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

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (10148)	12/20/1999 10:16:00 PM
From: Mohan Marette	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12475

Nasdaq listed Pacific Internet eyes Indian market Posted December 20, 1999 (Aaj Thak-IndiaToday) New Delhi, December 20: Nasdaq-listed net firm Pacific Internet has set eyes on Indian internet business and plans to launch net services in 25 major Indian cities in an year's time. The Singapore-based company which has made a quiet launch of its net access in Mumbai early this month said it would launch internet access in Delhi, Calcutta, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Pune during the current phase and would cover 25 cities before the end of 2000. Pacific, which had acquired two internet companies in Australia recently plans to offer a variety of services such as web hosting, web design, web consulting and e-commerce in India, Mohana Pillai, President of Pacific Internet India, said. Pillai was involved in the acquisition of a number of internet companies including Zip World and Mira Networking, two award winning access providers in Australia. Pillai said in course of time, Pacific Internet would partner with local content providers to publish their contents in its portal to form a syndication platform for quality content providers from around the world. "In addition, pacific is aggressively looking for strategic joint ventures and other partnerships with local content providers," he said. To begin with, pacific would introduce several online services and proprietary content sites including 'internet relay chat', 'Aunt Webby' counseling service, 'laugh track' online jokes and a chat group on Bollywood movie stars. "Besides, the company will localize all content to cater to Indian tastes and preferences," he said The company would set up a localized version of its successful online shopping, 'Pi Mall' to cater to Indian audience. It will offer attractive discounts to small and medium enterprises to help them take their businesses online. "This will enable small and medium Indian companies to sell their products worldwide through the net," Pillai said. Pillai conceded that competition in India would be tough. "But we will meet our competitors 'head on' to build our market presence in India. We will focus on the quality and breadth of the services," he added. Other foreign net access providers in India are British Telecom, which operates through a joint venture with Bharti group under the name 'Mantra Online' and the British Net-4 group.