Business Opportunities in India
There is plenty of exciting business opportunities in India. We have started a list of business ideas for those entrepreneurs who are interested in Internet ventures, outsourcing technology, e-commerce opportunities, software development opportunities, business trends and other business ideas. We hope to add to this list as we find case studies in Bangalore, India.
- Online Customer Support From India
- E-Commerce Business Opportunities Within India
- Export Data Services
Online Customer Support From India
There is a company in Bangalore that has pioneered this idea. Aditi (www.aditi.com) provides email customer support for Real Media. The customer in America who needs support will have his problem solved via email by a team of Indians. The Internet has opened the door for this type of opportunity. It really is true that the geographic barriers are coming down.
- The Potential
The business potential in this type venture is the cost savings of running a business in India. There is a huge labor pool of good quality English speakers who can easily handle customer support for web sites like RealMedia. The cost to hire someone to do this is about US $150-$200 per month. You can expect to hire a very nice English speaker who has had some computer training. Furthermore he or she will have a pleasant attitude, as most Indians are warm and friendly.
- The Downside
The risk is that the customers will not be served well if the Indian staff is not trained properly. The staff needs to understand the mindset of the American customer. This can easily be overcome as long as the potential problem is recognized.
E-Commerce Business Opportunities Within India
The consumer market is huge and expanding. It is not only growing by sheer population growth but also because the improving economy is producing a growing class of people with disposable income. Furthermore this potential market is relatively untouched. It is only in the past few years that many consumer products have become available in India.
- The Potential
The potential is to get involved early in the e-commerce boom. As of now there are only a handful of companies involved. The potential is limited for the next year or two .But keep in mind that China had only 600,000 Internet users in November 1997 and by October of 1999 China has about 4 million users (And the big advantage that India has over China is the common use of the English language). The same growth of the Internet will happen in India.
- The Downside
There are some serious obstacles in the way. Few people are used to the idea of mail order. It may take one or two years for the trust to be established between the customer and the company. Also the middle class is 50-70 million but only about 1 million have direct access to the Internet, only 1 in 36 Indians have a phone and most don’t have a credit card.
Export Data Services
Any kind of outsourcing of data entry or data conversion is a good candidate for a successful start up business in India. The hottest thing these days in Bangalore is medical transcription. Doctors and hospitals in the USA send their audio transcriptions via the Internet to Bangalore, India. They send the audio file at 5:00pm which is around 5.00am in India. The workers can do their work so that the Doctor has the text document the next morning. In Bangalore you can find good examples of companies already doing this. Go to Yahoo and type in “data entry India” or “data conversion India”. You will be startled by the amount of information that is available.
- The Potential
The potential for this type of business venture is great. Many of the Bangalore companies are growing and adding employees quickly. The reason there is such a global demand for this kind of work is because companies want to have their documents in a digital format. This conversion may include scanning the document into the computer and then going one-step further and tagging and indexing them in HTML SGML or XML so that it can be put on the Internet and easily retrieved. The entrepreneurs who are willing to joint venture with Indian partners to start up a business like this will not only make money but will be doing a great service for India by providing high quality skilled jobs.
- The Downside
The risk is in, not maintaining top quality work for the client. This has been a complaint of many clients