Citibank's vice-president for Internet and e-commerce Sriram Jagannathan said that "the younger generation has taken to the net much faster. When consumers migrate to newer levels of technology, the younger generation accepts the means of high technology payment much faster. This concept of e-cards has yet to seep into the older generation. There is more good news.

Card-spend on e-cards is running ahead of business-to-consumer (B2C) segment spend. Explains Mr Jagannathan adding "the e-card transaction size is slightly bigger than the average transaction size of a website". Mr Jagannathan, however, qualifies that while the e-card user in India is younger, this will not be a discernably sustainable trend. "The e-card user trend will be different after two years as there will be a significant evolution in the market". Citibank's e-card base has touched 2,000 within two months of its operations. Compared to Citbank's credit cardbase of 1.5 million and an issuance of 60,000 cards every month, e-card issuances may seem to be far behind as an effective payment mechanism.

But then, e-cards is a new payment concept. According to Mr Jagannathan "the response is positive. We've issued 2000 e-cards in two months, which is an extra-ordinary figure, for, it is still at an inception stage. But the development of e-card will mirror the development of the business-to-consumer (B2C) market. Unless the B2C market grows, the e-card market will not grow exponentially and consumers won't get an effective payment mechanism."

When Citibank launched credit-cards in 1989, the general beief was that the local consumer will be credit-averse. Ten years on, Citibank has captured 40-50 per cent of the market share in the credit-card business. A similar story line is emerging in the e-card market.

"We have entered the market at an early stage of development, but will strive to have market leadership in developing on-line relations in terms of market share and satisfying the customers", says Mr Jagannathan.

Citibank is presently focussing on joint-venture partnerships with websites including ones for different categories in e-cards. The bank already has a partnership with leading websites like rediff.com, satyamonline.com and fabmart.com. All e-card applicants can take advantage of purchasing on-line. Citibank has also co-branded with indiainfoline.com. Under this co-branding agreement, customers not only get all the regular benefits, but can also avail of special offers from indiainfoline. A rewards and loyalty programme has been created by indiainfoline for Citibank's e-card customers called `money-honey points'.