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Technology Stocks : Satyam Infoway Ltd-(Nasdaq:SIFY) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (586)	2/4/2000 6:51:00 AM
From: Yamakita	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1471

Uh oh, this will probably spook a few people: Friday February 4 6:09 AM ET India Internet Mania Set to Fizzle, Experts Say BOMBAY (Reuters) - India's Internet sector is likely to suffer a shakeout in the next 12 months with a large number of the mushrooming ''dotcom'' start-ups finding it tough to survive because of a low user base, experts said on Friday. They said the Internet portal mania that has hit the country in the past few months was not based on reality. The sector is facing slow growth in the number of users, absence of auditing mechanisms and inability to cope with fast-changing technology. ''There are a couple of reasons why I think dotcom is not for India,'' said Jason Pontin, editor-in-chief of Red Herring magazine, an international technology business publication. ''One thing is that the PC (personal computer) penetration in the country is very low and then there are only about 700,000 subscribers or about three million Internet users,'' Pontin told the annual conference of India's National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), the apex industry body. Sunil Rajshekar, vice-president of Times Interactive, the online arm of India's leading Times newspaper group, said that as systematic usage audits of Internet portal sites were launched, sites with a low user base would close. ''In the next couple of months I foresee minor roadkill. Some people will have to fall by the wayside.'' Internet portals and Web sites have mushroomed in India, partly following November's partial sale of a portal firm to private Internet service provider Satyam Infoway Ltd for $28 million. Satyam bought a 24.5 pct stake in IndiaWorld Communications Ltd with an option to buy the remainder. While there is no exact estimate of the current number of Internet portals or Web sites in India, industry officials said more than a dozen new portals or Web sites are born every month. Trouble Keeping Pace Experts said that besides low Internet penetration, Indian Internet firms would also have to cope with fast-changing Internet technology. ''Dotcom is a media business and not a software services business or an engineering business in which India has very good expertise,'' Pontin said. Rajshekar said sourcing the latest Internet technology from outside the country was very expensive for domestic firms while developing the same technology in India was time consuming. ''Besides, buying on the Internet is seen as unfulfilling in India as shopping is seen as entertainment unlike in the West where it is a boring chore,'' Rajshekar said. Ajit Balakrishnan, chairman of Rediff-On-The-Net, India's leading Internet portal, however said the future for Internet portals and Web sites in the country was not as bleak as was being made out. ''I expect Internet access to become free in the next five or six months and with the development of exclusively Indian content sites on the Internet, we can reach 30 to 50 million users in the next few years from the present three million,'' said Balakrishnan, whose Rediff Communication Ltd this week received clearance to raise 3.22 billion rupees ($73.8 million) through a U.S. listing. He said Internet firms and their partners should gear themselves to cope with this surge in users and their demands.