Online DVD Rentals Market Analyis - June 2008 round up

Executive Summary:

Evolution of movie rental business in India dates back to the advent of VCR's way back in 1980's. Since then this market has been growing steadily with constant evolution in terms of technology and reach. While western countries have been way ahead in this business by getting it registered as an industry in itself (DVD rental subscribers in the US and Europe, generate more than $1b of consumer spending), Indian business community has started taking a note of the emergence of this trend in Indian consumer market. With the mass proliferation of cheap DVD players in Tier II and Tier III cities, the Indian consumer is going gaga over watching latest movies in the comfort of their houses at a cheaper rate . There have been a number of small retailers who have sprung up in the neighborhoods which are catering to the demand of consumers all around India. These sentiments have been duly noted by some early entrepreneurs and some big industrial house like ADAG and Nimbus who have launched online and retail outlets in major cities. Companies like seventymm claim to have over 70,000 customers and expect to reach a subscriber base of 4 million in next 5 years while ADAG promoted bigflix.com intends to open 500 bigflix stores by year end in around 30 stores.


Key Service Providers:

The market as of of today cannot be tagged as an organized sector but is slowly moving in that direction. The current rental service providers can be categorized as:

1. Local Retail Video libraries: These have been around since 1980s and have been offering limited collection of movies in various languages. Majority of these retailers keep pirated copies and are hard to keep check on.
2. Exclusive Online DVD rental sites: These web sites offer movies on rent through home delivery in selected cities or areas within select cities. They offer a wide collection of movies in different languages but are constrained in terms of geographical distribution.
3. Online DVD rentals with retail formats: These companies started off with online DVD rental web sites and have slowly started setting up retail video libraries. The entry of ADAG promoted bigflix and Nimbus promoted showtime proves that there is a big market that need to be tapped in coming years as the quality of broadband improves.
4. Kiosks: Kiosk based DVD rental service is probably the most recent model which is under pilot but if found acceptance will give a tough competition to neighborhood libraries.
5. Online movie streaming services: These services were quite common to sites offering podcasts or bollywood music but with ADAG promoted bigflix targeting NRI consumers, one can get movies on rent through streaming or can download-to-own.
Common Features:

1. Most of the web sites offer subscription based services which offer flexibility to consumers to select an appropriate plan based on their usage pattern.
2. The ordering and fulfillment model is similar across the web sites which involves registration under a subscription plan --> creation of a movie queue based on preferences -->Free home delivery of queued movies --> Returning movies in-store or free pick up
3. The movies offered are in various Indian languages covering different genres and titles with sites boasting of a collection of around 10,000 to 15,000 movies.
4. Many of them offer sticky features like movie reviews, bollywood news and gossip, updates on latest albums etc.
5. There is an element of web2.0 paradigm where in each movie can be assessed by the consumer and can put up his reviews for the benefit of others.

Market Opportunity

The market is still in a very nascent state and will start showing signs of consolidation when there are more serious players entering into this space. There is still lot of scope for companies to innovate and serve the movie crazy Indian consumer. While these services are largely restricted to metros, there is a growing need in Tier II and III cities where internet penetration is slowing on rise and disposable incomes are showing new signs of economic independence. Its a golden opportunity for regional players to create a niche market by customizing and building localized services to capture the market in the early stages

References:

bigflix.com
clixflix.com
seventymm.com
moviemart.com
flickxpress.com
showtimevideo
cinebox
cinesprite
catchflix

Disclaimer:

I have made every reasonable effort to ensure that all information in this report is correct based on secondary market research. I assume no responsibility for any inadvertent errors.

cinesprite.com and catchflix.com : Online DVD rental stores

cinesprite.com, yet another web site on DVD rentals.. Vow I am actually getting excited to see this happening in India. I have decided not to key in lot of words here since a cursory glance tells me it does not have any distinguishing features but wanted to register it here for future references.




catchflix.com appears to be growing with presence in cities like Delhi, Pune, bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and chennai. There are no major differentiators here which are worth mentioning. Examples of another "Me Too" players

cinebox - another online DVD rental site

cinebox is an Ahemdabad, India based online DVD rental web site. There isn't much to write about this web site except for stating that it is no different from the existing web sites. In fact it is a toned down version of other web sites which offer lot many other features. At cinebox the process is simple - register yourself for a plan of Rs499 for unlimited movies, create your queue, submit queue, the movie gets delivered based on your queue preference, watch movie, call for free movie pick up.

