Milestone Group Quarterly: July 2007
Articles
- Face to Face: Dinesh Wadhawan, CEO IndiaTimes
- Investment Viewpoint: Naren Gupta, NexusIndia
- By Invitation: Satish Nambisan and Mohan Sawhney: An Advance Look at Harnessing the Global Brain for Innovation and Growth: The Execution Challenge
- Milestone POV: Venture Math by Anurag Chandra of Milestone Group’s Advisory Board
Face to Face:
Dinesh Wadhawan, CEO Indiatimes
Milestone: Let's start off with discussing the India Times. You're the on-line arm to The Times of India, the World's largest English language newspaper.
Wadhawan: IndiaTimes is part of India's largest media and entertainment house, The Times Group. One of the most respected business houses in India, the 168-year-old Group is a market driver across all media platforms. We are a portal offering on-line access to the Group assets, and much more.
We are India's first and most successful VAS (value added services) provider for mobile phones and landlines which offers multimedia messaging, dating, chatting, email on mobile as well as IM on mobile. 8888 is available with all service operators across India on both CDMA and GPRS phones, making it India's largest operator-agnostic mobile short code.
We pioneered online airline ticket auctions in India and air ticketing in India. Our travel section also has great deals on hotel rooms and holiday packages for inbound and outbound travelers. We are India's premier online shopping site, with over 400 products with multiple payment options. We now also sell ART online.
Our heritage is news 24 by 7, with content produced and provided by Times Group. Our India-specific online coverage features more than 1,000 stories every day in English and vernacular languages digitized from papers, tabloids and magazines. Economictimes.com is our on-line offering, an extension of our print property - The Economic Times. We have a strong following of our entertainment & lifestyle content - from Bollywood, Cricket, Yoga, spirituality, astrology and online games.
Our SME offerings include domain names, customized email, hosted applications (CRM, Legal, Tenders) as well website design. We also have a vibrant Web community, enabling users to connect through e-mail, chat, messenger, blogs, e-greetings, dating and clubs.
Milestone: The portal reports one billion page views per month. What draws such a large readership to the site?
Wadhawan: It results from the fact that we are destination site for anyone who thinks India, be they a banker, investor, traveler, student and so on, which is a great pull. Anything you want to know about India is available. Our focus on India-specific trusted content (news & non-news) plays a large role in this pull.
In fact, 60 percent of our traffic to Indiatimes.com comes from outside of India. That's the same for news or Bollywood, India is a global phenomenon and now people are interested in India for all the right reasons.
If you want financial, economic, listed companies or markets related information in India you would come to Economictimes.com.
Our users come to us for variety of reasons. While news is a huge pull, we are pioneers in the space in India and users trust the brand to offer them a good digital experience whatever their requirement.
Milestone: The conventional wisdom has it that print news is being supplanted by the electronic and Internet news media. In mature media markets (US and Europe) the challenge appears to be keeping audience among the old-line brands (print and broadcast). Is it the same in India?
Wadhawan: That's an interesting question. Of all the mediums, print and electronic are still growing in India, which is unlike anywhere else. There is a huge potential given that the penetration rates for all media are still very low.
There is a recent NRS readership survey that looks at this question. The reach of the press medium (dailies and magazines combined) has increased from 216 million to 222 million over the last twelve months. Press reach has stabilized in urban India to 45%. There is still significant scope for growth, as 359 million people who can read and understand any language do not read any publication.
Both print and electronic media are still growing in India, and the penetration rates are quite low.
Satellite TV has grown considerably in reach - from 207 million individuals watching in an average week in 2005 to as many as 230 million individuals in 2006 - further expanding its lead over the number of readers. Homes with access to cable and satellite have increased by 12% from 61 million to 68 million.
Media business in India is in a growth phase right now, growing at more than 30 percent year over year. But so is the broadcast, online, and mobile space. Youth here are moving towards digital media, like elsewhere in the world. Being ahead of the curve enables us to create experiences and keep the brand momentum intact.
Milestone: What infrastructure challenges face telecom and on-line media providers in India?
Wadhawan: The business is growing year by year, but not fast enough. The limiting factors are, access points, connectivity (broadband) and PC penetration.
For a content provider the question is: "Why should I waste time offering broadband rich media content when there are not enough connections?" ISP's see the issue as few people signing up for services due to non-ubiquitous access, and low PC penetration due to affordability. It is a catch 22 situation but things are changing. The cost of owning a PC has been going down but the masses still cannot afford it.
Our traffic on Saturday and Sunday goes down, which tells me that people will access rich content when they are at work, but they can't justify the expense at home for the reasons explained above.
Milestone: What are the macro-trends you see in mobile, media and technology; both in India and on a global scale?
