China Underestimates India: Xiaomi Mi3

Xiaomi underestimated India demand

Even as the fourth batch of Chinese mobile device manufacturer Xiaomi’s Mi3 handset was sold out in 2.4 seconds on Flipkart on Tuesday, the company's India head Manu Kumar Jain defended the sales strategy. He said that Xiaomi grossly underestimated the demand in India and now plans to ramp up production of the handsets.

“We are changing the production plan at the factory (in China). We are slowing down the production of some other handsets meant for other countries and ramping up the production of Mi3 in India. Hopefully, the quantity would be higher in a few weeks. We understand a lot of people are disappointed and I apologise for that,” Jain told FE.

Xiaomi sold 20,000 units in the latest sale on Tuesday — the fourth in less than a month since its launch in India on July 22. Flipkart, its sole distributor, had asked users to register in advance for a chance to buy the phone. But even as there were over a lakh of registrations, only 10,000 units were available in the first and second flash sales. The company ramped it up to 15,000 units in the third sale on August 6, but still couldn’t keep up with the demand. In fact, Xiaomi’s first sale in India saw Flipkart website crashing for a while, before returning to normal.

The next sale of the handset, priced at R13,999, is on August 19. “We are talking to disgruntled customers to see how we can do this differently. This is not a strategy. We did not do any marketing,” said Jain. He added that the registration process helps the company draw up a weekly demand forecast and plan better.

The company’s India Facebook page had less than 10,000 likes before the first sale on July 22, currently it stands at 33,000, and Xiaomi thought the phone would only appeal to tech enthusiasts. “We knew India was going to be big, but we grossly underestimated the demand. No one had any clue. This was a new geography. These are India-specific handsets and there is a limitation to ramp up the production line in China,” said Jain.

According to Jain, the handsets made for India come with country-specific stickers, software, box, user manual and pricing label. Jain added that countries have different specifications and regulatory requirements. “Units dispatched to Thailand or the Philippines or India are all different. We are changing the production line according to the demand,”

India Online

Google brings 76 Indian heritage sites online

  

People across the world can now view over 1,400 cultural objects from India, including images from 76 heritage sites like Safdarjung Tomb, Ellora Caves and Purana Quila on Google Cultural Institute.

With the support of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Google is releasing new 360-degree online imagery of 76 iconic historical sites, Google said in a statement.

These immersive panoramas, collected using Street View technology, are available for viewing on the Google Cultural Institute (GCI) site, it added.

With this launch, the total number of ASI sites online has jumped to over 100, which includes the likes of Taj Mahal and Humayun's Tomb.

In addition, several arts and archival institutions will also unveil new exhibitions on the Google Cultural Institute website.

The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage, Daricha Foundation, Parzor Foundation and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research will use the GCI and unveil immersive online exhibitions of their collections, photographs, prints, and paintings, it said.

 

Amazon Concurring India's Market Share

India set to become Amazon's fastest-growing market

Amazon.com on Wednesday said it will invest a further $2 billion in India just a day after the country's largest e-tailer Flipkart attracted $1 billion of fresh funds, raising the stakes in a nascent but fast-growing e-commerce sector.

Amazon, which opened its Indian website in June last year, has drawn up the battle lines by slashing prices, launching same-day delivery, adding new product categories and embarking on a high-voltage advertisement campaign.

Amazon and Flipkart are joined in India's $13 billion e-commerce sector by marketplace Snapdeal, fashion e-tailer Jabong, and US auctioneer eBay.

"With this additional investment of $2 billion, our team can continue to think big, innovate, and raise the bar for customers in India," chief executive Jeff Bezos said in a statement. "At current scale and growth rates, India is on track to be our fastest country ever to a billion dollars in gross sales."

Amazon had not previously disclosed Indian investment plans. But on Monday, the US company said it will raise its presence in the country by opening five more warehouses, almost doubling storage capacity to half a million square feet.

"It's all about who builds up scale faster and remains relevant for the next few decades," said Harminder Sahani, managing director of retail consultancy Wazir Advisors.

Amazon makes its money in India by charging third-party suppliers to use its website to sell 17 million different products including books, electronics and clothing.

The government is considering allowing foreign retailers to sell directly to customers. It recently took a step in that direction by allowing retailers to sell online products manufactured in India.

Indian e-commerce is expanding at a compound annual growth rate of 34%, according to a joint report by consultants Digital-Commerce, the Internet Mobile Association of India and the Indian Market Research Bureau. That rate, however, is slower than in some other emerging nations such as China.

Of the $13 billion market, travel services account for about 70%, according to consultancy Technopak. The type of goods sold through Amazon made up $1.6 billion of the total last year, according to researcher Forrester, and Technopak expects that figure to swell to $76 billion by 2021.

By comparison, e-commerce sales in China are likely to surpass $180 billion this year, according to researcher eMarketer.

Amazon India Is Changing The E-tailing Game

How Amazon India Is Changing The E-tailing Game

The global e-commerce giant Amazon entered the Indian terrain about a year ago in June 2013. Since then, a lot has changed in the e-tailing space of the country. Being an experienced player across many countries in the online space, Amazon has brought lot of expertise to the Indian online marketplace, pushing the native players to evolve and change swifter.