The most weird thing about this web site was an advertisement of a competitor on the home page :) (www.bigflix.com )

Showtime Video - online DVD rental in mumbai

Nimbus promoted Showtimevideo is the latest entrant in the growing DVD rental marketplace. Currently its services are confined to Mumbai city but the company has ambitious plans to grow its business in national and international markets. It claims to have an investment plan of over Rs 1.5 billion in the next 3 years with a target of 140 stores in 40 cities in the next year. Projections include 500,000 - 750,000 subscribers in the first year, a turnover of Rs 600 million in the next one year and a breakeven of Rs 1.2 billion. They currently claim to have 16,000 titles across different languages and genres. They have retail presence in four locations in Mumbai and are in a state of expansion. A look at the web site does not reflect any differentiating feature which can help it stand out from others. The ordering and fulfillment model is similar to other sites that I have reviewed in past (bigflix, clixfix etc). Subscription plan ranges from Rs 75 to Rs 1399 at par with other players.

Overall, its a "Me Too" web site with no key differentiators.

flickxpress.com - a DVD rental vending machine company

flickxpress is a DVD rental company with a difference. Instead of an online presence, it has vending machines or Kiosks which allow you to select and rent a movie. Currently this is available in select residential complexes in Bangalore city, India. This is how it works:

1. You need to sign up for an account which will entitle you to receive a swipe card similar to your ATM card.

2. You can swipe your card into the kiosk, enter your password and login into your account. Browse the movie that you want to take on rent.


3. Select the movie and the disc will be available in the dispenser slot.

4. You can watch the movie and return it back through the kiosk.

Recharging is again done through the kiosk. This eliminates the human involvement completely. Though I have a first hand experience of the kiosk, I found the collection too limited then even my nearest dvd rental shop. I am not sure if this will be a commercially viable solution especially against the online rental web sites which offer more choice and service within 24 hours.

Personal financial services market analysis - June'08 round up

Today' blog is all about summarizing my findings in the personal financial services in the Indian consumer market place. Though the scope of my research has been quite small but i have tried to cover different types of service providers which should be able to give you a very high-level picture of the current market place in the financial services segment.

Executive Summary:

Financial services market in India has been growing in leaps and bound for more than over a decade now. With the bull run of 2005- 2007, there has been an increased awareness in Indian consumer market which has positively responded to various products and services launched by Financial Houses. The average Indian consumer has been saving his money in traditional instruments like PPF, Post office funds, Bank FDs, Gold etc and has been averse to investing money in modern day financial instruments. All this is slowly changing now with the advent of technology in investment and banking services. The financial service companies have leveraged the power of internet and have come up with web based services to educate the consumer to the world of personal financial planning and investment services. Though these web sites are heavily focused on investment services and have more or less content related to investment instruments like Mutual Funds, IPOs, Stocks etc, there is still a whole bunch of those who provide tips on "How To Dos" for various aspects like retirement planning, Life Insurance, Wealth management etc.

Service Provider Overview:

The key financial service providers in the Indian space can be classified under the following categories:
A. Brokers or intermediaries like personalfn.com, moneyline.com, sharekhan.com etc.
B. Public and private banks like ICICIdirect.com, hdfcbank.com
C. Digitial media houses like moneycontrol.com (CNBC India), ndtvprofit.com etc.
D. Print media houses like financialexpress.com, economictimes etc.
E. Fund houses like fidelity.co.in, franklintempleton etc.

