New Delhi, Sept 23: If you thought that ``www'' would spell doom for television, newspapers and magazines, cheer up. According to Manish Modi, managing director, NetAcross Ltd, the new climate would in fact, encourage the cross-pollination of media strategies between physical and virtual businesses. ``Web companies will use traditional media (TV, print media, billboards, hoardings) much more aggressively to advertise their sites. At the same time, Websites will offer tremendous advertising opportunities totraditional businesses which are selling physical products.''Here's another myth Modi shoots down: locations don't matter in the virtual era. ``Location matters more now than it did in the past,'' holds Modi. ``I'll be more likely to tie up with the guy-next-door than with a guy on the next continent.''
According to Modi, the location could be on the home page of Yahoo but in order to cement the right relationships, a net entrepreneur needs to be in the right place physically too. In fact, held Modi, to foster a conducive environment for the growth of e-business, it was imperative to develop strong domestic markets.
``If you don't have domestic markets you can't innovate and are forced to go out and cater to the foreign market,'' he said, pointing out that 35 per cent of all Silicon Valley startups were started by Indians.
So what are the environment requisites for the growth of e-business in India? ``We must have seven components in place,'' said Modi. These are: the entrepreneur, the venture capitalist, high quality education institutes, positive policies, infrastructure, and a receptive domestic market.
Earlier, speaking at Internet World on `Creating the right business climate for e-commerce', Modi held that the e-business model will have to take cognizance of cultural shifts. While the first generation comprised of enterprises who were converting regular businesses to e-businesses, ``the second generation was represented by those who improved upon them.''
He said that the third generation would be spearheaded by those ``who would merge multiple business models into one and give a one-stop convenience solution.'' This implies the integration of one net-entrepreneur's value chain with others', without being insensitive to the personal value chain.
So which factors would accelerate the transition to an e-business era? Modi lists four issues:
Primarily, e-business will get a boost from infrastructure companies, ISPs, and online services which lay the physical cable or provide services like hosting. A plethora of companies which are putting their intellectual property to use by creating content, setting up e-commerce sites and portal sites, and forging user communities. Companies that help other companies create Internet businesses. Enhanced participation from customers.Modi feels that once the critical mass is reached-assuming that computer penetration reaches around 10 million in the next four years-the domestic market will boom, leading to a shift from the Internet being used a support activity, to being used as a primary activity. A Nasscom study puts the number of users at 20 million in the next seven years.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.