Within a couple of years, Amazon has launched a mobile retailing app and now covers 20,000 Pin codes, which is more than any other online retailer does in India. As per analysts, these major steps are aimed at a long-term model where Amazon can maintain its own inventory of products belonging to different sellers without actually relying on last-minute delivery by sellers through logistics companies.

The Indian online retail pie
The Indian online retail pie is not really huge at the moment with an estimated size of $ 2.3 billion, which is 0.4% of the total retailing industry in the country. But the growth of online retail is impressive and the industry is expected to reach the size of $32 billion by 2020 - a significant 3% of the total retail industry. Certainly, this kind of an amazing growth and potential is fuelling the e-tailers in India to go all over. Amazon India is no different and has been on its heels to revolutionise the entire Indian e-tailing space.

Preparing and readying stakeholders
Amazon is quite serious about India and is investing time, effort and money in building up various aspects of the industry, so that it is better prepared to manage the rapid growth. Amazon India has recently tied up with Catamaran - a sign that global giants are taking Indian e-commerce a lot more seriously.

Amazon Asia has partnered with Narayan Murthy's private investment firm Catamaran Ventures to create a new entity which will focus on prepping up sellers and small and medium businesses to go online. This entity, named Taurus Business And Trade Services, will offer its services to the offline sellers and SMBs in the country and make them ready and to go online. The company will offer its services in key Indian cities and towns and will train offline sellers and small and medium businesses in online tools, so that they can expand their online customer base. This step will not only build up the other stakeholders of this industry to grow, it will also help in supporting the huge growth more strongly and benefitting out of it.

Consolidation
Another big impact made by Amazon in Indian e-tailing space is in the form of kicking consolidation big time. Experts say that with a big player like Amazon getting serious about Indian market, it is forcing others (big or small) to up their arsenal so they can stand up to this global giant. In such a scenario, increased and big buzz consolidation is the way to go and that's what the online retails space has witnessed strongly, especially in the last one year.

May 2014 witnessed one of the biggest consolidations in this space so far when one of the biggest Indian e-tailer, Flipkart, acquired the fashion retailer Myntra in what is said to be a whopping Rs 200 crore deal. It is interesting also to look at how the number deals and their total amount in the online retail space has changed in the recent years. In 2012, this space saw about 73 deals worth @371 million. In 2013, the number of deals went to 60, with total deal amount adding up to $592 million. This year, just till May, the industry had seen about 20 deals with a whopping aggregate value of $637 million.

Clearly, the industry has been able to harness bigger amount for the deals. This shows that the investors are ready to spend big bucks on the e-tailers, provided they are promising. At the same time, very small players are finding it difficult to attract investment as due to the consolidation, investors are narrowing their attention to the mid size and biggies of the industry.

Simply stated, big firms in the industry are zeroing in on small ones to increase their presence, reach and portfolio in the market. This helps in creating scale and the companies and the customers, both will benefit from this.

Competition
With the rate at which Amazon India is expanding its reach as well as portfolio along with its innovative services, there is a lot of stirring up in the industry and the competition is getting fierce. In December 2013, Amazon introduced in-a-day delivery service, which pushed other key players, including Flipkart and Snapdeal to launch the same in order to stay in the game.

Another unique service that the company has currently launched in select cities is customer pick up facilities from select pick up points. Yes, just like a 'take away' food model, Amazon is out there trying to enrol kiranas as delivery points. In select cities, the e-tailer has enlisted some of the mom and pops stores as the pick-up points for customers. The product will be shipped to these stores and the customers can pick up their deliveries. This would help in expanding the reach of customers and manage the failed delivery problems.

Amazon has become the trendsetter in online retail market, forcing others to pull up their socks and deliver better. This is changing the rules on the e-tailing game with companies being forced to become more agile and proactive and customer service becoming more effective. 

India as a force in shaping digital future Globally

India a huge force in shaping global digital future: Mozilla

As the Internet penetration gains more strength, India is headed to be a huge force in shaping the digital future of the world, a top official of Mozilla Foundation, makers of Firefox web browser has said. 

"India is a huge force, not only in terms of people coming online, but also shaping what the digital future can be. As we figure out, how do people understand web, India absolutely has to be at the core of that," Mark Surman, executive director of the Mozilla Foundation said in a recent interview.

As the web spreads to the whole of humanity, India and the talented code developers from India are going to play a key role in the global digital literacy.

As in the next decade some five to six billion people are expected to gain access to the web, Surman said it is important that everybody understands how web works.

"Web literacy is important," he noted. Having travelled to India several times, Surman is highly impressed by the talent of Indian techies.

"One of the things so excited about India is that people are so aspirational. They are starting to say, how I can make life better? And Internet is a promise to that aspiration," he said.

"When I come to India, it is really exciting to see, especially those Mozilla volunteers, that aspiration and see unlock those things to people, and also they want to teach that to the other people across India," Surman said, adding that India is playing a key role in the recently launched global digit literacy programme of Mozilla.