Wadhawan: Like everywhere else content will have to become media neutral. Which means it should be available on the platform the user wants it on - print, TV, mobile, Web - and at any time. So content creators will have to embrace the new challenges that brought on by technology, and in a way that delivers their products to meet customer expectations.
Media will have to become more inclusive of users by enabling them to participate more easily in a way that both the media and the users trust and respect.
In India, mobile has a far deeper penetration that any other media - the challenge is to realize the full potential of this media.
The content has to respond to the fact that people are only interested in the things they're interested in. Eighty percent of the time, people are doing the same thing they did yesterday. They look for the content that fits their lifestyle, preferences and habits, but they want it delivered on the device of their choice.
Milestone: You spent 15 years at Microsoft and elsewhere in the Silicon Valley, what was your biggest surprise upon returning to India?
Wadhawan: The biggest surprise was that in a country of 1.6 billion people only 40 million actually can or have access to the Net (work & home combined). People still talk about dial-up connections.
The other surprise was the growth and adoption of the mobile platform. It is growing by half a million users per month and there are 200 million users. Forecasts to 2010 say India will have a half-billion mobile users by then.
SMS remains the most pervasive application in India as opposed to the US where e-mail is the dominant application. People use SMS - to download music, send messages, and send photos - at a rate I didn't expect to see.
The third surprise is the fact that most people in India don't use or have voice mail service. Even where it is available, no one uses it and if you leave a voice message and expect someone to return the call, you are in for a surprise. People will respond to an SMS in five minutes almost 24/7.
Milestone: What advice do you have for people building technologies and/or content for a site like yours? What do they have to deliver in order to build interest and adoption?
Wadhawan: Giving people what they want, the way they want to consume information and when they want it; a seamless user experience on any IP based device, rather that vanilla flavored content.
Milestone: What advice would you give to someone starting an on-line publishing enterprise?
Wadhawan: Be focused on the quality, relevancy and richness of content, on the user experience, and on the robust platform. Don't just think about revenues first. If you build trusted relationship with the consumers, create communities and build the user-centric platform people want to use, the rest will fall into place. Consumers will come to you because of stickiness and great experience you offer, revenues will come automatically.
Milestone: Looking back on your career, what advice do you wish someone had given you; and what happened to make you wish you had it?
Wadhawan: Do the research and homework. Ask lots of questions. Identify and investigate the area you want to enter and think end-to-end. Identify the problem you are going to solve. Ask if there's enough depth and growth in the area you wish to enter. Leverage technologies to create ubiquitous experience.
It's not enough to have a great technology; technology is an enabler, a means to an end. You have to figure out who is going to use it and how you are going to monetize it (i.e., who's going to pay). Do the research at all the levels.
It's all about execution because ideas are a dime a dozen. Pick the right team and follow your gut. There will be lots of ups and downs and bad days but you will get through in the end, provided you have the right idea.
The most important part of execution is attracting the right talent and building a great team. Finally, when looking to raise funds, pick the right firm and see what value they bring to the table (besides money) and figure out whether they will stick and stand with you until the end.
Milestone: Looking back on your career, what advice do you wish someone had given you; and what happened to make you wish you had it?
Wadhawan: Do the research and homework. Ask lots of questions. Identify and investigate the area you want to enter and think end-to-end.
Identify the problem you are going to solve. Ask if there’s enough depth and growth in the area you wish to enter.
Leverage technologies to create ubiquitous experience. It’s not enough to have a great technology; technology is an enabler, a means to an end. You have to figure out who is going to use it and how you are going to monetize it (i.e., who’s going to pay). Do the research at all the levels. It’s all about execution because ideas are a dime a dozen. Pick the right team and follow your gut. There will be lots of ups and downs and bad days but you will get through in the end, provided you have the right idea. The most important part of execution is attracting the right talent and building a great team. Finally, when looking to raise funds, pick the right firm and see what value they bring to the table (besides money) and figure out whether they will stick and stand with you until the end.
Dinesh Wadhawan is MD and CEO of Times Internet Ltd. Dinesh has over 28 years of varied experience, including his previous assignment at Microsoft USA - Servers & Tools division. He was earlier President and CEO of Paramark Inc, a Sunnyvale, California-based company which develops real-time optimization technology for online marketing campaigns.
Dinesh has worked for Vicinity Corporation as Senior Vice-President, Worldwide Sales and Services. He was a key member of the executive team to take the company public on NASDAQ. He has also worked for companies like Systems Union, an enterprise software company in the US and Europe, and UK-based Systime Ltd, one of the largest OEMs of Digital Equipment Corporation. He has held management positions at Hindustan Computers Ltd.
Dinesh is known for his strong business, technical and marketing background, joint venture and alliance proficiencies and significant global expansion and turn around experience. Dinesh can be reached at dinesh.wadhawan@indiatimes.co.in.
|