Key Offered Financial Services:

A closer look at financial services reveal that the current services offered by various web sites include:

A. Personal financial planning (limited to giving advises in the form of articles and online calculators)
B. Market Updates - news, reviews, day trading, fund buy/sell advisory
C. Mutual funds - news, analysis, online purchase
D. Market Research and Analysis - Research on long, mid or small cap funds
E. Online portfolio management - register portfolio, track transaction history, NAV tracker, stock ticker etc. This also includes tools like personal financial management both online as well as as softwares.
F. Financial Advisers - Access to financial consultants through retail outlets or through a network of business affiliates
G. Knowledge center - Access to a database of articles on various aspects of financial planning ranging from personal finance to investment services in "How to do" kind of formats.


Market Opportunity:

There is still a lot of room for improvement and innovation like developing true personal financial management softwares which can enable an average consumer to plan his monthly and yearly budget. There is still a long road ahead before Indian consumer will truly gain the financial wisdom to understand and leverage the power of financial planning. Till then financial services will need to evolve and grow to reach out to end consumer in different ways.

References:
moneycontrol.com
equitymaster.com
Outlookmoney.com
myiris.com
itrust.com
moneyline.com
sharekhan.com
NDTVProfit.com
personalfn.com
icicdirect.com


Disclaimer:

I have made every reasonable effort to ensure that all information in this report is correct based on secondary market research. I assume no responsibility for any inadvertent errors.

Dilsebol.com - Online indian personalized gift shop

Dlisebol.com is the third Indian web site which I have come across which provides capability to design your personalized gift online. Going through the web site I did not find anything exclusive or different from myantra.com or pringoo.com. In fact, I find this web site as a toned down version of the earlier two that I reviewed in past. It allows you to created customized T-Shirts, Mugs, Mouse pads, Coasters, Poster and tiles. You can create your own designs and upload it to the online design gallery and earn a commission when someone buys it. However, I must admit that the web site is lacks in terms of usability and needs a major revamp to encourage users to stick to it. For example it is hard to look for a personalized product on the basis of category. It appears to display products in random from a database without any logic..! Overall I think it has to do a lot of work to come up to the standards of sites like myantra or pringoo.

equitymaster.com - Your Guide to Indian Stock Market

equitymaster.com is a web site truly focused on on Indian Stock market. It provides in-depth research services covering all kind of funds ranging from large cap, mid cap to small cap. It gives recommendation on buying and selling stocks across various sectors which for a regular investor is a boon and comes out handy. In addition to research data, the web site offers latest news and analysis, various tools and calculators, information on latest IPOs etc. Another important feature is a huge repository of information about 500 leading companies in India across different sectors. You can in fact read a fact sheet on any company which includes information related to equity share data, income statements and balance sheet data. You can also get information on various industry sectors like aluminum, software, telecom etc. If you want to make a more informed decision regarding investments, or even if you are planning to start a business in India, this site will give you a pretty good idea on the bigger picture for each sector.

Coming back to financial services, the site provides Portfolio Tracker which is an online stock and mutual fund tracking utility. You can analyse your portfolio anytime based on latest market data and make your decisions.
The premium services include subscribing for special research reports on various types of funds with price ranging from Rs 2000 to Rs 9500. You can also subscribe to MY PLANNER utility for managing your personal finance online at a small fee of Rs330/= p.a.

ibibo MTV iSuperstar Wild Card Entry!

Interesting marketing promotion idea!! Makes lot of sense especially in today's era of reality song and dance competitions ! Indian audience is truly breaking all cultural barriers to break free..!

meridhun.com - an online hindi songs gift shop

meridhun.com is a fresh idea in the online personalized gifts and items e-market place. Instead of creating a custom gift item like a mug or a T-Shirt it offers you to personalize songs of your choice with your lyrics. This is how it works:

1. You can select a song from the list of songs available for personalization
2. You can then modify the lyrics based on meridhun.com recommendations and submit it for recording.
3. The recording studio at meridhun.com will review the song lyrics and based on the recommendation guidelines it will record and make it available in your account.

