The company will rope in 100 service providers all over the world in a year's time since launch to make the portal better than anyone in features-wise and functionality-wise. There are seven to eight portals for the stone industry in the world but we will be the first to introduce WAP-enabled portal, he claimed. Targeted purely at business purpose, the portal will have indepth details on marbles, granites, slate, sandstone, etc and also on wholesalers, distributors, stockists, quarry owners, factory owners and product processing.

Apart from the portal will have special features like viewers' gallery and visitors' gallery to enable to identify the images of over 500 stones, to educate common man more about the stone industry in general and evolution, quarrying, processing, applicable places in particular.

Standard auction place, exchange for buying and selling and e-mail facility to send the needed text for better business. Option of different area of applications available to change the colour to make decision and generate business for the stone industry, he said.

The membership will be free-of-cost. The identity of the enquiries will be kept confidential and the enquiries will be distributed to all members, Mr Prakash said.

The revenue model for the portal, which is being developed in-house, will be through advertisements and transaction fees. At least two years we don't expect any revenue, he said.

For the overseas market we will advertise in Stone World magazine and Orlando Fair, he said. Our target will be the US, Europe, Australia and Far East. Overall we expect to generate $8 -10 million transaction value in the first year, he said.