed from your blog if you like.

3. Expand your network: You can also import your contacts list from your email to LinkedIn and the site will automatically find the contacts that have a profile so you can connect with them on the site for daily updates. It also recommends people for you to connect with based on your profile. This is also a good way to keep in touch with customers.

4. Try to get recommended: Getting recommendations from other people is a great way to enhance your profile. Having a lot of recommendations from satisfied customers will help you attract new customers more easily.

5. Join groups: You can find a lot of groups related to your line of business or groups especially for small business which can help you expand your network.

6. Use LinkedIn to recruit people: You can also use it when looking for employees and find someone related to your business.

7. LinkedIn Mobile: You can access LinkedIn from your smart phone and stay up to date with your clients.

by Mandira Srivastava
source-smallbiztechnology

FIRSTBIGLEAP: Is Google Plus A Big Minus For Investors?

FIRSTBIGLEAP: Is Google Plus A Big Minus For Investors?

Steve Jobs and the Seven Rules of Success

Steve Jobs' impact on your life cannot be overestimated. His innovations have likely touched nearly every aspect -- computers, movies, music and mobile. As a communications coach, I learned from Jobs that a presentation can, indeed, inspire. For entrepreneurs, Jobs' greatest legacy is the set of principles that drove his success.

Over the years, I've become a student of sorts of Jobs' career and life. Here's my take on the rules and values underpinning his success. Any of us can adopt them to unleash our "inner Steve Jobs."

1. Do what you love. Jobs once said, "People with passion can change the world for the better." Asked about the advice he would offer would-be entrepreneurs, he said, "I'd get a job as a busboy or something until I figured out what I was really passionate about." That's how much it meant to him. Passion is everything.

2. Put a dent in the universe. Jobs believed in the power of vision. He once asked then-Pepsi President, John Sculley, "Do you want to spend your life selling sugar water or do you want to change the world?" Don't lose sight of the big vision.

3. Make connections. Jobs once said creativity is connecting things. He meant that people with a broad set of life experiences can often see things that others miss. He took calligraphy classes that didn't have any practical use in his life -- until he built the Macintosh. Jobs traveled to India and Asia. He studied design and hospitality. Don't live in a bubble. Connect ideas from different fields.

4. Say no to 1,000 things. Jobs was as proud of what Apple chose not to do as he was of what Apple did. When he returned in Apple in 1997, he took a company with 350 products and reduced them to 10 products in a two-year period. Why? So he could put the "A-Team" on each product. What are you saying "no" to?   

5. Create insanely different experiences. Jobs also sought innovation in the customer-service experience. When he first came up with the concept for the Apple Stores, he said they would be different because instead of just moving boxes, the stores would enrich lives. Everything about the experience you have when you walk into an Apple store is intended to enrich your life and to create an emotional connection between you and the Apple brand. What are you doing to enrich the lives of your customers?

Related: 10 Things to Thank Steve Jobs For

6. Master the message. You can have the greatest idea in the world, but if you can't communicate your ideas, it doesn't matter. Jobs was the world's greatest corporate storyteller. Instead of simply delivering a presentation like most people do, he informed, he educated, he inspired and he entertained, all in one presentation.

7. Sell dreams, not products. Jobs captured our imagination because he really understood his customer. He knew that tablets would not capture our imaginations if they were too complicated. The result? One button on the front of an iPad. It's so simple, a 2-year-old can use it. Your customers don't care about your product. They care about themselves, their hopes, their ambitions. Jobs taught us that if you help your customers reach their dreams, you'll win them over.

By Carmine Gallo 

source-entrepreneur.com

Is Google Plus A Big Minus For Investors?

Internet usage is changing. Dramatically. Once the Web was the world’s largest library and simultaneously, the world’s biggest shopping mall. In that environment, what everyone needed was to find things. And Google was the world’s best tool for finding things. When the noun, Google, became the verb ‘googled’ (as in “I googled your history” or “I googled your brand to see where I could buy it”), it was clear that Google had permanently placed itself in the long history of products that changed the world.

But increasingly, the Internet is not about just finding things. Today, people are using the Internet more as a way to network, communicate and co-operatively share information – using sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Although Web usage is increasing, old-style, ‘search-based’ use is declining, with all the growth coming from ‘social-based’ use.

This poses a very real threat to Google. Not in 2011, but the indication is that being dominant in search has a limit to Google’s future revenue growth through selling search-based ads. And, in fact, while Internet ads continue growing in all ad categories, none is growing as fast as display ads. And of this, the Facebook market is growing the fastest, as MediaPost.com pointed out in its headline ‘On-line Ad Spend up, Facebook soars 22%.’ In online display ads Facebook is now first, followed by Yahoo! (the original market dominator), and Google is third, as described in ‘Facebook Serves 25% of Display Ads.’