The web site claims to have a turn around time of 48 hours depending upon your order. The level of customizations that you can do can be categorized as:
a) Name: replace the name of a person in the song with user chosen name
b) Basic: change some of the phrases of the song
c) Premium: customize the entire song

You can personalize your songs and gift them as gifts on various occassions. meridhun claims to have orders starting at Rs 99.

As a concept I really liked the idea but only time will tell if it will be able to get enough eyeballs on its web site. This would definitely require a strong marketing effort to make it work. I think the team at meridhun.com should seriously look at having strategic tie ups with various community sites or local search engines to make this successful. A great example would be dhingana.com which actually came out with interesting widget that can be used to pull traffic.

Outlook Money - Guide to financial planning

Outlookmoney is another site in the league of various financial service providers in the Indian consumer marketplace. I somehow missed out covering this website in my initial reviews. I have been looking at this web site for over 2.5 years now and am pleased to see it evolving over time. If you have ever seen any small hand book on topics like "Retirement Planning", "Wealth Creation", "Insurance Planning" etc., you can fondly tie it back to outlook money. I think there's was the first publication in the most simplified manner that hit the Indian bookstores ever. So coming back to web site, this is purely a site for fresh entrants in the field of personal financial planning and investment management. The site covers a wide range of topics including stocks, mutual funds, taxation, real estate, banking, insurance, loans, retirement etc. It also includes various tools and calculators to help you quickly calculate various aspects related to financial planning and taxation.

I strongly recommend this web site to people who are absolutely new to the world of financial wisdom. And for all those who hate to read stuff in front of the computer, you can buy hard copies of the various publications through the web site.

Myirisplus - Your Indianised personal financial planner

myiris.com claims to be the owner of India's most comprehensive financial information databases, covering in-depth analysis of stocks, equity, mutual funds, loans, credit cards and commodity. The web site content is quite similar to other web sites that i have reviewed in past eg: moneycontrol.com, equitemaster.com, sharekhan.com. However, the biggest differentiator for myiris is myirisplus which is a personal financial software. In today's blog I would like to cover this exclusively primarily since this is the only company which has developed this much needed functionality. Myirisplus is a desktop application which can be downloaded from mmm.myiris.com. It is available for evaluation and is currently available at an offer price of Rs. 1800 for 12 months, for a family license of four users. So what can you do with myirisplus:
1. Consolidate different financial statements like banks, equity, MFs, FD's, loans, credit cards etc.
2. Track your investments
3. budget before spending
4. Plan your finances
5. evaluate various investment options
6. File your tax return
The software aims to cover the entire supply chain associated with personal finance management. It has four key features:
A. Consolidate financial records across multiple service providers
B. Generate tax returns and allow e-filing of returns
C. Draw a financial plan
D. Investment research

The software provides easy to use steps to guide user through all the four steps leading to effective financial planning and wealth creation. All one needs is to discipline his financial management habits and myirisplus can handle the rest !! After all its only a tool but an intelligent one :) !!

Try downloading it from here

Personal financial planning with iTrust.in

iTrust is a financial advisory services company based in the national capital region of Delhi which provides host of services like property search home loans, life insurance, health insurance , personal loans, mutual funds etc. The company defines its mission as "To help Indian families get rich" which is a very novel objective but need to be validated on the ground. The most important aspect of iTrust is its emphasis on the need for financial planning. The top level menu bar starts with "Financial Planning" item which says it all. A drill down into the financial planning segment presents you with guides related to tax planning and financial plans. There are couple of predefined sample financial plans as well. There is a segment called "free financial health checkup" which is sorted on the basis of various age groups. If you select a age group it will present you with a small questionnaire. Based on your response the system will provide with you appropriate recommendations. It will further give you with an option to consult a financial adviser by submitting a web request or through phone. A smart way of lead generation though :)
The site also provides you with options to search a property, and get it funded by offering best deals from various loan providers. You can compare deals from various service providers in other segments like life insurance, health insurance, FD's etc (reminds me of apnaloan.com). It is different from other web sites in two ways : one it does not provide content related to financial analysis, two it is quite simple to understand and get the required information without going through information clutter. I am not sure if its services are available all over India or only in Northern part but it is definitely a web site worth bookmarking !

