BollyClips February 15, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Video Sharing , 6commentsI feel like I’m turning eIndia into one of the ubiquitous bollywood-focused sites. But these Indian movie/video streaming websites keep popping up everywhere, and I’m amazed by the variety of startups in this domain.
BollyClips is a free
(no need to signup/register) online collection of trailers, music videos, full-length movies, albums, slideshows and miscellaneous stuff related to bollywood. I am sure that they are breaking one or two media copyright laws here- these are syndicated content, for god’s sake! Although some of the links are to external repositories (like YouTube), a significant amount is hosted by BollyClips. I clicked on a really old film (Ek Duje Ke Liye- Kamal Hasan, Rati Agnihotri, 1981) and it loaded up in under a minute on my DSL connection. There is a sleazy-looking ‘Hot & Sexy’ section too, which has snippets of bollywood’s semi-vulgar content.
Don’t know how they plan to monetize all this content (or avoid the lawsuits). Even though they are named after bollywood, there are a bunch of YouTube hollywood movies links on their site too, for some reason.
iDesiTV February 14, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Media Streaming , 24commentsiDesiTV is another player in the IPTV market for South Asian content. The site is free but requires registration. If you are wondering how they are able to stream free content when others are charging for it, I haven’t got the scoop on that yet.
The only attempt at monetizing was a “Donate” box. I signed up and tried the stream in FireFox 2, but it didn’t work (my paranoid NoScript was blocking it). But in IE6, the stream came through well in Windows Media Player. Not much delay, and not bad quality!
I don’t know how iDesiTV is going to survive with ‘donation’ business model (the high bandwidth cost for streaming media needs to be covered somehow, right?), but take advantage while it lasts.
Update: My dad tried iDesiTV for about a month when he was visiting to catch up on news and other regular cable stuff. The streaming was very stable and stood the abuse of frequent channel switching very well. I’m inclined to give two thumbs for iDesiTV (for now, at least)…
Willow.TV February 14, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Media Streaming , 2commentsWillow.TV is a streaming site that is dedicated to two sports- cricket and soccer. I like the site (including their name), but haven’t signed up for service yet.
One can get a ball-by-ball commentary pushed to you instant messenger window or mobile phone for free at willow.tv. Streaming tickers, interactive scorecards, video highlights are the other interesting functionalities.
The pricing is steep though- a set of 3 ODI’s were up for $29.95. Another interesting price plan is all 2007 year-long cricket streaming for$199.99 (
ouch!). If anyone has had an experience with their service, feel free to leave a comment.
Note: Although less mature, DesiCrickets is another cricket streaming site. You can read about it here.
LiveMint February 11, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : News , 2commentsLiveMint is the recently launched online version of “Mint”- an Indian business newspaper by Hindustan Times Media company. The paper is published with an exclusive agreement with Wall Street Journal to publish WSJ branded news and information in India.
The site is moderately usable, and looks focused on business news (which is a bit of surprise, knowing that all Indian media portals tend to drift away from their main domain in an effort to gather more eyeballs).
TamilGrounds February 11, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Media Streaming , 6commentsWriting about StreamBox.in was like stirring up a hornet’s nest- Lots of angry customers of StreamBox poured in their comments against the website. Someone suggested TamilGrounds in their comment and I decided to check it out.
On the outset, TamilGrounds looks much like StreamBox.in- it is an Indian media portal that focuses on content in regional languages (mostly south Indian movies, serials and songs). I’ve never tried the service myself, but the general user opinion about it doesn’t seem positive. The site apparently has significant downtime and weak customer support, just like StreamBox.in.
If you have tried TamilGrounds (or any other Indian online media subscription site, for that matter) in the past, do leave a comment here about your experience. Please note that I don’t have any affiliation with TamilGrounds. My only intent is to surface the public opinion about it through this review.
GOI Directory February 10, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Governmental , add a commentThey are hard to come by, but I do believe there are useful Indian governmental sites out there. If I had to pick one useful governmental site- the official Directory of official web sites of Government of India would be it.