While Google is not going to become obsolete overnight, the trend is now distinctly moving away from Google’s area of domination and toward the social media marketplace. Products like Facebook are emerging as platforms, which can displace your need for a website (why build a website when all you need is on their platform?) or even e-mail. Their referral networks have the ability to be more powerful than a generic Web search when you seek information. And by tying you together with others like you, they can probably move you to products and buying locations you really want faster than a keyword-based Google-style search. BNet.com headlined it ‘How Facebook Intends to Supplant Google as the Web’s #1Utility’ and it just might happen – as we see users are increasingly spending more time on Facebook than Google.

So, you would think it’s a good thing for Google to launch Google+. Although earlier efforts to enter this market were unsuccessful (Google Buzz and Google Wave being two well-known efforts) it would, on the surface, seem like Google has no option but to try, try again.

Only, Google+ is not a breakthrough in social media. By all accounts, it’s a collection of things already offered by Facebook and others, without any remarkable new packaging (see BusinessInsider.com’s ‘Google’s Launch of Google+ is, once again, deeply embarrassing’ or “Google Plus looks like everything else’ or ‘Wow, Google+ looks EXACTLY like Facebook’). With Facebook closing in on 1 billion users, it’s probably too late and will be far too expensive for Google to ever catch the big lead. Especially, with Facebook in China and Google noticeably not.

Like many tech competitors, Google had a game-changer that came along and moved its customers toward a different solution. Google+ will be in a gladiator war, where everyone gets bloody and several end up dead. NewsCorp is finally exiting social media as it sells MySpace for a $550 million loss – clearly a body being dragged from the coliseum! Even with its early lead, and big expenditures of time and managerial talent, NewsCorp was thrashed in the gladiator war.

Google may have a lot of money to spend on this battle, but shareholders will NOT benefit from the fight. It will be long, costly and inevitably not profitable. Yes, Google needs to find new ways to grow as the market shifts. But trying to do so by engaging such powerful, funded and well-positioned competitors as the big three of social media, is not a smart investment.

And that leads us to why Google+ is really problematic. Resources spent there cannot be spent on other opportunities which have high growth potential and fewer competitors. BI’s headline – Google kills off two of its most ambitious projects – should send shudders of fear down shareholders’ backs. Google had practically no competitors in its efforts to change how Americans buy and use both healthcare services and utilities such as electricity and natural gas. Two enormous markets, where Google was alone in its efforts to partner with other companies and rebuild supply chains in ways that would benefit consumers. Neither of these projects is as costly as Google+ and neither has entrenched competition. Both are enormous and Google was the early entrant, with game-changing solutions, from which it could capture most, if not all, the value – just as it did with its early search and AdWords success.

Additionally, Chromebooks is now coming to market. Android has been a remarkable success, trouncing RIM and with multiple vendors supporting it, this platform is rapidly taking ground from Apple’s iPhone. Only Google has made almost nothing from this platform. Chromebooks offer a way for Google to improve monetising its growing – and perhaps someday the No. 1 spot to the platform in the rapidly growing tablet business against a very weak Microsoft. But, with so much attention on Google+, Microsoft is given berth for launching its Office 365 product as a challenger. With so much opportunity in cloud computing and Google’s early lead in multiple products, Google has a real chance of being bigger than Apple someday. But its movement into social media will not allow it to focus on cloud products as it should, and will give Microsoft renewed opportunity to compete.

Google is setting itself up for potential disaster. While its historical business slowly starts losing its growth, the company is entering into three very expensive gladiator wars. First is the on-going battle for smartphone users against Apple, where it is spending money on Android that largely benefits handset manufacturers. Secondly, it is now facing a battle for enterprise and personal productivity apps based in cloud computing where it has not yet succeeded in taking the lead position, but is still facing increasing competition from Apple’s iCloud and Microsoft’s new round of cloud apps. And on top of that, Google now tells investors that it is going to go toe-to-toe with the fastest-growing software companies out there – Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and a host of other entrants. And to fund this, it is abandoning markets where it is practically the only game-changing solution.

There’s a lot yet to happen in the fast-moving tech markets. But now is the time for investors to wait and see. Google’s engineers are very talented. But its strategy may well be very costly, and unable to compete on all fronts. You may not want to sell Google shares today, but it’s hard to find a reason to buy them

by adam hurtung
source- vccircleblogs