" IndiaInfo.com in distress "

"Businessworld says Reachout's title given to Raj Koneru is inappropriate"
Is Raj Koneru "The Portal King of India from Hyderabad"?
Reachout defends and avers that its too early to write off Indiainfo.com.

Is it the end of Indian Dot coms?A Debate

 The issue:
The latest issue of 'Business world" Issue dated 11thSeptember'00  has a very interesting story on Raj Koneru, Chairman "IndiaInfo.com".The cover story is on "IndiaInfo.com" - the Dotcom in Distress". 'Business world', the largest selling Business Magazine ,  while analyzing IndiaInfo.com, has described  ReachoutHyderabad.com's  title to Mr.Raj Koneru as the 'most inappropriate title'. Infact ReachoutHyderabad.com has a very popular section called "Businessman of the Month" in which it profiles the prominent Businessmen of Hyderabad.On 1st April 'oo  ReachoutHyderabad.com  had chosen Raj Koneru as the 'Businessman of the month' and at  that time IndiaInfo.com was the most talked about Dotcom in India.(Incidentally  April 16 th witnessed the NASDAQ crash) The entire Indian press was singing praise of  Raj Koneru and at that time we thought it was appropriate to  give him the  title  'The Portal King of India from Hyderabad'. Infact we still stand by it because Hyderabad so far has not produced a Portal player as big as Raj Koneru and definitely we have enough reasons to have given him that title.

The Fact:
Now after 5 months down the lane, at a time when Dot Com's are being branded as so called 'doubtcoms', if anybody were to question us as to why we had given him that title, we just don't  have any answer. Like anybody else we just  could not predict the future. Well yesterday Raj Koneru was trying to make it really big, today he is down and tomorrow he is even capable of   bouncing back.

Is it the end of Indian Dot com's?:
Till the other day it was 'up up dot coms' and suddenly its 'down down dot coms'.Just because there was a NASDAQ crash or because Boo.com has closed shop, does it mean the end of the road for Indian dot com's? In the US and other countries there is a need to write off Dot com's because the market over there has matured and its time for things to settle down and in that process the best stay while the rest closes shop.  But in India even before the market could mature the obituaries  of many a dot coms are being talked about.The Internet revolution has just started in India. Right now it's at an infancy stage. The baby has just started to crawl. It has to grow like any other business.

Is the hype justified?:
There has been so much hype about Dotcoms in the Indian Media that it is taking its toll in the form of IndiaInfo.com and the like. There has been so much expectations out of dotcoms in a very short period of time. People say that 3 months is equal to one year and things like that for the Dotcoms. The media has been putting a lot of pressure on Dot com's.

In this context one point to be raised is why are we  getting so restless about dotcoms? why is there a talk that  every other dot com is going to exit?

The Conclusion:
The point Reachout  wants  to drive home is that Dotcoms are here to stay. The forward we go, the more will be the progress  of it on the Internet front. Ever since the invention of the Telephone ,no medium has transformed our lives like the way Internet is doing. Internet is not going to close and so are the Dotcoms. May be couple of companies are doing bad in the cyber street and they are bound to close shop. The others with sound business sense are here to stay.

The second bottom line is that Dotcoms are to be run like any other business. The medium has been given so much of hype saying that it would do miracles in a jiffy.  Well for dotcoms to transform the economy, it has to have a mature computer literate market. India for sure has just began its transformation into the cyber streets. Give it some time and it will be the forefront in the e-world of tomorrow thanks to its mass English-speaking population and also its technical manpower which is second to none in the world.

The third bottom line is that along with the media hype ,it is the excess money which are killing the dotcoms of today. Dot Com promoters  pump in so much of uncalled money that the poor dot coms has no where to spend except on the advertisements. There has been so much of action offline that many a dot coms have totally ignored their online action..Where is all the money coming from?And is it necessarry to put so much of money down the drain?

Will Raj Koneru play the phoenix?:
Coming back to the story on Raj Koneru ,and the reports that Indiainfo.com is in crisis has to be looked at from the fact that  big companies like his, given their large scale operations are definitely going to go out of place.The rules of the Dot Com businesses are being laid by the first movers .The net is getting evolved and so businesses and people learn out of sheer necessities.May be its time for Raj Koneru to have an introspection. We at Reachout through our Biz section has always been trying to nurture true Indian entrepreneurs. The only thing is that since our site is on Hyderabad all our entrepreneurs are limited to Hyderabadis only. Our focus is still on spreading the entrepreneurial spirit of Hyderabadi businessmen no matter whatever crisis they are facing. Because we for sure believe that a true entrepreneur always strikes back or else he is not an entrepreneur at all. We are sure that with his $200 million Intelligroup and SeraNova ,Raj Koneru can still pull off IndiaInfo.com from its present crisis provided he is disciplined in his efforts. The market is quite volatile and we will have to wait and watch for the final outcome.

