@TiEcon 2006: The Biggest Challenge For Content Is – Who Will Pay For It?

On Day 2, the session on ‘Emerging Opportunities & Trends’ featured Arvind Singhal, Chairman of Technopak, Pramod Bhasin, President & CEO of GENPACT and Pramath Sinha, the Group CEO of the ABP Group. Arving Singhal started things off by, as expected, giving lots of numbers related to the retail industry. Retail, he said, is going to see at least $24bn investment in India over the next five years. So where do the opportunities lie? In the front end – think small and niche focusing on unmet demands like furniture, outdoor, health and sports. One can also focus on lifestyle oriented products since there is going to be lots of retail space to be filled, which also presents opportunities in back end services. The challenges for entrepreneurs in the coming years: the pace of change will be rapid, entry of international players will increase competition, and the speed of response will be essential. What to be careful about: for India, build India specific solutions; do not copy international models. Pramod Bhasin spoke of the opportunities in outsourcing: India has only 1-2% of the global outsourcing market, and there is miles to go. The massive skill shortage in developed countries will ensure that the demand will be maintained, but in India, investment needs to be made in creating more universities instead of fighting over reservations.

Pramath Sinha spoke about the outsourcing side of the ABP Group’s business – compiling newspapers for international markets in India. About the media, he said India is still a very small market. This is an industry, however, where the growth is phenomenal and the margins are high. Where is the opportunity in media? Customers want customized content, on demand. Advertising is becoming more demanding with requirements for greater targeting in terms of sales. Growth of mobile and Internet, cineplexes, CableTV and Satellite TV are all disruptions that make content more accessible. The biggest challenge for content is – who will pay for it? The advertisers, the subscribers or both? No one has the answers yet. There are low barriers to entry so it can be tested and worked out.
During the Q&A, I asked Arvind Singhal and Pramath Sinha about whether they think e-commerce and m-commerce can tie up with retail and media by enabling commercial transactions. Arvind Singhal said that T-Commerce or Telephone commerce will evolve, of which mobile will be one part. It will essentially be used to call up for home delivery. Pramath Sinha felt that the Internet and Mobile are just means of increasing interactivity with the customers: it’s a channel that consumers are demanding, but there aren’t many signs of commerce being enabled yet.

Comments have been disabled for this post