They are many infrastructure related issues which result in problems like the water pipeline collapse on the train last Friday. Thousands of commuters were affected.
Online office and tools
Web based applications, productivity suites and tools get a lot of coverage in the websites covering technology. These include online office tools like Google Docs, Zoho and personal finance management tools like Onyem, Boxfer , Perfios . These tools may be very popular but may not succeed locally because of several reasons
- Internet access is still expensive, ISPs like BSNL, MTNL, Hathway charge users on the basis of every MB downloaded. For BSNL , the lowest plan has a download limit of 150 MB, so just uploading and downloading the documents can be expensive.
- Internet connections are not reliable. At times, the connection is not available for more than 24 hours due to cable failure and other problems. You may need to review it , but will simply not be able to access it.
- Security – Even when you deal with the largest internet companies today as a customer or affiliate, most of them are unable to ensure that your data is confidential, some times due to factors beyond their control. Uploading your personal information including finances and bank details online can lead to a new set of problems.
Ad Networks
Recently I noticed some of my older websites get a significant amount of traffic, so I have been looking for suitable advertising programs , preferably CPM or CPC, with a low minimum payout. I already use 3 ad networks for this website, but am always experimenting with new networks. The visitors for some websites are from different parts of the world, so I will first review the global ad networks.
There are many lists of ad networks published on many blogs and websites, but few writers bother to check whether they actual exist (often you are directed to a parked page), sign up with them and most importantly find out whether they actually pay. Some of the biggest ad networks are:
- Valueclick
- Tribal Fusion
- Casale Media
- Revenue Science
- Vibrant Media
Many of these ad networks have very high traffic requirements are suitable only for generic news, technology , entertainment websites. For example Tribal Fusion site requirements are 5,000 unique visitors per day, but few niche sites will have that kind of traffic.
The second requirement is that the website content should be regularly updated, which is not applicable / relevant to niche websites. Technology and the internet changes quickly, offline things don’t. A few years ago, Myspace was the most popular social networking website, today Facebook is popular and in a few years some other website will be. I have a website on pests, and there have been few changes in the nature of pests (not the online variety) over the last few years and unlikely to be in future too. So till many of these ad networks are able to cater to these websites, monetizing them will continue to be a problem.
Wireless Internet connection
I have been searching for a reliable wireless internet connection for some time , which allows some amount of flexibility while using it. My requirements are simple , it should be a prepaid USB connection and should work in Mumbai and Goa. Since I do not view videos or download movies, the connection should have the speed of a dialup connection at the minimum.
I have evaluated the various internet connections available and listed their features and problems:
- Airtel USB Modem : Costs Rs 2999, can be purchased through Indiatimes, tariff starts from 20 paise / 50 KB download (or Rs 4 / MB download) , Rs 349 for 500 MB free data usage, 1 month validity. However, there is no information on how you are going to charge /load the amount for the prepaid usage. Seller B.T. Agencies has no feedback on Indiatimes
- Idea Netsetter : Costs Rs 2490 , Minimum prepaid amount is Rs 150, Access charges are Rs 1.7 / MB ( from http://www.ideacellular.com/IDEA.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=IDEA_Page_Advertisements&displayParam=NetSetterPostpaid/NetSetterUSBModem_DELHI.html) . However some users have found the speed of an Idea connection slow.
- Vlink USB modem : Starter kit is the cheapest at Rs 99 ( but should be used with a mobile phone) , data charges 60 paise / minute. However, the terms for their Rs 349 and Rs 801 recharge at their website are confusing and this connection does not offer the coverage I want.
http://www.virginmobile.in/plan_special_offers_vlink-usb.html
Reliance Netconnect seems to be a data card. I will also check forums and list the feedback from users , so that this review is comprehensive.
Protected: IT company culture
Social networking
One of the biggest problems due to the proliferation of social networking is the spam invites you receive from perfect strangers to the various social networking websites. I am extremely careful online, but I still face this deluge of unwanted mails. The worst culprits are:
Facebook – “Check out my photos” – who wants to waste time looking at photos of perfect strangers ?
SiliconIndia – Invites from an assortment of girls with faces pancaked with make up. They use email ids which I do not publish anywhere online, I wonder how they get the email ids.
Orkut
Zorpia
Unyk
Apnacircle
Shtyle.fm
Jhoos – XXX wants to be your friend
Netlog
Boxbe
Yaari
When you are in college or have just started working, you have plenty of time and nothing much to do , you can afford to waste time on social networking and making “friends” with perfect strangers. As you grow older, you have seen enough of human nature to make an effort to make friends. You value your time and there is so much you want to do, why waste time socializing, especially with people with whom you have nothing in common.
Airtel 290603 debit
Like a movie sequel , my Airtel prepaid balance is again being debited for Rs 3 for Thought for the day service to which I have never subscribed.
In June I was facing this Airtel prepaid problem and after repeated follow up, I managed to get a refund. Now in the space of 30 minutes my account has been debited for Rs 12 for a VAS service to which I never subscribed. It seems that millions of Airtel subscribers are facing this problem, if no immediate action is taken, it is better to go to the consumer court. They refunded the Rs 12 initially and I switched off the mobile.
