Bigflicks November 26, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Movie Rental , add a commentIt was inevitable. Sooner or later, the big boys were going to enter the Indian online movie rental space. Reliance ADA-Group made its foray with Bigflicks this past August.
There are two parts to Bigflicks - media download and rental. Download cost between $4.49-$19.99 (worldwide; and yes, they are DRM‘ed and need a proprietary media manager to access downloaded content) and the rental service is currently in Chandigarh, Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore only. Predictably enough, they are well placed content-wise: movies in most languages, TV series, plays and games. Even a handful of adult titles.
Even if you ignore the bad grammar (’How we work?’, ‘Ask your Query’) , the download site overall is unimpressive, specially given the deep pockets behind it. I hate the fact that it autmatically starts playing the trailers when you open it.
The rental section is okay to navigate, but the real deal there is going to be execution in the physical world. I’m sure the plans starting at Rs.250 are competitively priced, but it remains to be seen if it gets good response from the users.
MovieTell.co.in August 12, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Movie Rental , add a commentMovieTell is the Indian answer to Fandango (sort of). Although I can’t understand the reason they chose that name, I think their business model is clear- they sell tickets for Indian movie theaters online and make money on the commission.
I guess we needed something like this for the overcrowded Indian theaters. I hate standing in line for the tickets. With MovieTell you can buy the tickets and simply goto the theater (no need for paper ticket delivery) with the credit card used online as a proof. The catch is that they don’t have enough coverage yet.. the service is currently available in only 16 theaters in handful of metro cities. From what I can gather off the lean ‘help’ page, their refund policy looks a bit strict too, so look before you indulge.
In case you are wondering, there is a convenience fee (amount not disclosed online for some strange reason). The page title and logo refers to another domain BigTree.in (?)- I guess they are synonymous. The layout is minimalistic and simple; I like it just for the fact that they are savvy enough to write a “beta” under their name. It’d be better if they explained somewhere what the heck the website does, in case people stumble onto it.
ClixFlix June 9, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Movie Rental , 1 comment so farA helpful tip (thanks, Rohit) from one of eIndia readers pointed me to ClixFlix which is a online movie rental site serving Mumbai city and surrounding neighborhoods. Apparently they’ve been in business since 2004, and have grown modestly over the last 3 years to 11,000 members.
The first thing I like about ClixFlix is the fact that they have a nice “v.3 beta” next to the logo. It’s probably one of the handful Indian web startups that are mature enough to declare their immaturity publicly (that sounds funny, I know). Seems like they are also the only startup in this space that have ‘walk-in’ stores (current count is 7 stores).
The layout and content design is nice and professional. They were thoughtful enough to include a how-it-works type animation right on the homepage, along with easy outline of membership plans, contact info etc.
There are bunch of other companies in this space and I’ve written about most of them- Moviemart.in, Catchflix, Homeview.in, Seventymm, Madhouse.in. If you know about others, comment and let me know so we can keep a comprehensive list.
Moviemart.in March 7, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Movie Rental , add a commentAnother online movie rental site for India. Moviemart operates only in Delhi and Mumbai, and seems to be around since late 2006.
The site is slick and professional looking; and in true Indian startup spirit, displays a bunch of teenage foreign girls in the homepage graphic. This is getting to be a pet peeve for me- If their business is local, why can’t they focus design locally too?
Anyways, their plans 
are competitive and start at Rs.149 (with Rs.500 security deposit). The ‘no-late fee, no-due dates’ model is workable too. At least they are upfront about it, unlike Seventymm. What I can’t understand is why they have chosen to drop the social tools - rating movies, getting recommendations etc. Seems like that is not a priority feature for any of the Indian movie rental startups for some unknown reason.
Interesting fact- they claim that Rs.5 from every subscription goes towards ‘Anti-piracy and Charity’. True or not, that’s a first for Indian movie rental startups 
.
Catchflix February 22, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Movie Rental , 1 comment so farIf I compare it with Homeview.in, Catchflix site looks more mature. Thankfully, there is no foreign-family graphic anywhere and the look-and-feel overall is more slick.
Catchflix has been around since mid-2006 and serves Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Chennai and Bhubneshwar currently. Their pricing model is a bit different (they call it ‘tranactional pricing’) in the sense that they do have due dates. Plans look cheap, but may turn out to be in the same ballpark as other online movie rentals. They charge Rs.99 per title rented and you need to return within 3 days (they do the drop-off/pickup). Membership is free and there are no deposit fees, it seems.
Homeview.in February 22, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Movie Rental , 1 comment so farI wish all Indian startups would stop writing “India’s #1 <whatever>” as a tagline. It’s stupid and inelegant since we all know that there are no polls to justify any ranking for websites in India. Heck, even in US it’s controversial, at the best.
Homeview.in is an online movie rental startup for Delhi and surrounding areas. Yes, they do claim to be “India’s #1 Movie Rental Company” in all their modesty. The website itself is nothing special, a bit amateur-ish. What irks me is the pseudo-global, almost mindless design decisions most startups make. The big graphic of non-Indian family smack in the middle of Homeview.in’s homepage is a great example. I don’t know what they think their target audience is. Obviously, they’ve never read about Homepage Design Guidelines in the field of usability.
The membership price is steep- Rs.999 per month (discounted a bit if you sign-up for 3 or 6 months). Also, you can only rent one title at a time, which is lame.
Seventymm February 22, 2007
Posted by Pallav Sharda in : Movie Rental , 7commentsI thought the online movie rental market was a fantastic sign of internet arriving in India. I still think that is true, but didn’t expect the market to spawn so quickly.
I was myopic when I thought Seventymm™ and Madhouse.in were the only couple of startups in this area. Turns out that they are the only two funded startups in this area. Heck the total number of players is six, as of my last count (Check out all the Indian movie rental websites on our lists page)
Back to Seventymm. The site look slick, which is no surprise given the $7 million funding they got from Matrix Patrners last september. But digging around on the web, I found my enthusiasm for seventymm fading away. Thejo’s blog provided good details, you can read his post here, but I’ll summarize the biggest disappointments here:
- ‘No due date’ is not true- you need to return the movie in two weeks
- There are hidden, unadvertised fees that jack up the Rs.199 plan by Rs.2499
The ‘free’ trial, as one reader points out, is not free after all- you pay Rs.1000 refundable deposit + Rs.200 registration fee + Rs.199 for one month waiver.
Geez… Talk about overdoing concept arbitrage. They can cherry-pick the concepts that worked abroad, but massacre them when porting back to India. Wake up, Seventymm, before you blow all the $7 million away.
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.