Good questions

Before we get to the questions, let's take a look at these figures:

• Legal music sites have increased to over 230 in 2004 (a quadruple increase
  
  from 2003).
• Music catalogs have doub-led in 12 months, to 1 mn songs. Paid-for
  
  down-loads have increased tenfold to over 200 mn as per the IFPI Digital
  
  Music Report 2005.
• The digital music market was worth $330 mn in 2004 and is expected to
  
  double in value in 2005.
• In the first three months of 2005, e-ticketing averaged a 111 percent
  
  growth over the same period in 2004.
• IATA (International Air Transport Association) has set up an objective of
  
  total conversion to e-ticketing by 2007.
• The online gaming market is poised for explosive growth and is expected to
  
  reach $4 bn by 2008, a fourfold increase from the scenario today as per
  
  In-Stat/MDR.
• Search Engines are pre-dicted to reach revenue of $23 bn in 2008.
• Google's profits increased sevenfold in the fourth quarter of 2004.
• The revenue growth rate for Careerbuilder, Monster and HotJobs outstripped
  
  their newspaper-classified counterparts by 3 to 1 in the third quarter of
  
  2004.

The information cauldron is becoming a business tool at a

spiraling rate. Growth rates make the fast track BPO indu-stry appear like the

proverbial turtle. Except that in this race the slow and steady do not always

win. That is the scenario in the futuristic economies of the world.

By contrast, the Indian scenario is subdued. No one denies

the potential. But no one has really harnessed it either. Maybe the dot.com bust

is not forgotten yet. Maybe those who have the money do not have the ideas, and

those who have the ideas do not have the money. Maybe the computer and internet

penetration is too low. The installed base of computers is in the vicinity of 10

mn. Mobile phones are 40 mn. Computers first appeared in the eighties. Mobiles

made an appearance 20 years later.

We also did a dipstick of two-dozen people across work

functions and ages. Some of the respondents were from CyberMedia itself. Nothing

like starting a survey at home!

• Top of the mind recall for reasons to use the Internet
  
  was information search-through Google.

• The question on the next most useful service on the net
  
  drew a blank. There was virtually nothing after information search.

• The nothing was subdivi-ded into e-ticketing and mu-sic
  
  downloads. Shopping was voted for, and included purchasing books or gift
  
  items like perfumes and accessories. Amazon.com and rediff.com came up as
  
  the 'known names'.

• Marriage portals and jobs search came way down. Co-nsultants
  
  and newspapers still are the preferred mode for jobs hunting, and marriages,
  
  presumably, are still made in heaven.

Before you tear apart the 'survey' let me candidly state

that it was not meant to be watertight. It was conducted to find questions

rather than answers.

Here are the questions:

• Are we moving with the international trends or are we
  
  behind?

• What are the catalysts that will make business through
  
  the Internet grow at a 3 digit growth rate?

• Which will be the business boomers in India-search,
  
  jobs, marriages, games, music-or something else?

• Where will this business boom come from-large business
  
  houses taking to the net or 'new ideas' men becoming large businesses?

• When will this happen?

These are good questions. Good questions, however, don't

always have good answers. For answers to some of these we will just have to

wait. One thing you can be sure of though is that the answers are not far away.

To end-thanks to all of you who invested in our just

concluded and listed public issue.

The author is Editor-in-Chief of CyberMedia, the

publishers of Dataquest with inputs from Saswati Sinha He can be reached at shyamm@cybermedia.co.in