What I like about it is it’s simplicity. It aimed to be a directory, and that’s exactly what it is. No fancy graphics or distracting segues. It’s a useful index for all things official on the web: from hospitals and banks to legal and research.
There is functionality to suggest a site for addition, which is neat.
India.gov.in February 10, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Governmental , 1 comment so farDid you ever wonder where was the official Indian government website? Well, I did. That’s how I found the National Portal of India. Its a good looking page, even looks a bit graceful even after being content-heavy. Heck, there is a ‘webcast’ section too; in case you missed the Republic Day parade. Realizing that it’s very tough to make a usable site for such massive content and audience, I think they did a very good job.
Speaking of ‘official’ representative site- it turns out that there is more than one (!). India Image is (another) Official Government of India portal since 1996, developed with an aim to provide comprehensive information about India and its various facets including its Government, heritage, economy, news, online citizen services etc. It’s a more fact oriented website albeit it’s less usable (unnecessary flashing/blinking graphics in multiple places).
Overall, two good places for generic, factual and official information about India.
Band of Angels February 6, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Business, Technology , add a commentI don’t feel like posting about VC’s. There are too many of them, and most of their websites are nothing but immodest showcases displaying their ‘expertise’ and portfolio. Reluctantly, I sometime do write about them because they are the driving force- unloading the equity in the Indian IT startup scene.
Band of Angels is a Delhi based group of individuals, some of them veterans of the IT industry in US. They have 3 investments currently (of interest is madhouse.in, the online movie rental for Delhi/Chandigarh).
Update: In July 2007, Google announced that they have joined as an institutional member of Band of Angels. Mo’ Money to go around..
Madhouse.in February 6, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Movie Rental , add a commentMadhouse is the second player in the nascent netflix-inspired movie rental startups in India.
Madhouse launched may 2005 in the Chandigarh area. Their apparent success and recent first round of funding (about $230,000 from Band of Angels, Delhi) has inspired foray into the Delhi region recently. Their business plan is (almost) like that of US-based services (Netflix, Blockbuster etc), and the plans start at Rs.199 (with Rs.395 as deposit). The two key differences from US-based services are: One, the movie queue can be maintained via phone/sms/email in addition to online. Second, the delivery is not by mail, but through courier. So instead of just finding the movie in your mailbox, a person actually hands them over to you.
The viability of a online movie-rental business depends on reducing the biggest variable cost- delivering the movies. In India, the most reliable way for this is hand-delivery and it makes me wonder how cost effective is that going to be in the long-term. People (specially in the chaotic, unpredictable Indian lifestyle) would constantly have mismatched delivery/return schedules. That would lead to 1.) higher cost and 2.) diminished overall collection at a given time, both will cut into the margin for Madhouse.
I’m not pessimistic about the overall business idea actually. Like many other domains, this too is one that can’t escape an IT makeover. Sooner or later, India will reach the minimum threshold of infrastructure (and attitude) that makes such online business models viable. But I’m not sure if that time has arrived yet. It’ll take the bold attempts of similar businesses to pave the way.
What doesn’t kill you, only makes you stronger.. Hope that madhouse survives the anguish of being an early player.
Update: Seventymm acquired Madhouse.in June 2007.
DesiVesi February 4, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Uncategorized , 4commentsWhat can you write about a site when it’s ‘About’ page has nothing but the phrase ‘Dummy Text’ repeated multiple times.
DesiVesi is a portal for NRI’s. It’s look-and-feel is a bit cheesy with sardarji cartoons everywhere. Content is pretty low, judging by my acid-test: click on ‘Classifieds’, choose california state and hit search. No match.
My theory is that if you can’t get anyone from California to post in your ‘Classifieds’ section, you haven’t reached the minimum threshold for content viability. By the way, none of the other states pulled up any classifieds either.
Other than classifieds, there are some scanty movie reviews, odd recipes and mysterious matrimonial ads.