as random as Ek Do 3

Being Indian myself, I can proudly say that Indians are generally more frugal than others. We want to make sure that we are getting the best deal on anything we purchase, and will go to certain lengths to ensure that we do. At the end of the day, if we are buying something, it just makes sense to ensure that we are not spending too much or more importantly, more than our neighbors are.

The idea of Price comparison shopping is not a new one. It has been around for over a decade with some of the large players worth half a billion + $US dollars (LINK). Sites such as Pricegrabber, Shopzilla, Nextag, Smarter, Pronto, Bizrate, Shopping have been extremely successful in the US, UK and other countries with a high IPR (internet penetration rate).

Sure with a population of ~ 1B, one would assume that online shopping in India is also booming, however this is not the case. It has to do with a combination of factors, starting with Indians distrust in Credit Cards and their unwillingness to share that information over the net. Sure the wariness factor is trending towards a more positive outlook as we see the younger demographic getting more accustomed to the net and showing positive signs of shopping online.

Combine the above factor with the very low IPR rate that India claims (~ 7%), along with the Indian values of not carrying debt by trying to pay off everything, online shopping in India displays its challenges. Although the IPR rate is pretty low, it still turns out to be a nice chunk of the earths population to market to (~ 81M people). Point to be noted, out of the ~ 81 M Internet Users in India, only ~ 3M (less than 4%) have Broadband connection.

There are a few online companies bringing awareness about the Price comparison shopping concept to the Indian Internet population, some of which are CompareIndia.com, Naaptol, Compare the Bazaar, Shopmania, Bechna.

Some of the more reputable storefronts to buy your goods online in India are CafeGadgets.in, StoreJi.com, SmartShoppers.in, TechShop.in, Letsbuy.com, StoreCoin.com, IndiaVarta.com, India-Haat.com, India Times Shopping, Rediff Shopping

As internet pricing decreases and IPR rates improve in India, its just a matter of time before Indians start using comparison shopping engines as their initial search for purchasing their next item online. Its a huge market that is just begging to roll…

For a list of all Indian Shopping sites and portals visit www.keemat.com - indian advertising network.

Buy.com was acquired for US$250 million cash by Global online Retailer Rakuten, who also runs Japans largest shopping mall with over 50 million products and more than 33,000 merchants.

In these trying times, the deal sounds like a sweet one for Rakuten. At one time Buy.com was valued well over 600M so this is definitely a bargain for the Japanese Giant. Sure it seems like a win win for both companies but not for affiliate network CJ. How does CJ play into the mix?

As you may know Rakuten acquired Linkshare (LS) affiliate network a few years ago and now with the acquisition its just a matter of time before CJ looses one of its major players in its network to LS - Buy.com. Rakuten is going to be a major player in this space and I see them taking this to the next level and acquiring a price comparison engine to complete the trifecta. They will then own the network (tracking), the comparison engine (marketing tool), and the merchant (buy.com) which will make Rakuten a force to reckon with.

Recently had one of my websites that was once listed in the top 25K sites in the world according to Alexa, dropped from the natural listings of Google altogether.  The site was receiving well over 1.5 M monthly page views, had a sitemap in Google search results and was well indexed in Google, until I noticed a dramatic decrease in new visitors a few days ago, and found the culprit being no more links indexed in the Google natural search results, and the site pretty much removed from existence.  Imagine the horror, after 7 months spent day and night, you pour your heart and soul on a project, just to find that Google has removed your site from their index!!!

This is exactly what I felt like……

What makes the matter worse, is that I am not even sure why it was removed?  I have contacted Google on a number of occasions, but Google being…..”Google” has not responded or even acknowledged receipt of email.  At least if they respond, I would know what was done wrong, so that I can fix the error and not do it again.  I have tried to contact them through their Webmaster Tools and same thing - no response.

The site is an niche online movie aggregator that gathers videos from different sources, embeds those files and displays them in a nice, neat and orderly fashion.  There are numerous online movie aggregators doing exactly what I am doing and even taking it to the next level, where they are hosting some movies directly.   These sites are nicely indexed with Google and have very deep natural links additionally have also been approved for Adsense and I also see them advertising on Adwords, so I have no idea why Google would take offense and remove my website from their natural listings, no warning….nothing.  POOF!

So I decide to take another route by using their Adwords solution and spend money to get Google visitors and here is the exact response I receive from Google after being denied for my first submission:

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At this time, Google policy does not permit the advertisement of websites (including services or products therein) that violate or encourage violation of any applicable laws. In this case, your advertisement directs users to a website that either contains (or claims to contain) copyrighted TV shows, movies, or music that cannot be distributed freely online, or your website promotes the availability of such material without the consent of the copyright holder.

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The part in their response that makes absolutely no sense and shows Google’s double standards is that according to them, the ‘advertisement directs users to a website that contains copyrighted TV shows, movies or music’  in other words….YouTube and Google Videos, BOTH of which are owned and operated by Google.  So if I am directing users to something inappropriate, according to them, then Google should remove those videos from their own properties.  They have basically admitted that there is something inherently wrong with sites that contain copyrighted TV shows, movies or music, which is at the heart, essence and core of their two largest portals - YouTube and Google Videos.  They, themselves are hosting these videos and are refusing my advertisement because I have links to their websites. This is the height of double standards, and needs to be addressed.

All is not lost however, as Yahoo still has the site nicely indexed in their natural listings and is sending a steady stream of new visitors and users.  Although a fraction of the traffic that Google sends, I definitely am glad that Yahoo has separate algorithms in place when it comes to natural search.   With Google taking such a dramatic step by removing my listings, I have learned a major lesson, that Google is not necessarily the solution when it comes to search.  I need more…. I need Yahoo, Live, Ask and more. Previous searches on Google that resulted in my site coming up on the first page no longer show my site in the first 50 (i stopped looking after 50 pages).  This leads me to believe that the selection process and algorithms Google has in place may not necessarily be giving us the full spectrum of results as we have always imagined.

The .asia domain extension is available as of October 9 2007. Effective immediately, owners or authorized representatives of trademark rights can reserve “their” .asia domain. In the initial sunrise phase, reservations can be made for trademarks registered before March 16, 2004 and that are currently published and used. Companies do not have to supply supporting documentation with their applications, but must present it upon request. The initial phase lasts until October 30, 2007.

During the next phase(November 13, 2007 to January 15, 2008), domains can be requested for trademarks that were applied for before December 6, 2006. Finally, the landrush phase offers registration of .asia domains to the general public and is scheduled to start in February 2008. If several parties request the same domain during one of the phases, the domain will be auctioned rather than assigned according to the rules of “first come, first served.” After the live phase, which should start in March 2008, the remaining domains will be assigned to parties who submitted their applications first.

Here is a list of registrars along with some typical costs to expect when registering a .asia domain:

GoDaddy - $19.99/year with $100 application fees
AsiaRegistry - $45.00/year with $150 application fees
Net4.in - 800 INR/year with 4000 INR application fees
007names.com - $26/year with $80 application fee

Check out DotAsia.org for the latest updates, news and dot asia related articles. Here is a list of ICANN designated Asia Pacific countries eligible for the .asia domain extension: