Comments on: Why Indian Media Companies Suck @Internet?

By: groundviews » Online journalism is the way forward, but tell this to Sri Lankan media companies

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 08:03:52 +0000

[...] out, content taken from here without [...]

By: tapesh

tapesh — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 05:26:40 +0000

Have you ever thin “Why Indian Media companies have late back attitude in upgrading them self in entering in any new media ? Is this is the trend worldwide on here in India only ?”
I personally assume that the reason of this ‘Media Industry is not as much profitable as it looks that’s why companies are not able to save sufficient ammt. to enter in new market’ or ‘they are busy in managing their existing problem’ or ‘all the time a new technology come and new kind of skill set is require to manage their products..so perfectionism type of things is always missing with them ‘

By: zabbasi

zabbasi — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 07:52:14 +0000

@Ashwin
There is always a slight disadvantage for replicas.
My understanding is the Indian user is not very brand loyal either. People won’t buy a ticket from makemytrip if they find something slightly cheaper at cleartrip or akbartravels or any other. So big brands may not be very significant.

So I believe most top VC talents are people who have gone through the grill and have had failure and/or success understanding the art of starting up. The number of startups in India compared to the US is like comparing an ant to an elephant hence its going to take time to get Indian VC talent good enough to nurture the next twitter.
I don’t think Goras is the answer. They may not have experience working in India. Startups in India would like to concentrate on solving problems of Indian businesses and/or consumers (My assumption may be wrong) and once that is done they would like to go international but because its the web maybe everything is international.

By: Ashwin

Ashwin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 06:22:07 +0000

sorry thats http://www.mouthshut.com not http://www.pagalguy.com I was referring to the Founder , Faisal has done an amazing user generated content gig and this could have been global

By: Aditi

Aditi — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 05:38:50 +0000

forgot to mention this awesome blog about startup scene in India.. although the blog’s title is India Or China but it actually talks more about startups and issues they face.. http://windia.blogspot.com/2009/11/india-or-china.html
Cheers!

By: Ashwin

Ashwin — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:17:53 +0000

Zabba , in my early days of understanding the Indian internet scene I did some Primary Research. The finding – the Indian internet user is a very choosy and finicky customer , wants only the best and will not settle for a b-grade product or even anything thats # 2 that explains the success fo Linkedin , FB , youtube amongst Indians despite replicas by the media big wigs [:) with a lotta fake profiles and overrated stats]

Why we donr have FB or Twitter from India & what can be done
- more SFI programs like http://www.techstars.com , http://www.seedcamp.com we hardly have any
- though we have most of the big VC’s here dont have top VC talent who can identify and nurture the next Twitter, hate to say this but we need some Gooras managing things in the VC space the ones who have built internet biz and are now VC’s
The http://www.pagalguy.com dude did a great job in the user generated content space , could have been a story from India which made it big Internationally with the right diversification backed by institutional support but they choose to invest in some dumb Orkut wannabees & other SN’s

By: Aditi

Aditi — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 14:56:47 +0000

I quite agree with Vishal, arvind and others here… frankly speaking, compared to US and London, Angel/VC scene here in India is a bit hopeless.. Environment and support over there for an entrepreneur is quite conducive to the growth of a startup and new ideas to flourish..

This blog says the same thing – http://indiansinuk.net/blogs/Funding-for-Real-Innovation-in-India-UNAVAILABLE.html

We are also in the market for some angel-funding for new-age media NRI portals but the crux of the problem we are facing is best explained by this post from Vishal.

Cheers
Aditi

By: Entrepreneur

Entrepreneur — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 06:50:33 +0000

Having run an online startup in India for over 3 years, couldnt agree less with you

Sometimes it takes a shot of vodka or two to get the courage to write such a masterpiece.

By: zabbasi

zabbasi — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 06:37:34 +0000

Good post Vishal.
@Ashwin I think one of the reason India does not have the next Twitter and FB is because a lot of Indian media sites are copy cats of websites in the US e.g. makemytrip, cleartrip, naukri. This could be because (I may be wrong) a lot of VC funding comes from the west and they would be more comfortable investing in something that has worked there.

