Concept Arbitrage: eFax
Check other articles in the series...There is another type of concept arbitrage that Indian entrepreneurs ought to think about, which I discussed at length with Sridhar Vembu in the context of Zoho. That is, taking an already successful product, service, or SaaS and dramatically undercutting on the basis of price. Sridhar is mainly trying to undercut Salesforce.com on CRM.
Here is an example.
Have you used eFax? “eFax is an online fax service that eliminates the need for a fax machine, an extra fax line and all the associated expenses (paper, ink cartridges etc.). Get a real fax number that’s tied to your email. Send and receive faxes as email attachments. It’s all the reliability and security of faxing with the ease and convenience of email.”
And here is the price chart:
Now, imagine providing the same service at 20%-25% of eFax?
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Not sure how it would or would not apply in India but the folks behind eFax have a pretty darn strong patent portfolio protecting their business to say nothing of marketing expertise…many have tried, most have struggled — and failed.
Jeff,
The patent portfolio point is well-taken, and needs to be checked whether it can be worked around.
On marketing, this is a classic Search Engine Marketing / Web Marketing opportunity. That is not rocket science, and can be tackled.
However, I would, if I were to venture into such a project, check why the other efforts have failed, when they failed, and what may have changed.
Sramana