A Quote for DotComs:
" It is predicted that nine out of ten dotcom companies would not be around in a years time. These nine who would fail are not entrepreneurs. They represent the get-rich-quick crowd. They jump on the latest bandwagon. They chase the latest fads. They believe that one can get rich without any effort. unfortunately the proportion of people in the general population who have no roots of their own and so are easily swayed is also about nine in ten. So these speculators find a lot of suckers. The bubble of affluence is thus created, which soon bursts. This has been going on since time immemorial. The crowd doesn't learn. Entrepreneurs have self knowledge. They never fail " 

In pursuit of truth 

Maju Kuriakose
CEO
ReachoutHyderabad.com


Please Note: Reachout is in no way connected  with IndiaInfo.com and our views over here
has been  brought out  to start a healthy debate on the future of Dotcoms. Any offense to any individual or an organization is sincerely regretted and our views are  subject to correction.

We are open for any kind of criticism, comments and in this context we invite netizens to join us in this debate whether its the "end of the road" for Indian Dot coms? We will be airing your views in this page itself. Mail your comments to info@reachouthyderabad.com 

Here's a response to our debate............ 

A mail from NewYork
"The Internet might have well been changing rapidly ,but the underlying business principles never has changed and never will change. When it comes to Dot Coms,'change' is the only word that is constant. Take for example Rediff.com.Who knew about Rediff.com till Prem Panicker took up the Indian Cricket's fight against the racist countries. And added to that, it was not until recent year and a half that Rediff.com started its ad campaigning .When The Best Portal of India can take so many years to be on every Indian netizens lips then the so called second best portals should naturally take some more time to catch up.
No business is true business if it grows rich over night. let it be the intelligent and shrewed
'Infoseek people' or the hardworking 'yahoo employees', none of them became great over night. Indian Dot coms have yet to arrive.....So where is the question of writing them off ?"

-Ravi,

Indian Dotcoms should follow the Yahoo way
This is in response to your debate on the future of Dot com's in India. The crisis in Indiainfo.com seems to have send the alarming bells all over- there are reports that many Dot coms have drastically slashed their advertisement budget in order to catch up with the market realities. off late we have been witnessing heavy Dot com advertisements all over the city. Every other hoarding seems to talk about the Dot coms. Reachout has rightly pointed out that there is more action offline then online. India has yet to produce a world class web-site in the lines of Yahoo. If such a site is created then don't expect them to go to each and every country of the world and advertise like the way we are seeing in India. Its just not possible. The best place to promote a site is on the Internet itself. I have yet to see an advertisement of Yahoo in India. 

-Venkat,Hyderabad

Mahesh should take charge
I am a regular visitor of Indiainfo.com and ReachoutHyderabad.Com and it is a real surprise to read about the distress in Indiainfo.com from your site. Are people aware that Mahesh.com which has been around since so many years is Infact today's Indiainfo.com.

Mahesh.com was such a fantastic site .Couple of years back Rediff and Mahesh.com were the only known Indian websites outside India. Suddenly when Raj Koneru takes over it in the form of Indiainfo.com, it is totally sidelined and looks like poor Mahesh has not been getting the attention that he deserved. Mahesh.com is and has been a great experience. Mahesh should again be given a free hand in developing the site and maybe then IndiaInfo.com will resurrect from the present crisis.

-Mr.Krishna Moorthy, Chicago

Are Dotcoms History?
If 100 crores of Investment is what IndiaInfo had then, everyone should relax if they want to see it grow. Bad things and bad times happen not only to humans but also abstract things like web sites. Every Shoppers Stop Business is set up with a franchisee fee ranging in Millions. If People are not writing it off, if the season is dull, then why to write Dotcoms off? If you take a look at the past of the Computing history, we see more developments rather than set backs. (unlike the usual Science subjects.) First people thought Computers will not survive, then they said It was a passing fad and then they laughed at the Internet and then they accepted it. When things are drifting just a little bit, we are writing off a particular sect of technology that had changed our lives so much. Without Internet where are we? And what is Internet without Dotcoms? 

Any idea is first laughed at, then made fun of, then ridiculed, then realized and then accepted. This has been the case of many a science inventions and scientists. Before long their excellent ideas were realized, they died. Do you want to see the same case for Dotcoms? Ask Yourself?

Mahipal Reddy, Vizag.

  -The Debate Continues...........