Let me know what you think.

@Vishal “Open source solutions perform better, faster and have proven to be more stable than the expensive ones”
I don’t agree completely but yes I do agree that a startup with no cash will find the most cost effective solutions it may not be the best one but will get the job done and reduce time to market.

By: Vijay Rayapati

Vijay Rayapati — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 06:26:41 +0000

Too much of Vodka can bring in life changing insights & debates , good post Vishal.

By: Raghav Soni

Raghav Soni — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 06:19:57 +0000

Nice post…But I would still point out few observations from my side…

The important of all is investments by media companies are over-rated cos look at NDTV.com they have various sections like jobs,cars,classified all white-labeled so some smart move to check the market traction before putting much money.

Why Media Companies are turning into internet?
1. They know their internet ventures could easily get pumped up valuation even in loss making times by just leveraging their brand name and credibility in media circle.
2.Internet is another medium for them which they have to follow else they would be called a ‘Bigger failure’.

Why they are (not) failing/Suck in my view-point?
1.Internet cycle is same as media cycle where they had to make huge capex & losses in the beginning and are now enjoying the fruits of their labor.
2.India still has very less internet penetration compared to even china,brazil.So its useless to compare their success parameters with western counterparts when the market is just getting ready.
3.In the end,They are content owners and if I am looking at a scenario(due to recent Google-rupert murdoch spat) where ‘Content is King’ they might be able to churn decent money out of it.Cos google searches are worthless to users if they can’t find good editorial content.

I would conclude by saying these media companies suck less than some internet conglomerates like Rediff,Northgate technologies where we have seen heavy losses in their valuation and revenues despite boom times & some decent market share cornered by them earlier.

By: ex media company internetter

ex media company internetter — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 05:01:05 +0000

nice post. cannot agree more.
very well said.

By: Mona

Mona — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 04:56:33 +0000

hinting towards UTV new media? are you! … “I wonder if these big media companies will ever understand the real reason for this situation and continue to fund their internet ventures by replacing the CEO with an even more expensive CEO who will rubbish all the past strategies and invest another $20m in marketing and brand repositioning”

By: Ashwin

Ashwin — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 18:35:24 +0000

Indian media companies just done have it in them. The big question is can the next FB or Twitter come from India , though some Indian internetpreneurs have done reasonably well the fact is that there is not a single internet property from India that has any global standing
This is the most sensible blog post about the Indian internet mess I have come across , kudos to Vishal

Getting big in the internet space is also a lot about time , patients and resilience e.g. Till 2006 FB , a lesser known SN light-years behind myspace in # of users then they just exploded , Craigs list – read the story , a dedication to serving the community is what made it , plentyoffish.com – a one man show with $ 6000 revenue / day.
A point that Vishal has missed out is the failure of a lot of VC funded internet ventures partially killed due to being overfunded , entrepreneurs who get used to the limelight and luxury get their drive and eventually venture killed

By: Joe

Joe — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 16:18:19 +0000

.. Bingo

I keep telling this to Industry colleagues and even wanted to write about it. Thanks to my poor writing skills, I am reading !!!

By: arvind

arvind — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 12:09:37 +0000

I wouldn’t want to be left out from the next generation of humans. Your kids, n the ones on FB Orkut today will not lift a piece of paper and read new on it.

That’s the reason why it is important for them to wake up.

By: raghav

raghav — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 09:21:46 +0000

What makes you believe that Internet is an important strategy for media cos?
They are investing where the money is.

By: Rakesh

Rakesh — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 09:17:20 +0000

One of the reason may be they focus more on “branding” than solving any business problem.

/Rakesh/MeriCAR.com

By: punkedge

punkedge — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 07:40:06 +0000

i agree without the vodka, what you have said is absolutely true, but sadly this will continue to happen & they will live in their ideal and imaginary market. on a positive note these companies wont be apple or ‘indiagames’ of tmrw some small startup sitting in a garage or own apartment slogging it out will be.

By: arvind

arvind — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 17:38:16 +0000

Vodka has interesting effect, I agree. Nice post, Vishal.