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IPL is like E-Commerce in India. Too much money, no real show !

I don’t follow IPL anymore.It’s over glamorous for me. Less focus on cricket, more focus on money. Same story goes for E-Commerce in India, less focus on doing some real innovation, more focus on burning VC money.

In E-Commerce, it’s DISCOUNTS that attract people and in IPL, it’s CHEER LEADERS who actually attract the crowd. So it comes down to how many people actually buy from particular E-Commerce site because they are doing something great, selling something different ? On a similar note, how many people actually go to watch real cricket match.

In E-Commerce, sending 2 emailers a day is like 2 matches a day in IPL. IPLis fun, if I can follow complete tournament with all the matches. But 2 matches in a day is next to impossible to watch. I can understand that you took ~400 cr from Pepsi and few more cr from other sponsors and have to give them adequate advertisement space. Similarly for E-Commerce, I can understand that you raised more money for your business than required and have to scale fast.

Why someone will follow a team in IPL ? Because of it’s players, right ? I used to follow Delhi Daredevils when Sehwag and Gautam were openers. Now Gautam plays for Kolkata Knight Riders, it’s not the same feel for me anymore. I can understand why it’s happening but it’s about building Loyal Fans of the team. On a similar note, how many E-Commerce sites are focusing on building loyal customers ? Now if you just put Brett Lee in a team not because he is a great bowler but because he is also good for advertising and can get you extra bucks by doing ads. It’s same as selling electronics products in E-Commerce which doesn’t have a margin but get you more revenue for a balance sheet ?

Don’t forget the Basics, if it’s Business or Sports : Bootstrap, Bootstrap until you can. Extra money is bad. Most of the decisions in both the games are taken by people who have invested money. Nonsense acquisitions in E-Commerce (Flipkart – Letsbuy, Zovi – Inkfruit, SnapDeal – eSportybuy, Tradus – buytheprice, blah – blah) are because of Investors pressure only. IPL and E-Commerce, both can be the future of India. Please don’t loose them for the sake of Money.

At bluegape, few rockstars are trying to build India’s Biggest Fan Merchandising store. We just launched the Fan Merchandise of IPL at bluegape.com/IPL ! Check it out if you still follow IPL.

P.S. : This shapeless soul tweets @sbaghla

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  1. hope more and more people become mature enough to just ignore this whole IPL thing but your concept is great, nice tees what about a collection featuring IIT / IIM toppers social achievers i mean the REAL heroes of our society.

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