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.