Are we ignoring a gold-rush happening here by looking too much at the global market?
When given a chance, we, entrepreneurs never forget to criticize our governments or “the system” as a whole. We often complaint that there are so many bottlenecks in our system which doesn’t allow people to start a business or lead a better/smooth/easy/fast life.
I was one among them; but not anymore!
I will tell you why.
If the people of ‘one of the biggest economies in the world’ faces problems, it means there is a HUGE gold rush for entrepreneurs-the problem solvers!In a country so vast and crowded like India, technology will play the key role in solving these problems/pain points/lack of conveniences. So I think this is the golden time for a technology entrepreneur in India.
The internet changes everything it touches. And it touches everything!
With 24.3 Crore users, India is going to o-v-e-r-t-a-k-e USA in internet reach by June 2014. It covers 9 out of 10 middle class Indians. On the other side, India(not China) is the world’s fastest growing smartphone market. There will be 36 f**king Crore smartphone users here by the end of this year. If you think “what is the big deal about it?”, you really don’t have any idea about how “big” these waves are!
New opportunities are going to appear from the dirt when internet meets ‘something’:
- Internet meets bus booking- RedBus
- Internet meets travel- Cleartrip/Makemytrip
- Internet meets cinema ticket booking– Bookmyshow
- Internet meets real estate– Housing.com
- Internet meets classifieds– Quickr/OLX
- Internet meets commerce– Flipkart/Myntra/Snapdeal
The list is growing everyday. These companies are doing really good in the local market. They are either making good money or becoming pioneers aiming at a future gold-rush. But these products are just scratching the surface. There are so many bigger and brighter gems hidden in the dirt. Because this market is that huge.
On the other hand; every Tom, Dick and Harry is ‘targeting the global market’. But how many of them are actually making any serious money? I don’t know anyone other than InMobi and Zomato doing any big business in the global market. When you build a global product from here which doesn’t target the Indian market, you have to rely too much on assumptions. Most of such products are often failed in few years. But if you are building a product that has good market here, you can go global later by replicating the success to similar markets.
This realization made huge impacts the way I think about local market and it changed the way we positioned our product.
Bottom line:
The wind is super favorable for technology entrepreneurs who could utilize the power of internet and mobile to solve a real problem Indian consumers face. “Mobile first” is the way ahead here. I can see so many ideas around me where a niche product can bridge a gap in the market and build a solid business on top of it. You don’t have to invent a new idea. Just build the Indian version of any product which is successful in similar markets abroad.
Before winding up, I have a humble advice to budding entrepreneurs: please don’t blind yourselves from a desi gold-rush by reading too much TechCrunch or HackerNews 
Thanks for reading
I am Vivek Raghavan, Co-Founder and CEO of WowMakers– a small design studio founded back in 2011. We are angel funded by the awesome founders of MobME Wireless. We are now busy giving final touches to our flagship product-CrowdStudio.