BigFlix: is it another NetFlix ?

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If you are in India you can probably see 100s of advertisements for the newly launched DVD rental service BigFlix. Looks like after Big FM this is Anil Dhirubhai Ambani's next 'big' thing.
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.If you note the ADAG also has a major stack in DTDC and their delivery woes are gone before we think about it. By launching the website, Reliance ADAG wants to tap the estimated 25 million non-resident Indian (NRI) population and the large non-Indian consumers of Indian entertainment content.

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Nearly 1,000 of the BIGFlix's estimated 15,000 movie titles, music and other Indian entertainment content would be available for the users to download on the website, launched early this week.

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Two models of movie downloads have been introduced. One is a streaming model through which the contents are available for free viewing. Users having a fast broadband connection can view the content instantly.

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The other is download-to-own model, in which contents are available for a fee ranging from $2-$10. Besides Hindi and English, the website will offer a variety of regional movies, music and television contents - in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Marathi.

With a view to safeguarding the downloadable content, BIGFlix has tied up with Entriq, a company that provides content protection service through Digital Rights Management (DRM), issues licenses and provides access control to prevent misuse.

Meanwhile, in order to popularise the website, BIGFlix has started innovative advertising campaign, "Ab Aam Zindagi Ban Jaye Filmi" on television.What do you think about it? Is it another hit business idea or a dud one?

"For me Cannot say for sure at this moment!! As with the services and pricing its nothing great !! I don't know bout the other cities but in Pune we have tons of options for the rental, which include some players like Planet M, Local Vender’s, etc. The Multiplex experience is not that much of expensive, even u can found pirated version on all new & old title by roadside.. (and cost is to low as compare to service provide by bigflix)"

So as far as Pune is concerned BIGFLIX is just another wannabe in the business !!

Though the advanced step taken by ADAG to launch movie rental portal, as being online marketer I am very optimistic about the Online Business Model of bigflix which is shaking all the established physical sales model. The proactive marketing and net driven approach is highly appreciated. Due to such online application the Indian consumer get matured with online application as well as made a valuable change in their consumption pattern. Through this launch ADAG create a new online business possibilities & giving Indian consumer a realistic online purchasing experience.

Offline Marketing for Online Business

People think that when their business is done completely, or mostly online that their marketing should also be done online. The truth is that offline marketing for an online business can be just as effective as online marketing efforts.

Offline marketing includes advertising your online business in places like newspapers, magazines, flyers, and banners. Electronics media or business cards. Sure it is also important to advertise online, but by advertising offline as well, you have an advantage over the majority of online business owners who only advertise online. You are reaching a larger market, and your advertising efforts will stand out. On the Internet, people see a slew of ads constantly running, constantly nagging them to buy this or that product or service. By advertising offline, your ad stands alone, and is unique, without a bombardment of other online ads as a distraction. The offline ad campaign of zapak.com and Ads2book.com is a classic example how one should apply offline advertisement for online business. There are people looking to make extra money everywhere!

As far as newspapers go, don't just stop at one paper. Choose your local papers, but also consider newspapers from different cities and towns! Spread yourself out! The easy thing about newspaper classifieds is that you can even order online for many newspapers. If not, it is a simple phone call, and ads are very inexpensive. If you are consistent enough in your offline advertising efforts, you may pick up sales. The key is to do it consistently, so that people see your ad not once, but every day for a month.

Handing out flyers at local restaurants or coffee shops, posting flyers in a condo building, and handing out your business card with your URL on it are also very effective methods of advertising. One must not forget the power of offline networking. This includes telling your friends and family and everyone you know about your business.

Keep in mind when offline advertising what it is that you want to achieve. You want to grab people’s attention, and motivate them to take action. Once they do take action, you want to follow up with them to build a relationship and keep them coming back for more. It is wise to read up on how to write good ad copy to ensure that you are grabbing people’s attention in a way that encourages them to respond.

The great advantages and power of offline marketing should never be underestimated. Just because this is the internet-age does not mean that traditional methods of advertising have gone out of style! You can make a fortune by combining your online marketing efforts with your offline marketing efforts!

Advantage:
Offline Networking
Generate Traffic
Produce Sales
Increase Profit

Treat:
Onetime Consumption Pattern
Restrict To Viral Effect
High Investment.
Expose Technology And Strategy Intelligence.

Online Classifieds Industry in India

Newspapers industry is losing out the classified revenues - advertising at some of the larger chains has dropped 14 to 20 percent over the past year, Online traffic to classified sites has grown 23 percent, to more than 46 million unique visitors in July, up from about 37 million a year earlier (ComScore) Classified listings in MySpace has jumped 33 percent since their August 2006 debut. [source]

Typical business Model in Online classifieds Industry:

Aggregation of ads / Market making: Distribute the classified ads to other sites - e.g. Edgio like model where Edgio users can create their own classified boards (Crunchboard is one of them) , collate classifieds ads - which can be dispersed to other sites.
Platform players - A regular model where the site just aggregates the ads and be the platform for classified ads.
Buyer focused: Apart from aggregating classified ads, these products are more focused towards buyer’s needs and they give away tools for buyers to analyze the market trend, get alerts etc.

Indian Classified Industry: Market size
The estimated size of online Indian classifieds Industry (as per 2007 data) is estimated to be around 550 crores
Total Classifieds business:
Print: Rs. 1000 crores, Online: Rs. 550 crores
Print : Rs. 100 crores, Online: Rs. 230 crores

Why is the online newspaper industry not able to attract online classifieds business?
Statistically speaking, only about 2.5 % of online newspaper readers visit the matrimonial section of online newspaper - they prefer to go to the niche vertical sites [read the analysis/report on the online newspaper industry the same logic applies to job sites and real estate sites as well - niche matters and newspapers aren’t providing that.

Challenges with the online classifieds Industry in India:

Information hoarding: Take rental apartments - even though you know (from sources other than the broker) that a rental apartment is available, you still need to pay the brokerage! Brokers hoard the info, they almost own the information.
Sellers are not online: while buyers are all over the Internet. One of the most significant challenges in the Indian classifieds industry is that sellers are not online. How many apartment landlords are willing to put up their rental ads on a website? Infact, how many landlords is Internet savvy? Very few, I believe.and that leads to information hoarding and bluntly speaking, information is free, while the transaction costs hell of a lot of money. Essentially that means, we cannot have a craiglist like model. Having said that, the majority of online classifieds solutions should focus on solving the information problem; and instead of being a pure online model, should also have an offline component.

To me an ideal indian Online classified player should have:
a strong offline process to get the content from sellers (ditch the Internet, why can’t people use their mobiles to send their classified ads?) edgio like ability to disperse the seller ads to multiple places (BharatMatrimony’s IndiaList.com is probably an attempt in that direction?)

Few players in the online classifieds market - Sulekha , YoList, IndiaList, makaan, IndiaProperty..and many more What do you think should the online classified industry should
focus on? User generated content? or offline channels? I look forward to your comments.