Well written, agreed strongly with your title and the closing notes.
Speaking about B2B in India -
I run a small consultation firm(ninjaas.com), we have worked with couple of big clients in India, who have deep pockets, but they don't burn much cash for software and web services. They must be taught + nurtured more in adopting web tools, so largely its only support with Phone calls. They ask for way too many customization's and Ready made things don't sell!
Worth mentioning, they don't have much Internet presence, are more or less offline businesses, and as you said - they must be taught, nurtured to adopt newer, better Business processes tools. As there is no internet presence, adoption is largely word of mouth.
But, the market is huge and the change will happen soon; will only get better overtime.
So, Selling B2B web products in India = Fail, a small market with no much Demand.
I see a favorable market where Demand >>> supply, 3x at least.
And Many Businesses say - they don't need Internet presence, as most of them operate largely around Phone calls.
And its not easy to close bigger deals in India doing an Internet startup. You can pocket out around $$ max. And if its a bigger deal, you have to wait longer to get your returns from followups, may be 18+months.
Speaking about B2C in India -
Low cost deals with huge discounts works great. Anything around phone, tablet is huge, its growing faster than PC web.
And most of them own a budget smartphone and/or a tablet. This market is huge, people are spending to buy apps from the App market. But this segment is largely owned by Indie developers. Startups have nothing much to disrupt in this space.
In short, in India, its only the phone that Sells.
Speaking about B2B in India - I run a small consultation firm(ninjaas.com), we have worked with couple of big clients in India, who have deep pockets, but they don't burn much cash for software and web services. They must be taught + nurtured more in adopting web tools, so largely its only support with Phone calls. They ask for way too many customization's and Ready made things don't sell!
Worth mentioning, they don't have much Internet presence, are more or less offline businesses, and as you said - they must be taught, nurtured to adopt newer, better Business processes tools. As there is no internet presence, adoption is largely word of mouth.
But, the market is huge and the change will happen soon; will only get better overtime.
So, Selling B2B web products in India = Fail, a small market with no much Demand. I see a favorable market where Demand >>> supply, 3x at least. And Many Businesses say - they don't need Internet presence, as most of them operate largely around Phone calls.
And its not easy to close bigger deals in India doing an Internet startup. You can pocket out around $$ max. And if its a bigger deal, you have to wait longer to get your returns from followups, may be 18+months.
Speaking about B2C in India - Low cost deals with huge discounts works great. Anything around phone, tablet is huge, its growing faster than PC web. And most of them own a budget smartphone and/or a tablet. This market is huge, people are spending to buy apps from the App market. But this segment is largely owned by Indie developers. Startups have nothing much to disrupt in this space.
In short, in India, its only the phone that Sells.