Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : India Coffee House -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (9408)	11/6/1999 2:35:00 PM
From: Mohan Marette	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12475

E-commerce's Indian summer-You see an elephant can also run pretty fast-Forbes While the U.S. may be the BMW of electronic commerce and India the proverbial elephant, It is important to note that an elephant can also run pretty fast. India, it seems, is e-commerce ready. malamall.com ==================== By Om Malik NEW DELHI, INDIA. 2:40 PM EST- In a country where elephants share the roads with the latest BMWs and Mercedes, e-commerce is the latest mantra being preached by the country's intelligentsia. From Internet startups based in the suburbs of New Delhi to rice exporters to established technology companies, an increasing number of Indian companies have a plan to cash in on the e-commerce boom. Helping of course are visiting e-commerce pundits like Nicholas Negroponte, the celebrated columnist and professor at MIT, who paint a world of trillion dollars in online sales. At the recently concluded CEO Summit in Bombay, the consensus among participants was that India must implement and adopt e-commerce in order to stay globally competitive. It is even more surprising that such a trend would take hold in India, which has less than 2.25 million Internet users and a framework of communication laws from 1885. Nevertheless, those numbers are likely to balloon to 15 million by the end of 2000, reports Business India, a semimonthly business journal. That?s good news for startups like Malamall.com, a Hyderabad-based Internet Services company that has introduced an online mall backed by its own e-card. In less than a month the company attracted 500 subscribers who pay about $5.30 to use the card for a period of ten years. Malamall.com wants to get 25,000 users over the next 12 months. Companies like Malamall.com are taking comfort in the fact that despite poor telecom infrastructure, inadequate security and unclear cyberlaws, Indian companies did about $30 million in business over the Internet, much of it concentrated in the business-to-business segment. The number is likely to grow tenfold over the next few years, as the government readies a new legislation to make India?s digital economy ready. On Nov. 4, the Indian Union Cabinet cleared the Information Technology Bill, even though it has yet to be ratified by the lower and upper houses of the Indian Parliament. The bill promises to primarily create a secure regulatory environment for e-commerce by providing legal validity to Internet and other electronic transactions, including computer data, as permissible data in the courts. If cleared by the Parliament, this could be the most important piece of legislation India has ever adopted. It could mean that online trading in this stock-crazy country will herald the next boom market. This bill will open up Indian companies to the venture capital community. Already Bo Peabody, the co-founder of Tripod, which was later sold to Lycos (nasdaq: LCOS), has indicated that he was willing to invest about $5 million in Indian startups. Lycos is said to be working with Singapore Telecom and an Indian partner and exploring options to set up an Indian portal. Intel Corp. (nasdaq: INTC) is another company active in making Internet-related investments in India. It has invested about $2.4 million in Rediff.com. While the U.S. may be the BMW of electronic commerce and India the proverbial elephant, It is important to note that an elephant can also run pretty fast. India, it seems, is e-commerce ready. forbes.com