But now my account has been debited for Rs 45 since then and I continue to receive the unsolicited SMS messages from 290603. It seems all Airtel subscribers are facing this problem. I have been trying to find out if there is a mobile phone virus which could be causing this problem, but it appears unlikely since I only have a basic mobile phone model. I have written to customer support and will publish the correspondence here soon.
Sending an email to the nodal officer is also not of much use. Now I am getting an error message
Your message
Subject: Mobile no **** – Incorrect billing
was not delivered to:
Nodalofficer.Mumbai@airtel.in
because:
Error delivering to Nodalofficer Mumbai/SERVICE EXCELLENCE/Mum/Airtel/BTVL; Router: Database disk quota exceeded
One would have thought that India’s largest mobile service provider could afford more hard disk space on their servers. Before buying foreign companies like MTN, why don’t they put their VAS and billing systems in order? I have wasted so much time trying to get a refund and there are so many customers who are facing a similar problem.
Update : After repeated follow up and sending emails to 121@airtelindia.com , I got 3 refunds of Rs 12, Rs 45 and Rs 3 each . I hope Airtel is able to fix this problem permanently.
Lack of diversity
Though India is a very diverse country, one of the things I have noticed is the complete lack of diversity in the employee profile of most software / internet companies in India. Everyone comes from similar socio-economic backgrounds, age and have similar interests. Even bloggers/ websites are very similar in nature and their opinions. One company even stated that they only hire people who stay close to their office!
While this may help when you have to work as a team (for software development), it could also be the reason why there is so little innovation. India has a culture of sycophancy, so whatever the boss says is always right. No one is always right, but if no one points out the flaws or drawbacks at an early stage, you are likely to lose more.
There is very little tolerance for people who do not “belong” to their group. “Outsiders” are often treated very unfairly. The media may give a lot of coverage to discrimination against Indian students in Australia, but how often do they cover the discrimination people face daily in India because of gender,age or family background.
The other casualty of lack of diversity is that since they do not know people from different backgrounds, is that you tend to stereotype. So if your girlfriend / wive / sister / mother is only interested in cooking / fashion/ housekeeping / partying, it is impossible for them to believe that any other lady can be technically competent.
Fed on a steady diet of actresses, models and other dumb celebrities extensively covered by the mainstream media in India today, most young people think that the way a person looks or talks is the best criteria for evaluating an individual. They have closed minds and do not realise how important trust is in the long term.
Startup costs
If you have an internet business which is exclusively online, there is always a lot of competition since the entry barriers are low. One of the things to track is the costs which other companies who could compete with you have, so I found this post (and comments ) on startup costs interesting.
In India the infrastructure is very poor , electricity goes off up to eight times in an hour where I stay (and it is worse in other places) and internet connections are often very slow, so the only way you can compete with other companies worldwide is by keeping your costs very low. Most start ups founders wish to maintain the lifestyle they lead when they had a job, but if you need a minimum of 10 lakh a year for your start up, your chances of success are much lower.
If you lead a frugal lifestyle and optimize your web hosting costs, you can easily manage an online business with even a few lakhs a year. The advantage of having a low cost set up, is that you can reinvest a much larger amount on productive business assets, experiment more with new ideas and also be very selective while choosing both your customers and vendors.
Corporate espionage
As this article indicates, corporate espionage is widespread in India today , and some Indian companies are very careless about their internal security systems. With the lifestyle people lead, “integrity is the cheapest commodity that can be purchased in India today” and I will write more about it later.
In the internet sector, you will never experience it if you are:
- An internet company catering exclusively to the Indian market , with little interest / expertise in expanding world wide.
- Providing outsourced services like programming, content writing
- A start up whose main aim is to get (or already have got) funding from Venture Capitalists (they are your “minders”)
- In your twenties , incapable of independent thinking, with little exposure to real business , foreign policy, has been brainwashed into thinking that Google can do no evil and what ever is written on websites like Techcrunch and other similar websites is the only thing that matters.
American and European companies spend billions of dollars every year on corporate espionage. In the past 2 years , I have personally experienced corporate espionage. At first I did not realize what was happening, but in the last few months I have got proof of their activities.
The corporate espionage groups can be classified into 3 categories :
- Group based in Bridgeport, CT, USA – this group has been tracking my activities for a long time. They sign up on forums I own, make payments from stolen accounts and generally trouble me.
- UK based – check out all the content of the websites I own, want me to sell to them cheap, pretend to be false buyers.
- Located in India – most of them do it for money, their activities are sponsored by G* (Giant Internet Company), and I have a lot of information on them including their phone numbers and address. They intercept and sometimes alter the content of my email. ( I have proof of this) . Many work/ have friends in local internet companies. Unfortunately, they are kites , paid to do the dirty work, tracking the company (or companies) who pays them will take time.
These companies also sponsor organized stalkers/gang stalkers to harass individuals and spread rumors, you can find more information about Organized / gang stalking online, it seems to be a world wide phenomenon, if you are an outspoken individual.
The companies do this because they are confident they will never get caught or exposed, and I am writing this post to indicate all their activities and correspondence will be content for this and other websites in future. Stealing secrets only works if your competitor has a similar organization and cost structure to yours.