icicidirect.com is an online share trading web site from ICICI Securities Ltd. Its been on Indian e-space for many years now. The site contains news and analysis related to stocks, mutual funds, commodities in addition to giving the user the option to buy and sell stocks and mutual funds online. The site has a section called ICICI Direct University which provides user with an in-depth information on basics of investment in the financial world. The content is very simple and can be easily followed by a beginner. In addition to online trading you have the option to locate a icicidirect.com retail store for direct consultation with a financial adviser. Its definitely an ideal place for an average consumer to get started with his foray into the financial world. The web site though does not have any personal financial management solution/tool to manage your finances though it has number of calculators like tax planning, retirement planning, investment planning, savings etc which provide initial guidance to an average consumer.

moneylineindia.com

Moneyline.com is another web site focussed on providing key financial services in the money lending business. It targets both home consumers as well as businesses. You can get home loans, personal loans as well as loans for your businesses. The loan can be raised against your existing mutual funds, ESOPs and shares and your home equity. Moneyline has set up its shops in various cities across India to increase retail presence in Indian market and mobilise funds. The web site is just an enabler to its retail model. There isn't much content on the website for educating the customer which i guess works out well some times when you have too many players just doing the same. It provides an online chat service to help answer users queries which allows quick customer contact and lead generation. The users can also share their views on moneyline blog. The best thing that i liked about the entire website was its simplicity and freshness. However, I am not sure how much value it can add to an average consumer who already has a number of sites dealing in financial services.

Give it a try if you are looking at getting loans for your personal or professional need!!

Sharekhan.com

sharekhan.com has been one of the oldest financial services portal in the Indian e-space. It is essentially a financial brokerage arm of SSKI group and has over 510 share shops in around 170 cities in India. It provides host of services which include:
1. Online share trading services
2. Equity and derivative trading
3. Mutual funds
4. Portfolio management services
5. Commodities trading
6. Depository services etc.
It provides an excellent starting point for an individual who wants to get started with the stock trading. You can also leverage the knowledge of sharekhan experts who can guide you in taking your first steps in the stock market. Of all the sites that I have seen so far I am unable to find any one which is focussed on all the personal financial management needs of a home consumer. Looks like there is still room for people to come in and fill this void.

NDTV Profit - Financial News Portal

ndtvprofit.com is the web arm of the financial news channel NDTV Profit promoted by famous Pranoy Roy. The ntdvprofit appears to be primarily a financial news and analysis portal but also provides updates and advises around stock market, insurance, mutual fund, IPOs an taxation. The site appears to be absolutely neat and well organized unlike moneycontrol.com which appears to be cluttered with lot of information. However, it no where comes close to the in-depth financial coverage and financial management tools provided by moneycontrol.com. This is certainly not a web site for beginners who want to get into the world of financial markets. The personal finance section which includes mutual funds, insurance, taxation does not provide any inputs on how to manage this instruments neither does it gives any suggestions on which ones to pick. Each category comprise of news updates which are only useful to people who are actively involved into trading. I did not find anything relevant to personal finance in this section.
Looking at the features of the web site it is difficult to predict the direction in which ndtvprofit intends to grow. In any case, it has a long way to go before it can be deemed as useful for an average Indian investor.

Promotional offers @ pringoo.com

Keeping in pace with myntra, pringoo.com has launched the following promotional offers:

1. Sign up and win a free gift or any item of the day

2. Entered into group discounts by offering bulk order discounts to corporates, colleges and groups

3. Tied up with makers of dashavtara to get custom design dashavtara merchandises on T-shirts, mugs, teddy bear etc.

Online Discount Offers @ myntra.com

Sales promotions running at myntra.com this week:

This week myntra.com offered a number of promotional offers to boost its sales. This includes:

1. A flat discount of 33% on all its products as part of its SUMMER SALES promotion. Some other key promotion offers include:

2. Monthly design contest where a designer can win upto Rs 25000. Now that's a real money for your creativity!!

3. Register and win a free T-Shirt daily offer

4. Added an application that can be added to your orkut profile called TeeOff which can be used to create or add designs on your orkut profile. You can buy or share them with your network.