Mozilla, he said, decided a few years ago that it is not just important to create open source product, that empower people to use the web, but also that everybody in the world understand what they can do on the web.

"Not just to be a consumer, but also to be a creator of the web," Surman said.

Early July, Mozilla launched a two-month global campaign of events known as "Maker Parties" aimed at promoting web literacy to all people.

This includes around 2,000 events in 350 cities worldwide in the coming two months and many of them are taking place in India, which Mozilla describes as a global Internet pioneer. 

The Maker Party events give hands-on education to people in everything from learning to write html code and build websites to understanding how to protect data and privacy and how to move from being a consumer of the Internet to a producer. 

The campaign also includes work on more general topics like gender equality, economic development, good governance - and how to make the web work better in the service of the goals people choose. 

It is an utterly unique, ambitious worldwide push for web literacy and India is very much at the centre of it, Surman said. 

Some of the important campaigns of this digital literacy campaign, he said, has being held in India, where people were creating new ways to teach. 

One of the biggest of the maker parties this year is being held in Bangalore in India towards the end of the year, he said, adding that he is planning to attend this. 

"This shows the leadership role of the Mozilla community in India," he said. 

Some of the best volunteers of the Mozilla community are from India, who, he said are strong in their skills. 

The Makers Party, he asserted is about more than coding. "It is a great call to arms that puts the world's users at the centre of the web. 

Success in the 21st century depends on web literacy - and on making the web what we all want it to be," he said 

Hacking virus 'Bladabindi' prowling in Indian cyberspace

Hacking virus 'Bladabindi' prowling in Indian cyberspace

 

Cyber security sleuths have alerted Indian Internet users against hacking attempts of a clandestine multi-identity virus--Bladabindi-- which steals sensitive personal information of a user for nefarious purposes.

The virus, the Computer Emergency Response Team-India (CERT-In) said, could infect "Microsoft Windows operating system" and it spread through removable USB flash drives, popularly known as pendrive and data cards, including other malwares.

CERT-In is the nodal national agency to combat hacking, phishing and to fortify security-related defences of the Indian Internet domain.

"It has been reported that variants of malware called Bladabindi are spreading. This malware steals sensitive user information from infected computer system. Bladabindi could also be used as malware downloader to propagate further malware and provide backdoor access to the remote attacker.

"Some of the Bladabindi variants could capture keyboard press, control computer camera and later send collected sensitive information to remote attacker. Bladabindi is infecting Microsoft Windows operating system and spreading via infecting removable USB flash drives and via other malwares," the latest advisory by the agency said.

The threat potential of the malware or the virus can be gauged from the fact that it can acquire as many as 12 aliases to conceal its real identity and later affect a computer system or personal information of a user.

"Bladabindi variants can be created using a publicly available malicious hacker tool. Attacker can create a malicious file using any choice of icon to mislead or entice naive user into running the malicious file," the advisory said.

The virus possesses a unique ability to acquire a safe network domain id in order to falsely add itself to the firewall exclusion list and bypass a user's firewall mechanism.

A typical 'Bladabindi' variant propagates by way of copying themselves into the root folder of a removable drive and create a shortcut file with the name and folder icon of the drive. When the user clicks on the shortcut, the malware gets executed and Windows Explorer is opened and it makes it seem as if nothing malicious happened.

A potential attack by the virus could result into the loss of important proprietary data of a user like "computer name, country and serial number, Windows user name, computer's operating system version, Chrome stored passwords, Firefox stored passwords, the agency said in the advisory.

"The malware can also use infected computer's camera to record and steal personal information. It checks for camera drivers and installs a DLL plugin so it can record and upload the video to a remote attacker. The malware can also log or capture keystrokes to steal credentials like user names and passwords," the CERT-In cautioned users.

The agency has also suggested some countermeasures against "Bladabindi'.

"Scan computer system with the free removal tools, disable the autorun functionality in Windows, use USB clean or vaccination software, keep up-to-date patches and fixes on the operating system and application software, deploy up-to-date anti-virus and anti-spyware signatures at desktop and gateway level," the agency suggested.

Google Maps now available in Hindi

Google Maps now available in Hindi  

 

Search giant Google on Tuesday launched its Google Maps in Hindi seeking to make its navigation service more useful for users locally.

Google Maps in Hindi will be available for desktop and android mobile phone users, who will be able to see Hindi names for cities, localities, important roads and routes as well as popular points of interest such as public parks and schools.

Launching the service nationally from Jaipur, Suren Ruhela, Product and Program Management Director, Google, said, the service may be made available in regional languages based on the feedback of this initiative.

He said that the service was a part of the company's global initiative to make maps more useful for users locally.

"We made maps useful across the user group whose needs are uniform. The new Google Map service is more useful and the user can take a virtual tour of a place where he wants to go and launching it in Hindi will give comfort to the Hindi users," he said.

The users need to enable Hindi as their preferred language on their devices to view Hindi name labels on the Maps.

"By launching Google Maps in Hindi today, hopefully Indians can explore and navigate the world around them more easily, whether these are people who already use Maps to find their way around day-to-day or Hindi-speakers coming online for the first time," he said.