Try Ticketmaster, India
By Arun Natarajan, Guest Author
The over cautiousness induced by the “dotcom bust” of 2000-01 has resulted in a peculiar situation where even as user adoption of the Internet and mobile phones have expanded significantly and advertisers are willing to spend significant sums on these mediums, there is a serious lack of compelling content and applications to tap this boom. This was the conclusion of most Venture Capital investors who spoke at the Venture Intelligence Internet & Mobile Connect conference. The event, which was held on March 15 in Mumbai, brought together over 150 participants to discuss opportunities and challenges for Venture Capital investing in the Internet-based services and Mobile Value Added Services sectors. The conference was sponsored by leading Venture Capital firm Canaan Partners.
The first panel on “Internet Businesses: Is the boom for real this time?” sector was kicked off by moderator Alok Kejriwal, Founder & Chairman of Contests2win.com, who remarked how the current Internet environment in India was reminiscent of the energy and enthusiasm of 1999-2000.
Murugavel Janakiraman, Founder & CEO of Bharatmatrimony.com, said several services are yet to come online in India. For example, there is no one service in India – similar to Ticketmaster in the US - that consumers can go to for ordering tickets for concerts and other events. He recommended entrepreneurs to avoid becoming “me too” players – like creating yet another social networking/photo-sharing/blogging/video-sharing site – and focus instead on doing something “fundamentally different” and keep the Indian context in mind.
Great point Arun,
Thats what i tried to capture as part of my post:
http://www.startupdunia.com/2007/02/06/herd-mentality-and-indian-startups/
Talking about online ticketing - the concept of concerts and stuff has just recently surged in India. Outside of these concerts by foreign artists, it would be difficult to rope in other local event/concert organizers to sign up for such a service. Not impossible, but difficult.
Hi Pranav, The point was made by Murugavel - a speaker at the event. (So, the credit belongs to him!
A more detailed version of the event proceedings is available at http://ventureintelligence.in/ev150307.htm
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