Manage your wealth with Moneycontrol.com

Moneycontrol.com, promoted by CNBC is one of the leading financial management portal in Indian internet space. It provides an extensive coverage of financial world covering detailed news and analysis, updates from financial markets, mutual funds, portfolio management and a host of tools to manage your personal financial planning. It has built a wider audience base by addressing the needs of a novice well as aiding a financial geek in managing his day-to-day financial activities. Some of the key features include:
1. In depth market analysis
2. Detailed information regarding upcoming IPOs
3. In depth coverage of various mutual funds
4. A number of tools including online portfolio manager, retirement planner, Market watch, tax calculator, insurance planner etc.
5. Wealth management articles and resources categorized around financial cycle of plan - invest - spend - study and work.

The most appealing feature is a completely dedicated section on "Investment for Beginners" called pehla kadam. In addition to host of articles and tools, it provides you with a FREE STOCK SIMULATION game. You can define your strategy, buy and sells stock online (of course in the form of a simulation) based on real time feeds before you actually get started with real trading (try Pehla Kadam). Interestingly, you can see the top online investors and the value that they have been generating on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. You also win weekly prizes for showing your financial prudence in the virtual world.

I must say this is an excellent strategy which has all the elements of web stickiness that would bind the user to moneycontrol.com. If you have not ventured into stock markets so far, moneycontrol.com provides you with a perfect ground zero platform to hone up your skills.

personalfn.com - Manage your personal finance

personalfn.com is probably one amongst very few Indian personal finance management sites which offers tips and advises to consumers on personal finance management. A bulk of the site is content based with topics mainly related to investments using various instruments like mutual funds, insurance, gold, FD's etc. There are sections on tax management and NRI investment strategies which come handy for quick reference. The best thing that I liked about personalfn is its simplistic approach in highlighting key personal areas of life that need constant financial planning attention in any consumer's life: taxation, education, marriage, retirement and property .

The site also provides a number of tools like education clac, property planner, marriage planner, tax calculator etc. which allow you to get on with quick calculations. There are premium services like My Planner which allow you to manage your personal finance online. Though I am not a big fan of their planing tools due to usability issues but still it is best amongst the lot.

personalfn has a offline presence in various cities which provide personalized services to consumers. If you are new to personal finance, I strongly suggest you take a look at this site!

Moviemart - A DVD rental and sales web store

Moviemart is a DVD rental web site in the "Me too" category of movie rental business. It offers movies on rent all over India. For Delhi users, the movies can be delivered or picked within 2 hours however, for other cities the movies are sent through courier and can be received in two business days. I do not find any key features that distinguishes it from other web sites in this category except for the DVD sales store. You can browse and buy movies online in addition to getting them on rent. The rental process is straightforward and a no brainer. However, pricing appears to be little cryptic as compared to other web sites that I have studied so far. The moviemart team should look at improving the usability as well as look and feel of the web site. As compared to other sites it definitely falls behind on this front and does need some lift.

seventymm.com

seventymm.com is another movie rental site in the growing online movie rental business. It has presence in major cosmo sities like Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Chandigarh and Hyderabad. It has a collection of more than 15000 movies in different genres and covers around 14 Indian and foreign languages. The rental plans are at par with other sites I have reviewed so far.

The site has lot of sticky features in addition to offering rental services which probably is useful in retaining the customers. It has elements of web2.0 paradigm with features like user forums, networking, content creation like you can upload photos, audio and videos clips. The fellow users can rate and comments to uploaded content. There is a section on celebrities which is yet another unique way of promoting videos, music etc. related to a celebrity. I am not sure if seventymm is using its platform to advertise products from bollywood product portfolio but I see a lot of potential in converting it into a money minting machine in addition to the rental business !

clixflix - Movie Rental webstore

clixflix is a Mumbai based online movie rental web store which caters to movie lovers in the city of Mumbai and its suburbs like Navi Mumbai and Thane. You can get a movie on rent through phone, SMS, online or by walking into its retail store. The company claims to have more than 8500+ titles for users to select from and has 7 retail outlets in Mumbai region. The web site is simple to use. The membership plans range from 399 to 4999 with different options and facilities. There are options to get your movies delivered at home or office. It also offers pick up service based on your convenience. The users can also create a group by inviting friends and share each others respective movie queues, ratings and comments.

