Netting gains remain an online dream

Vrishti Beniwal
Posted: Thursday, Mar 06, 2008 at 2237 hrs IST
Updated: Wednesday, Mar 05, 2008 at 2257 hrs IST

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: different stock exchanges. Sify and Rediff are listed on the Nasdaq. Sify was the first Indian website and second Indian company to list on the US stock exchange during the dotcom boom. Rediff also got listed on Nasdaq soon after that. Bikhchandani-promoted Info Edge became the first Indian company to get listed on the BSE.

But low Internet penetration may spoil the party. The government missed its 2007 target of 18 million Internet and 9 million broadband connections. The number of Internet connections stood at 9.7 million at September-end. Despite the government calling 2007 as the ‘year of broadband’, the number of broadband subscribers stood at 2.8 million by the end of December.

The Centre had also predicted that the number of Internet and broadband subscribers would increase to 40 million and 20 million, respectively, by 2010. But, considering the low PC penetration in India and the delay in the off-take of wireless broadband, it may miss the 2010 target as well.

Popularity of activities like online gaming and video downloads has helped increase the share of the entertainment segment. But, niche websites like matrimony, jobs, and news still have a long way to go as the content on these sites is largely limited to English. The user base of these sites is expected to increase once the content becomes available in other Indian languages, sums up IAMAI.

Bikhchandani, however, is hopeful that niche portals are a very attractive market and will do well, even if Internet penetration doesn’t grow at a fast pace. “Even if the government’s target of 40 million Internet connections by 2010 is not met, we will be profitable. If it’s met, we will be highly profitable.” Besides, experts argue that the number of Internet users in India is far higher at 60-70 million than the number of total Internet connections in the country (about 10 million). And that is not a small user base to begin with....

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