Emergic: April 13, 2005 Archives

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

China's Alibaba

Alibaba owns two of the largest B2B marketplaces in the world; has a joint-venture partnership with Softbank in a popular Chinese online auction business, called Taobao; and owns a Chinese online payment system, called AliPay. Hmm, sounds like eBay's Asian twin to me.

There's quite a stir coming from Alibaba, and it's likely because the company is seeing a dizzying combination of consolidation, investor interest and competition all at once.

Taobao had 9 percent of the market for online auctions in China, as measured by gross merchandise volume, at the start of 2004, while eBay had 90 percent. By the end of last year, Taobao, which is jointly owned by Alibaba and Softbank, had 41 percent of the market, Chi said.

AliPay doesn't charge its users for the payment service just yet. But about $3 million worth of goods per week, or a third of Taobao's volume, is completed using AliPay.

In addition to future revenues from a bigger AliPay, Alibaba and Taobao should be able to generate revenues in other ways, as they continue to grow and service their online communities. For example, Alibaba has just launched a trial of a keyword business for its domestic B2B clients to find more trade leads.

Emerging Markets | PermaLink | Comments (1)

Jon is right - this is really something that the web should do. It should be built-in. The question is how to create micro-content that can be "brokered". I know a lot of people think that RDF can do this, but frankly, it's kinda hard. we need something a simple as RSS, but not tied to specific domain.

I do not agree with Jon that you can just bung a load of XML into RSS and let the geeks get on with it - not gonna work. Sure we can handle 20 RSS formats, but that's because they have obvious semantic mappings. Random XML from multiple sources doesn't have that.

Posted by Richard Rodger

More on Structured Blogging

Jon Udell writes: "I want to blog an event; when published, my event should have a certain look; my writing software knows how to produce that look; I'll use it to achieve that look. I don't know, or particularly care, that machine-readable content comes for free. I will, however, be pleasantly surprised when I find that the Net does intelligent things with my event postings: aggregates them with others that share the same venue or date, syndicates them into upcoming.org....Brokering the differences among multiple microcontent formats for events, reviews, how-to's, and other content types would be a good problem to have. At least we could identify the types. That's huge."

BlogStreet | PermaLink | Comments (0)

Videocasting

Robert Scoble writes:

Video is about to go through a breakthrough. The forces are just too strong to ignore. Cheap (and very high quality) camcorders. Increasing broadband adoption. Cheaper storage. Decent low-cost display devices (and as the PSP shows us, more to come).

Just a few things need to align. OurMedia is damn close to making magic happen.

To those who say there isn't a business here, pox on you. They said that about Google in 1996 too. You're missing the point.

The Long Tail is about to bring us millions of video channels. Already I'm seeing hundreds of new videos put on blogs every week. It's interesting to see what people are doing with their camcorders.

Emerging Technologies | PermaLink | Comments (1)

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Posted by Erika

Social Software for Set-Top Boxes

[via Kevin Werbach] Tom Coates, who works for the BBC, writes about a future where social software is integrated with TV. Among the ideas discussed:

- A buddy-list for television
- Presence alerts
- Watch with your friends
- Chatting and planning
- Choosing channels and playing games
- Sharing a social library

Emerging Technologies | PermaLink | Comments (1)

Thats quite possible in a world when social networking is increasingly becoming a very important facet of one's life.

Posted by Manish Dhingra

How Google Codes

John Battelle excerpts a post by Joe Beda (Google engineer):

There is, by and large, only one code base at Google. This has many advantages. Most obvious is that it is really easy to look at and contribute to code in other projects without having to talk to anyone, get special permissions or fill out forms in triplicate. That is just the tip of the iceberg, though. Having one codebase means that there is a very high degree of code sharing. Need to base 64 encode/decode something? No problem, there is a standard Google routine for that. Found a bug? Just fix it and check it in after getting it code reviewed by a documented owner. One of the reasons that environments like Perl, Python, C#, Java, etc. flourish is that they have large and well through out libraries of useful code. For a variety of reasons, C++ has never had this. ...

... The intranet in Google is super transparent. Teams are actively encouraged to share the most intimate details of their projects with the rest of the company. This happens through tech talks, design docs, lunch table conversations, etc. When two teams are doing similar things, people start with the assumption that they must have their reasons and that the situation will be worked out in time. There isn't a huge push to over optimize and have only one solution for each problem.

...When someone comes up with a new idea, the most common response is excitement and a brainstorming session. Politics and who owns what area rarely enter into it.

Software | PermaLink | Comments (1)

No to mention that Google engineers are required to take up a personal pet project for 20% of their employed time... Just so that the developper is always brimming with enthu and passion.