People staying in Mumbai can atleast have now options to choose when it comes to selecting their favorite online movie rental shops.

BigFlix.com : Movies on Rent

After bigadda and zapak, Anil Ambani promoted bigflix.com is yet another big move to create a mark into rapidly growing entertainment industry. BigFlix has come out with two basic offerings targeted towards Indian and international customers. The international customers get an option to purchase and download videos online while customers in India get the option to get movies on rent. The rental offerings include movies , popular TV serials, Documentaries, Plays and Kidshindi, english, tamil, bhojpuri, kannada, marathi, malayalam, punjabi, telgu and rajasthani. The wide coverage itself is representative of the fact that the company is quite serious about its future plans and is bullish about the growing entertainment market. The process of getting movies on rental is very simply put up in the form of the graphic image displayed below. The rental plans appear to be reasonable but the adoption still appears to be a big question mark especially with local video parlours dominating the space. It will be an interesting market to watch especially with lot of other players entering into this space.

Make money online - myntra.com

Alright, I never thought that i would end up getting a replica of pringoo so soon... it may be a wild coincidence but the fact is myntra is just another pringoo!! I do not think I have much to write here but would rather say that i can almost do everything what I could do at pringoo.com. I think it has a richer product portfolio which the users can customize and design. At myntra you have option to be a designer and create your own designs which can be put up for sale. You get a cool 10% on every product sold that uses your design.
Interestingly, myntra has a tie-up with ibibo which allows its users to import photos from his ibibo account and use it for building custom products. I must say this is a smart move from myntra on customer acquisition. I am sure in coming days we are going to witness real marketing innovations in building up business models around this space.

Make Money Online - Pringoo.com

Recently, I came across this very interesting web site called Pringoo which allows you to create your own design and get it printed on products like T-Shirt, Mugs, Soft Toys, coasters etc. The process is very simple - You select a product, upload your favorite photo, add some text and that's about it, you have created your first self-designed product!! Sitting at the comfort of your house you can get your first masterpiece delivered at your home by paying a nominal amount (Rs 199 - Rs 500)... I am sure you wouldn't mind paying that kind of amount for your first masterpiece :) Also, you can use this web site to create customized gifts for your loved ones and get it delivered on their doorsteps!

I find pringoo a very interesting concept especially from the perspective of someone who wants to build an online business sitting at home. If you are little bit creative, you can actually set up a free online store in no time. Everytime your design is being used by a customer in designing and buying a product you will earn a decent commission. The beauty of this model is that you do not need to invest a penny except for spending some time online which I am sure you anyways do :)
In addition there are a number of other features like Prngoo Club, forums and various other events which are being organized from time-to-time to give push to your creativity.

Dhingana - Free musical album site

Dhingana is an online music web site with all the elements of web2.0 paradigm. It provides users songs in hindi, tamil, marathi and punjabi. You can create a list of your favorite songs and share it with your friends. Some of the interesting things to notice here is the quality of media streams. It is almost smooth and gives an excellent user experience. Moreover, you are not required to install any plug-in to install in order to listen to any song. Search offers options to locate a song by Album, song, user, smartlists (a user created list of favorite songs). Some of the other key features include mGreetings, and 360Widget. While mGreetings is a novel idea of creating a greeting using a song or group of songs that you can send to your friend, the widget enables you to plug-in dhingana music player in your web site or blog (see it in action on my blog!!).

On the whole I loved the experience at dhingana primarily because of the performance and simplicity. Kudos to the team who has built this. However, I am not sure how they have come around the licensing model for streaming the songs. If anyone has any idea do write to me !