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Survivors
in the New Economy
Dot-com. It’s one term very few companies want to be associated
with today, in a world that sees every dot-com with suspicion. All
this, of course, is thanks to the dot-com boom and the carnage that
followed after the good times stopped rolling.
Fabmart:
Flagbearer of the Indian e-commerce revolution
When Fabmart started out in the year 1999, it knew it was taking
on a tough job i.e. changing habits of users who were not used to
shopping on the Net.
C2W:
MNC with Marwari values
During the heydays of the dot-com boom in India, entertainment sites
were launched dime-a-dozen, but most of them failed to survive the
bloodbath in 2001. Names like chaitime, eindia, sawaal, may be history
today, but Contest2win (C2W) has not only proved an exception to
this rule, but has witnessed tremendous growth.
Cricketnext:
Weathering the dot-com googly
Cricket in India is not just a passion, but rather a religion. And
thankfully, one that bridges, instead of dividing people along communal
lines.
Apnaloan:
Leader of the personal finance pack
Started by ex-ICICI stalwarts during the fag end of the dot-com
boom, Apnaloan.com has come a long way. The idea was simple to be
a vendor-neutral market place for loans and credit cards and give
the customer an option of choosing from different brands.
Billjunction.com:
Online queue-buster
When Billjunction.com started offering its service of electronic
bill payment to customers, sceptics doubted the business viability
of the model since the level of Internet penetration was and continues
to be very low in India.
Baazee.com:
India’s answer to eBay?
At a time when e-commerce is being questioned as a business model
and the promise of the Net is being viewed as a diminishing prospect,
the success of Baazee.com comes as a breath of fresh air.
Yahoo:
Celebration time in India?
Jerry Yang’s Yahoo along with Jeff Bezos’s Amazon has
been one of the biggest dot-com successes in the world, despite
having its fair share of trials and tribulations. For Yahoo India
too, it has been a topsy-turvy ride and nothing reflects it better
than the three bashes it had till now in India.
Sify
portal: Vital cog in Satyam’s wheel of fortune
Talk
of dot-coms and you simply cannot leave out Sify. Satyam has been
one of the most aggressive players in the Internet space and showed
its ambition when it gobbled up the Indiaworld portal for a mind
boggling Rs 499 crore, in what was then seen as an amazing buy,
but in hindsight was perhaps one of the worst business decisions
ever in Indian business.
Indiabulls.com:
Bull run in a bearish market
When Indiabulls.com was officially launched in May 2000, the first
signs of the dot-com carnage were appearing on the global scene.
Indiamart.com:
An exception in the dot-com space
How many dot-coms can you think of that are not VC funded? Can you
think of even one that has achieved break even in the very first
year of its operation?
Moneypickle:
The money trainer in town
Money is always sweeter than honey, and the tangy taste of pickle
can indeed tickle anyone’s taste buds.
Indiaproperties:
Home with a bang
When Indiaproperties.com was first launched, sceptics dismissed
it as just another dot-com looking to cash in on a unique idea.
Naukri:
Doing a great job
A software developer looking for that elusive job in Silicon Valley,
a management consultant looking for a seven-figure salary with an
MNC, the biotechnology PhD looking for a position with the major
drug manufacturer different people, but all craving for that Utopian
dream job.
Makemytrip:
Bitten by the growth bug
The saying goes that each and every person at some point of time
is bitten by the wanderlust bug, and having deep pockets definitely
helps in fulfilling those dreams.
Firstandsecond:
Definitely first for book lovers
Are you an incorrigible bibliophile willing to walk miles to get
a copy of that elusive out-of-print classic?
Traveljini:
Thinking out of the bottle
Traveljini
is another travel portal that survived the dot-com crash and now
hopes to break even by the next fiscal.
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