Posted by Krishna Iyer

TECH TALK: When Things Go Wrong: My Failures (Part 2)

The second failure is more recent. In fact, I think I am living through it – and have lived through it for a few years. It is do with the current business that we do in Netcore – around open-source messaging and security solutions. We have done this business now for nearly 7 years. The business has not grown in size significantly, and we haven’t turned the corner in profitability. At the same time, we have invested in many other related areas – looking for the “next big thing.” The result – we have challenges in our existing business, and we have been unable to monetise the new ideas that we’ve had in the past.

As I write this, it does seem a bit strange – accepting responsibility for what we are going through. And yet, I know that the first step towards starting to get back on track is realising that one is on the wrong track. I had always hoped in the past years that we will be either able to grow our existing business fast enough or get our new ideas to start generating enough cashflow so that we will be profitable, and that would give us the launchpad for growth. But, increasingly, what has become clear is that the income and expenditure lines are diverging, not converging.

A couple of things have landed us in the present position. My ideas went far ahead of reality. I forgot my own lesson of managing the short-term and the long-term. I think there is a great vision that is there for tomorrow’s world – thin clients, server-centric computing, and computing as a service. But in this, the short-term has been sacrificed – we haven’t managed to build our first profit platform.

So, the challenge I now face is manifold: thinking whether the current business we are in can be made profitable, and if so, how; creating a sustainable profit engine either from the current business or a new business – and doing so quickly; ensuring that we also stay on track for the long-term vision that we seek to implement; and doing the transition quickly. There is a need for putting one’s head down and focusing hard on the business we are in – and where we want to be. There is a lot of experience that we have gained – which we now need to put to good use. But we have to make decisions quickly and then operationalise them.

When I look back, I see a lot of similarity between now and the 1994 period that I went through. This was not apparent until some time ago – when I started realising that even as we continue to want to grow and have big dreams, we are not taking care of the present. Then too, I had big dreams – but the reality of today did not match the vision of tomorrow. It does not make the situation any easier even though I’ve gone through it before. I am confident we will pull ourselves out of the hole that we are in – because at least I now recognise that we are in a hole.

Tomorrow: Why Failure Happens

Related Entries: [All]
TECH TALK: When Things Go Wrong: Looking Ahead [April 22, 2005]
TECH TALK: When Things Go Wrong: The New Business [April 21, 2005]
TECH TALK: When Things Go Wrong: The Present Situation [April 20, 2005]
TECH TALK: When Things Go Wrong: Dealing with Failure (Part 2) [April 19, 2005]
TECH TALK: When Things Go Wrong: Dealing with Failure [April 18, 2005]

Tech Talk | PermaLink | Comments (11)

hi Rajesh,

Thin clients is not yet ready?? i am really looking forward for it.

but where are TCs... can i try a few for the village knowledge center project...?

TCs would open up only with rural market & govt market.. for that market to open up.. e-gov is the key..

The govt market should open up sooner - all the post office and eb office and other govt office need to computerised first...

we need to have change agents/ marketing agents.. to really explain the ease of using computer in rural areas..

mission 2007 has 100 crores for MSSRF kind of work. but the money would better of spend computerising village panchayath offices and postoffices. which is huge market for thin-clients and emergic mail and linux based systems.

It is more of political battle and marketing battle..some times.. three will not fall at 100 cuts.. 101th cut might be the final one.. so please hold on.!!!!!

Posted by krishna

hi Rajesh,

Thin clients is not yet ready?? i am really looking forward for it.

but where are TCs... can i try a few for the village knowledge center project...?

TCs would open up only with rural market & govt market.. for that market to open up.. e-gov is the key..

The govt market should open up sooner - all the post office and eb office and other govt office need to computerised first...

we need to have change agents/ marketing agents.. to really explain the ease of using computer in rural areas..

It is more of political battle and marketing battle..some times.. three will not fall at 100 cuts.. 101th cut might be the final one.. so please hold on.!!!!!

Posted by krishna

hi Rajesh,

Thin clients is not yet ready?? i am really looking forward for it.

but where are TCs... can i try a few for the village knowledge center project...?

TCs would open up only with rural market & govt market.. for that market to open up.. e-gov is the key..

The govt market should open up sooner - all the post office and eb office and other govt office need to computerised first...

we need to have change agents/ marketing agents.. to really explain the ease of using computer in rural areas..

It is more of political battle and marketing battle..some times.. three will not fall at 100 cuts.. 101th cut might be the final one.. so please hold on.!!!!!

Posted by krishna

I thought corporations (both mid/mega sized) would be lining up en masse to have their infrastructure implemented the open source way. Isnt it the promise of the open source to make the building blocks available for cheap/free? I am not sure about your business model, but seems that companies are happy to pay to the borg in Redmond, rather than go the open source way. Or is it competition in the OSS space?

