Emergic: January 10, 2004 Archives

Saturday, January 10, 2004

ChemConnect as B2B Success

WSJ has a story that will warm the B2B fans (any still left): ChemConnect has survived and thrived to become "the biggest online exchange for chemical trading, with volume of $8.8 billion in 2002."

One key to ChemConnect's survival was speed. It was first to market, launching an Internet bulletin board in 1995. It was also the fastest and best fund-raiser among its dozens of competitors -- bringing in $105 million by the time the stock-market bubble burst in 2000, compared with $50 million for its chief competitor, CheMatch.com. Mr. Beasley also realized that the only way to persuade traditional chemical companies to trade online was to allow the industry to profit from ChemConnect -- so he sold about one-third of the company to more than 40 chemical companies.

ChemConnect still isn't profitable, although it expects to break even this year. And while it is used by about 44% of the industry, many sellers wish there were more buyers online, according to a survey of 250 chemical buyers and sellers by AMR Research. "The key now is to basically be as patient as you can, but to continue to push the adoption curve," [founder] Mr. John Beasley says.

With its hefty cash hoard, ChemConnect took the opportunity to buy competitors, including CheMatch.com and an industry-owned exchange. Mr. Beasley also recruited a seasoned chemical executive, John Robinson, to run the company as chief executive, while Mr. Beasley remained chairman.

Enterprise Software | PermaLink | Comments (2)

any still left[?]

Oh, yes. We are not dead, just hibernating :-) The AP syndicated story you reference is also available for free over at SFGate.com. Link below as a public service

Top online chemical exchange is a success story - JULIA ANGWIN, The Wall Street Journal

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Local Search

SearchEngineWatch writes about the potential in the SME market:

The answer, as one might expect, is revenue-or more precisely, potential revenue. When you add up the number of all the paid search advertisers in the world right now, the total is approximately 380,000. Yet, there is substantial overlap among the advertisers of the different paid search networks. (It's rare a company that uses Google but not Overture and vice versa.) So, as a rough estimate, the figure is probably closer to 250,000 paid search advertisers on a global basis.

By contrast, the U.S. alone has about 10 million small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and there may be as many as 30 million more such businesses in developed countries around the world. In the U.S., most of those SMEs, the bulk of which have fewer than nine employees, conduct the majority of their business within 50 miles of their locations.

The model to look forward to is Citysearch which marries search and directory. "Citysearch presents a hybrid approach that combines pay-per-click advertising for local businesses, with a keyword search-driven interface over a structured local database. That provides the ease of use of search with the reliable structured data offered by Yellow Pages."

Search Engines | PermaLink | Comments (1)

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WSJ on Arun Shourie

WSJ profiles one of the best ministers in the Indian cabinet. Shourie handles both disinvestment and IT. The article focuses on his role in the public sector units' privatisation process.

For the first time since the end of British rule more than 50 years ago, India is redefining the government's relationship to business. The sizzling economy of the world's second-most-populous nation is expected to expand by at least 7% in the year ending in March. Supporters of reform give Mr. Shourie a hefty dose of credit for encouraging economic change.

Mr. Shourie's main ally has been Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who has repeatedly stepped in to push the campaign forward. Mr. Shourie also has used his journalistic skills, writing opinion pieces and essays that attack what he calls India's "timorous political class" and the "unimaginative character" of most Indian state-owned companies.

Mr. Shourie's battles with the Indian government go back to his college days at Syracuse University in upstate New York. As a doctoral candidate in economics in the 1960s, he wrote a thesis arguing that New Delhi's foreign-exchange controls were leading to a generation of lost growth. Intellectuals in Indira Gandhi's socialist government branded Mr. Shourie a Western agent. With few job opportunities back home, he joined the World Bank in Washington, working as an economist for nearly a decade.

Mr. Shourie returned home in the years leading up to the collapse of Ms. Gandhi's government in 1977 and became an editor at India's most prominent investigative newspaper, the Indian Express. At the time, the paper's owner was waging a crusade against the autocratic Gandhi family and India's largest private company, Reliance Industries Ltd., which now has interests in oil and gas, telecommunications and other businesses.

Mr. Shourie's former colleagues say he aggressively covered the so-called "Bofors Scandal," a multimillion-dollar payoff scam involving a Swedish arms contractor and members of Rajiv Gandhi's government, which was exposed in 1987.

Mr. Shourie left the Indian Express over differences with the owner. Over the past three decades, he's written 17 books on everything from Islamic law to India's defense forces, earning both admirers and critics.

In 1998, Mr. Shourie joined the upper house of parliament as a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Hindu nationalist political party led by the current prime minister. Two years later, Mr. Vajpayee tapped him to become the privatization czar.

