No one has any data on the Indian market place yet. But the US experience is there for us to study. The National Automobile Dealers Association says that the almost 80.3 per cent of all US auto dealers have a Web presence. 93 per cent of these Websites allow visitors to send an e-mail, order online or obtain financial help. 66 per cent of those dealers who don't have a Web site intend to get one within the next six months.

A survey has shown that US customers mainly use the car dealers Website for research and they prefer not to face him. They prefer being in touch with the agent by e-mail rather than the phone or face-to-face. Research has also shown that that 82 per cent of vehicle buyers would like dealers to respond to their requests for information in a day or less.

The profile of the people in the survey indicated that 77 per cent of them intended to buy a car in one year while 40 were interested in buying one in the next two months.

Another survey by Kenneth Hollander Associates has shown that customers are reluctant to buy a car on the Web without any human contact or interaction. And they also want Websites to refer them to a dealer they can trust. Most people were averse to buying a car online without any dealer contact (only 14 per cent said yes they would consider purchasing a car like they would a book). The Hollander survey also revealed that more than 75 per cent of wannabe car owners would like to jabber with a live person while buying a car on the Net. The good news was that 41 per cent had used the Net while going car window shopping and 56 nodded in the affirmative when they were asked if they were going to use the net for making their next vehicle purchase.

Hopefully, Indian auto makers will also get their act together.

The boom is here to stay
There's one helluva optimist out there. Credit Lyonnaise Securities Asia believes that India will have 30 million Internet users by 2004. Credit Lyonnaise says that India is going to be second only to China in terms of usage. How come? The financial services firm says that cheaper PCs and Net access will enable this to happen. Additionally, cyber cafes are going to kickstart usage. And of course cable TV delivered access will add to the increase. The numbers that Credit Lyonnaise envisages are almost double the figures that IDC forecast. IDC had said that there will be 17 million Net users in the country in the next four years. And IMRB survey has pointed that 4.3 million Indians have accessed the Net at some time or the other while Nasscom believes there are 2.6 million accessing it currently. IF the numbers that Credit Lyonnaise pan out there will be many more eyeballs than any Indian dot com entrepreneur had envisaged.

Net version of TV episodes -- Webisodes
The new jargon in the Internet business is "Webisodes". They are the Internet versions of television episodes. Webisodes are basically small interactive segments of video clips which users can view and download. They are entertainment oriented. And guess what? Web users who watch online entertainment programming so far do not stay on for long, more than half have tuned into Webisodes for 1 to 3 minutes, and 20 per cent have tuned into webisodes longer than five minutes.

The author is CEO http://www.indiantelevision.com, India's cable, terrestrial, and satellite TV portal. Email him at: television@vsnl.com, television@hotmail.com