Posted by Anand Jain

I think for any business dreaming to be big there's always a stark difference between short term reality and vision of tomorrow. The strong mental models might make one believe this is achievable but reality still plays its part. Even though I don't have much experience, but I am experiencing this phase myself. My own realization of the current startup time phase is, to have the right FOCUS.

Business to me sometimes appear like a make or break game!

Posted by Sunil Goyal

You are in the right track (i.e. seeing/ack that there is a problem.) It closely resembles what
we/I had to face. This is what we are doing and
it slowly seems to work.
o. Draw a line on expense ours was about 3.5L/month cut to 1.50L/month. It should be deep enough yet leaving room for selling/field resources
o. Identify a nugget that we could actually
sell in India. Which happens to be
whatever the companies want (typically
Inv/Billing/Sales sort of solutions.)
o. Arm engineering with a app motor which
can churn-out applications as the CUST/SALES
see it.
o. Instruct sales that we are open for business
and that we are a software company and use
them only for lead sourcing and execution.
o. Prdct mgr (me) to demo/pitch/propose/quote.
o. Have the sales to execute the closure.
o. Keep an eye on sales and expenses
o. Long hours
o. And yes it works.

The deal out here is really simple.
o. Cover the market
o. Give what cust wants. Usually simple stuff.
o. Watch your expense/sales

Hope this helps.

Posted by Yesh Sriram

I had a vibe of this thing coming when I read your first article, but did not really hint at the possible situation that you may be undergoing... Anyways, life moves on and waits for no one..

For one, an entrepreneur has the ability to dream and take risks, whether realistic/mystical.. but it is the ability to believe in them and the determination of the guiding light that sees success. I think you have what it takes to make it happen.. As Toyota advt of last year said " One year of F1 racing failures = One full year of experience !!" And you have more than ten !!

On open source, I am a firm believer in this but market offtake of the same is dependent on your ability to understand the tech, gain confidence in them, and to convince the market to adopt it. After all the mkt IS the cash register. Linux for you mag contains many case studies where enterprises have detailed their experiences with linux adoption/migrations.
On thin client/thick client, I had posted my views on the same earlier as well. The key determinant,IMHO, is the affordability. If the user can afford a P3 256Mb machine, why do you need to provide him with thin clients? Todays P3/P4 machines can easily be comparable to Yesteryear unix dumb terms from a cost perspective and can do a lot more. Dont sell short. And it has nothing to do with egovernance/political decisioning. Take the ITC rural initiative (echoupal) is not about politico stuff. They saw a lacunae in the way we do biz in metros and rural areas. Figured the costs and created a simple cost effective efficient system. At the end of the day, national rural objectives were met as well because based on the info, farmers got better prices and the village economy grew as well..

To conclude, entrepreneur is a good thing but not everyone can embrace it. One has to decide if one has the apetite to digest the vagaries of the risk one takes.

Rajesh, my two cents worth on your specific venture.. Stop.. take stock.. get the numbers to toe the accountability line. If numbers dont match, take hard decisions and stem the weed. Stop what you are working on currently completely AND Re-analyse the market,see what the need is of the hour. Recheck core competencies and see if you can cater to the current need. Even Amazon was running in red for many years before investors shook them up like crasy. Your biz books should never be lost sight of in pursuit of enterprise goals.. its like stock market. we have dont have endless pockets lined with money so we have to stop loss sometimes but continue playing the investment game. HANG IN THERE:-)

Posted by Krishna Iyer

as u pointed out the realisation of failure is in itself the first step towards course correction , the underlying socio-economic and incidental currents always takes ideas or rather diverts ideas from its desired destination but that is precisely why these periodic course checking is needed..........
godspeed...............

Posted by jassim

Rajesh

Interesting indeed.

I see the expression "quick" three times in the section about your challenge. No rush, please.

I like Sunil Goyal putting the focus on FOCUS.
Netcore has many assets. Nobody cares. What is a 35 word statement for a customer pain?

Posted by Daniel Grossglauser

Is developing software in India for the Indian market feasible?

I think the salaries paid out in rupees to Indian IT professionales are way too high. These high salaries are possible only because dollar earnings that most outsourcing shops have. I would like to hear your thoughts on hiring and retaining high quality software developers while trying to develop software for the local market.

Posted by Sudarshan Gaikaiwari

After reading this article from you, what came to my mind was that it takes a lot of courage to write about once own failure.

Considering the place where you are right now, what adjoins the success are the much higher expectations. That is why I guess making something that big again is not an easy task.

For someone else, getting the first client, first business revenue, first international project itself is a success!! I believe, bottomline is, someone might see this as failure but for many others like us, you are a great success. Hats off!!!

Success has brought you courage and this courage will bring you success again.

Posted by Sachin