Shourie has also in the past few months streamlined the mess between the various telecom operators, with the result the India's cellphone base of 28 million at the end of 2003 is expected to more than double this year.

Emerging Markets | PermaLink | Comments (0)

Second Hand Japanese Cars in Third World

[via Vivek Padmanabhan] WSJ writes:

In Japan, quirks of the market -- and the consumer -- have created a glut of saleable used cars. Strict and expensive vehicle inspections in Japan discourage people from holding on to cars as they age. Moreover, there is a strong cultural aversion among the Japanese to buying almost anything second-hand.

The result: Ships filled with low-priced cars -- everything from sports cars to high-mileage vehicles, damaged cars and patched up wrecks -- leave Japanese ports for emerging markets. The cars end up in Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean and Asia, accelerating motorization in areas where new cars are still beyond the reach of many consumers.

The global auto industry is waking up to the repercussions, as Japanese brands -- particularly Toyota -- find their way to first-time buyers. Many African cities are already teeming with Toyotas, even though very few new cars have been sold there. That's troubling for Detroit car makers, which have been eyeing new markets to spur sales as developed nations become saturated with cars.

Wish the same thing could happen in computers - except that the Indian government has an anti-dumping duty of USD 200 per second-hand PC.

Emerging Markets | PermaLink | Comments (18)

The apparent contradiction between the policies for used cars and used computers can be explained by understanding the political economy of the segments of the population which would benefit from the two different policies. Cars -- used or new -- are primarily demanded by the upper middle class, the same segment which can afford new computers. Used computers imported duty-free would allow the lower middle class access to IT solutions. This is not seen as a priority since the policy makers don't fall in this category. This policy is short-sighted at best, but a more sinister reading of the policy would imply that the movers and shakers of India gain from the permanent underclass they help perpetuate. The long term growth prospects of India is being severely undermined by the sheer ignorance and intransigence of the politicians, bureaucrats, and big business interests.

Enlightened self-interest of those who direct the ship of state should persuade them that not empowering the lower classes of society is tantamount to keeping India a third-world country of little significance, notwithstanding all the hype that surrounds the BPO and ITES gains. These gains look impressive in absolute terms but translate into nearly negligible figures per capita.

Let's keep one more distinction in mind. Cars are almost pure consumption goods for the rich. Very low cost computers, on the other hand, are goods that facilitate not just production by the masses, but also their education. Properly used, computers have the potential to create a more productive population. And finally, it is increased productivity which leads a way out of poverty. Our task is to somehow convince those who make policy that we need to worry about production and productivity a lot more, and to go easy on congratulating ourselves for becoming the world's backoffice chaprasis.

Posted by Atanu Dey

One man's drink is another's poison. There are many ways of looking at this issue, fundamentally i think that the Government is right in discouraging imports of second hand cars as well as other IT goods. The reasons are not difficuly to see. Countries like Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica allowed the import of second hand automobiles at the cost of wiping out the indegenous industry. This is bad but acceptable in conutries that boast miniscule populations and dont want to get into manufacturing. For continent sized economies, this does not make sense as we are giving up future growth for immediate availability. While neo-liberals can talk of lost generations etc when it comes to Nehruvian central planning, the basic infrastructure of this nation was possible due to the import substitution policies of the 50's and 60's.
The same problems exist for 2nd hand hardware. The primary argument for such imports is that there is hardly any 'manufacturing' of such systems in India. This has to change. The scales are there, it is only a question of making things available at the right price point. Today we see a huge boom in 2 wheelers in India, why dont the pundits talk of importing old 2 wheelers into India ? The simple truth is that India would have never been the worlds largest 2 wheeler market if things like that were allowed. The real issue is liquidity and availability of cheap and easy credit. If you can pick up a Rs 50,000 bike with a down payment of Rs 2,000, the same can be true with PC's. The end user seldom looks at total cost, just at what is affordable. Point is that a bike or car are not rich people's luxuries as in the past but a need in today's context. The day the PC becomes a 'need'(like a bike) rather than an expensive toy for the average middle class guy (this is about 350 mill people) bought to fulfill some nebulous dream about the 'kid's future', we will find business models and packages that suit every one's pocket.
The real point being made here is that IT is not ubiquitous in India and the volumes etc that all of us talk about will not happen till it is...

Posted by Shiv

The US market also hit an interesting inflection point recently as the number of registered cars has exceeded the number of licensed drivers. So, in order for the market to grow at expected or desired rates, US drivers (new and old) have to want new cars and the aftermarket must stay healthy... implying a healthy overseas non-US aftermarket.

It will become cheaper for people in emerging economies to purchase used cars, with better efficiency than the cars they are currently getting... but if, in the US we ever get improved MPG legislation passed, the problem will not be cured, just moved.

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