Attack of the Indian Dot Com?
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Guest Post by Salman Munir
Attack of the India Dot Com
I’m not sure about other cities, but in Lahore I have came across 2 huge billboards of Shaadi.com, the mega famous Indian matrimonial website. The board, although with Indian Models, proudly mentions “Now in Pakistan†with some Million member figure. They give info of their presence in Karachi with a local office. But if they are truly replicating their model, I guess we would see some franchise offices in Lahore and other parts of Country for sure. I’ve seen their paper ad too (I’m sure it was Dawn) but wasn’t able to save it for scan and share here. Their website too is pretty welcoming to Pakistan now, must be detecting my IP.
Last week, I received calls from Monster Gulf and the star Indian job board Naukri.com, both operating in India inviting me to get an account with them. Call it co-incidence but it truly seems like finally we are under the Dot Com magnifying glass.
So what it means….
I think it’s good news for the local Dot Com industry. With competition comes maturity and attitude to survive and fight back. Companies like Monster don’t enter market without research. The agent who was conversing with me, knew about recent opportunities my recruitment company has in the GCC region and places we have advertised. Naukri’s call was also pretty decent.
One thing, which we (Pakistani’s) still have to come across, is a decent local web mail account that we are proud of carrying rather than the usual hotmail, gmail or yahoo. Due to my profession, I come across many Indian national CVs and boy they are damn sure in one department, their email has to be rediff or something ending with “inâ€Â. We missed that opportunity!
The community at G&W is pretty much open to Dot Com and most of us must have ordered a book or some gadget from the local online stores like shophive.com. But, there is a huge population out there who considers e-commerce a far off American dream kind of thing, definitely not for Pakistan. Rather, they think it must be a scam or a new MLM scheme to lure naïve customers into a trap. Someone has to start exploring the idea of educating the local audience about the advantages. There should be some body checking the validity of their legitimacy and letting the customer be at ease while ordering.
Summarizing it all, I think its interesting time for the local Dot Com industry. Lets see besides Shahrukh, Aishwariya and other Indian delights, what the India Dot Com brings out to us. Stay tuned!ÂÂ
8:30 pm
Naukri is collaborating with Rozee, not sure about Shaadi.com – However, i really think its wise of indians to expand in “un-tapped” Pakistani Market- They have a functional business model, and they can make marketing connections within Pakistan.
9:18 pm
I have met with representative of a Middle Eastern Job Portal, interested in having a presence in Pakistan. Although, our job and IT market is very small as compared to India, they feel they may cut some bucks here. Also, most companies who will come in will be looking for acquisitions rather than collaboration, so be ready for being bought out, guys.
12:05 am
Interesting ! yet have to see more acquisition – Though i read about some Karachi based start being acquired.
3:26 pm
You are right, Most of the companies are looking to acquire local startups, not only the Job Portal one’s but other services also. I am myself involved with few university projects now-a-days that have a good prospect of a killer service. Even my venture Mulazamat.com came out from my Final Year Project at FAST. Point here is that we as students need guidance, support and ideas.
Hey Osama, what about having a post on “Acquisitions rather than Collaboration”?
4:09 am
The downside for users of email services in India is that Indian IP addresses are often blocked by ISPs outside of India. This is true for dedicated corporate email accounts and free services like email.indiatimes.com.
Tata’s VSNL [http://vsnlinternational.com/] is the fourth biggest source of global spam, with much of it routed through VSNL from spammers in other countries.
An ISP in Pakistan that has dirtied its IP addresses is Cyber.net.pk – which is regrettable cuz in other areas they are highly rated.
ISPs and sys admins in PK need to focus on protecting the reputation of their IP addresses, or it will make it harder for PK companies to do businessesâ€â€even within Pakistan. Ask your ISP if they are monitoring outbound traffic and operating a complaint service.
Once a block of IP addresses is blacklisted, it is hard to have that reversed. The free email services (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo etc.) offer a reliable option for people who access the Internet from blacklisted IP addresses.
7:41 pm
shaadibiye.com has been the favorite destination of the people who wish to get married.Here we bring soul mates together from all parts of the globe.
3:16 am
Interesting comments from Salman Munir. I visited Lahore recently and I did
see the same billboards. Pakistan needs to catch-up a long way to e-commerce
road. We have started a
http://www.MallRoad247.com shopping site for the US market. At some we plan to
target this to Pakistani consumers. We are looking for companies that can help
us upgrade and maintain the site. So if anyone out here is interested, please
contact us.
Thanks
5:22 am
I dont know about anyone else but we def coming to pakistan very soon. So guys and girls get ready for the big ‘H’ and get HIRED.
5:24 am
I dont know about anyone else but we def coming to pakistan very soon. So guys and girls get ready for the big ‘H’ and get HIRED.
7:08 pm
Hi ..Yes comeback to PK It happened in India it’shappening in China…it willin Pakistan
We are building a list of expats who are interested in research …
Mian Channu ian
6:52 pm
shaadibiye.com proudly claims that its one of the most successful sites for matrimonial alliances. We bring soul mates together from all over the world.Join us now for absolutely FREE!!!!
9:47 am
I guess you guys are promoting http://indian.com as far as I know most of the people are not aware of http://indian.com so why you guys are publicize their website….?
9:54 am
Nice Post Buddy…! But Looks As You Guys Are Helping Them In promoting Their Websites In Pakistan.