Web 2.0

How Private Cloud Differs from Traditional on-premise Computing ?

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Private Cloud vs Traditional HardwareMany users describe private cloud as having an Amazon AWS-like environment within their own data center. This is where software developers/engineers can easily and quickly request and receive application infrastructure, just like they can on Amazon AWS. The difference is that the underlying servers, storage and network is wholly owned and dedicated to the organization instead of rented through AWS or other public cloud vendors. A private cloud can be within the organization’s own physical data center or owned, dedicated (not shared like public cloud) and managed by a third party.

Compared to a traditional computing infrastructure, private clouds require five main components: IaaS software

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How eCommerce Impacted Logistics Business in India?

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eCommerce Logistics IndiaECom Express is a logistics company catering to the needs of e-commerce industry, which is growing at a fast pace in India. The company was launched in early 2013 focused on providing the last mile delivery services to the eCommerce companies. ECom Express started with 311 employees in 35 cities. It has grown to 653 delivery centers in 180 cities with 15,000 employees and 450,000 Shipments/day. 90% of the staff are delivery people.

Logistics is a relatively large part of cost for eCommerce players and they intend to rationalize it. However, ECom Express believe that the quality of services in terms of timely delivery, reliability and lower product returns are key factors for eCommerce player to select a logistics company and not necessarily pricing. ECom Express is confident that given the quality of its services and its ability to delivery products to even less-accessible areas places it well in the market. The company

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Flipkart Vs Amazon Vs Snapdeal Performance in Festival 2015

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eCommerce IndiaWe’d like to compare the eCommerce strategies of the Big 3 in India during the recent festival season.

Instead of a single Big Billion Day sale last year, Flipkart held this year’s sales over 5 days between October 13-17. Flipkart sold products worth Rs. 20bn (c. $300mn) this year (vs 6bn sold last year), with a total of 8 mn units being sold, compared to 2.7million units being sold last year. The company saw 150mn visits over five days in comparison to 40mn traffic registered last year. Mobile remained the highest selling product registering $200mn worth mobile sales (vs $60mn sold last year) with 250 mobile phones sold every minute during the 5 day sale. Flipkart clocked 5million app downloads over the course of the sale.

Amazon held its Great Indian Festive Sale overlapping the Flipkart sales (over October 13-17). While Amazon did not share specific

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Bharat Matrimony.Com IPO & Online Match Making Industry

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India’s largest online matrimony site Bharat Matrimony has filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) to float its initial public offer. The company is looking to raise Rs 3500 mn ($54 mn) with issuance of 1.66 mn shares through a fresh issue along with partial exit from existing PEs/founder’s family. The proceeds will be used for 1) advertising and business promotion activities (Rs 1500 mn: spread over 3 years); 2) Purchase and development of office premises in Chennai (Rs 344 mn); 3) Repayment of overdraft facilities (Rs 287 mn) and 4) Procurement of hardware/software for a centrally controlled contact center (Rs 174 mn).

The online matchmaking industry is still at a nascent stage and accounts for approximately 4% of marriages in India. The online matchmaking industry in

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Why Just Dial Search Plus Launch Delayed ?

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Justdial Search PlusAccording to Just Dial management, the delay in the launch of Search Plus has arisen because the company is working on a better user interface and plans to launch the product when it is fully ready. Monetization remains a secondary focus; the primary focus is on driving usage and transactions on the platform once it is formally launched in Sep-2015. The company plans to launch its services and host an analyst meeting after the launch.

According to management, the top 11 cities have shown revenue growth of 20-22% yoy, primarily volume-led, and the revenue growth in non-top 11 cities has been upwards of 70% yoy. Management believes that non-top 11 cities start with a low yield (revenue per campaign) but that moves up significantly over a period of time as

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Microsoft Azure Cloud – Too Late & Shrinking Developer Eco-System

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Azure Cloud Late Entrant Microsoft is spending significant time talking about the transition from on-premises to cloud in its business. As part of this, the question is how much demand for the cloud products is transition of existing workloads vs. the building of new workloads. We believe the answer is relatively simple, with Office365 largely being existing workload migration while Azure is new workloads.

The debate in our view is how

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Online Property Classifieds – Penetration in Single Digit

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Real estate advertisement market in India (including print, hoardings and online media) was worth ~Rs40bn in FY14. The online penetration is very small, and all online media (real estate classifieds, Google) accounted for only ~Rs3bn (~8%) of the total market.

CommonFloor and Housing.com two new kids on the block – having a very media mind & voice share, are still lagging behind the early entrants in the supply side. We believe that although having access to capital helps, beefing up this part of the business is more about on the ground execution rather than platform, and

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Jabong & FabFurnish Sales / Profit Metrics

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Jabong Sales MetricsIn an industry where not much data is available given most companies are unlisted, we have got some details from Rocket Internet which has stake in Jabong (fashion) & FabFurnish (furniture).

Jabong’s Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) rose 136% yoy in CY14 leading to a 136% yoy increase in net revenue. Encouragingly, Jabong indicated that majority of the orders are being placed by repeat customers. FabFurnish’s GMV too rose 125%yoy during the same period. Jabong’s gross loss expanded to Rs1.6bn (+400%yoy), indicating high competition. Capex intensity has risen from 3.7% capex/sales in CY13 to 4.8% in CY14 on investment in IT and infrastructure. Net working capital too rose by ~250%yoy driven by

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Google Mobile Search Queries Exceed Desktop in 10 Countries

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Google Mobile SearchSearch Giant, Google indicated that mobile searches now exceed desktop in 10 countries, including the US, and that users have more ability to tune in and tune out of messages (micro-moments) so mobile ad formats have to match user needs.

Google is working hard to provide advertisers new tools to enable positive ROI ad spending and better visibility on ad spend effectiveness, which suggests the company is confident that its ads add value. Google introduced a new reporting dashboard that enables automated bidding across display and

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FabFurnish – Bringing Home Decor on Desktop & Ship to Doorstep

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FabFurnish - Online Home Decor ShoppingFabFurnish is the first Large Scale online Furniture & Home Decor retailer in India. The overall furniture market in India is over US$20bn and growing 15-20% p.a. as per FabFurnish. More than 95% of the market is unorganized, and within organized market, large retailers are limited and have presence mostly in top 10 cities. Given high rental costs, prices in offline stores (for large retailers) are also very high, creating opportunity for the online model to disrupt existing traditional distribution channels.

Online & Offline Business Model
FabFurnish follwos a hybrid Online & Offline Model known as Omni Channel Retailing.. It has 4 offline showrooms (mostly in tier 1 cities) through franchisees. This is primarily meant to draw attention and get more visitors and convert them into

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