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"Conversation. What is it? A Mystery! It's the art of never seeming bored, of touching everything with interest, of pleasing with trifles, of being fascinating with nothing at all. How do we define this lively darting about with words, of hitting them back and forth, this sort of brief smile of ideas which should be conversation?" Guy de Maupassant

Tuesday, June 6, 2006

Statistics on Telecom and Internet in India

I found this neat site that compiles statistics on India, called NeonCarrot:

"Following are various stats, facts and figures on telecommunication and the internet in India , picked out of newspapers (mainly Hindustan Times), magazines (mainly India Today), the BBC and various sources on the web. These figures are not meant to be comprehensive lists, but rather statistical trivia or factual snippets. For basic general facts and figures about India as well as several Indian states, please see the Quick Reference popups on the right hand side of this page, or go to the main page of India statistics, facts and figures . For a full list of links to our statistics pages, see the About India index or the bottom of the right navigation bar on this page."

There's a whole section on Indian Telecom and IT sectors - some Internet figures with source are:

- * number of Internet users in India: 2004: 25 million -- Nov 2005: 38.5 million [HT, Jan 2006]
- * number of internet subscribers in India: 6.13 million [IndiaDaily; Jan 2006]
- * Broadband subscribers in India: 835,000 [IndiaDaily; Jan 2006]
- * target of high-speed Internet users by end of 2005: 3 million (not achieved) [IndiaDaily; Jan 2006]
- * price for BB (available from): 199 Rs per month [HT; Jan 2006]
- * previous numbers of Internet users in India: 1992: 1,000 -- 1995: 250,000 -- 1999: 2.8 mil -- 2000: 5.0 mil [v2020; Apr 2003]
- * Internet users per 100 inhabitants: 2004: 1.5 [GTF; 2005]
- * Internet users per 100 inhabitants: 2001: 0.68 [v2020; Apr 2003]
- * number of travel related web searches by Indians during xmas & New Year period 2005: 8 million, estimate [Business Standard, Dec 2005]
- * percentage of Internet users who access government services via internet: 2001: 22 % -- 2002: 31 % [v2020; Apr 2003]
- * PC availability per 100 inhabitants in 2004: 1.2 [GTF; 2005]
- * number of computers in India: 1992: 0.4 mil -- 1995: 1.2 mil -- 1999: 3.3 mil -- 2000: 4.6 mil [v2020; Apr 2003]
- * number of internet cafes in India: 105,000 [ConSu; Nov 2005]
- * number of jobs created in Internet cafes: 600,000 estimate [v2020; Apr 2003]
- * annual growth in cybercafe market in India: 45 % (average over past 5 years) [ConSu; Nov 2005]
- * estimated number of computerised bank branches: 12,000 (out of a total of 45,000) [v2020; Apr 2003]


5:49:46 PM    comment []  trackback []

Management 2.0

According to a survey by Harris Interactive "Fortune 1000 business executives are reacting slowly to the idea of corporate blogs as a communications medium."

Peter sent this link in to me, via Adverblog, with this comment ..."The interesting bit: 77% want to control 'sanctioned' blogs. 40% want to control any blogs. But only 30% say they understand what the term means!"

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Perhaps, they should be reading this Special Report in BusinessWeek on blogging among CEO's in America, which has a whole bunch of examples and links. Part of the report has a Tip Sheet with a short list of useful Do's and Don'ts:

Do:
  • Watch the kids: Children lead the way with new Web services such as the social network MySpace, the video sharing service YouTube, and personal blogs. It won't be long before they're in the workforce, bringing their networks with them.
  • Watch the kidsóin your company, too. You may be surprised to find that young folks in a department are using the Internet phone service Skype or a group-editable wiki Web site. Find out what's working and what isn't.
  • Try it yourself: Create a MySpace page. Open a Flickr account and upload a few photos. Write a Wikipedia entry. Program a Web mashup at Ning.com. The only way to understand this stuff is to use it. And it's easy.
  • Join the feed frenzy: Read some popular blogs to get a feel for how the online party line works. You can find them at Technorati.com and Techmeme.com, or better yet, subscribe to them with a so-called RSS feed reader, the most popular of which are listed on each BusinessWeek blog.
  • Write your own blog: Or if that feels too forced, at least encourage other people in the company who want to. Strive for authenticity, even at the risk of self-criticism, because blog readers will quickly jump on spin.
  • Elicit customer input: Many people love to offer their own expertise, and often it's pretty darn useful. Mars asked people to vote on a new M&M candy color, drawing 10 million votesóand a lot of attention.
Don't:
  • Assume Web 2.0 is just for consumers: The online customer-management service Salesforce.com just did $105 million in sales, up 63%. Even the college social network Facebook recently allowed companies to create profiles.
  • Put up walls: Resist strict limits on employees' on-the-job Web use. The more they can connect the innovation in Web 2.0 with their own jobs, the better off your company will be.
  • Take it personally: Opening up blogs to comments from customers inevitably will attract complaints and criticism. That's OK. Consider it market research. Respond honestly, and watch your company's credibility soar.
  • Sweat the details. You can't personally keep up on every new Web 2.0 startup on TechCrunch.com, unless you don't need much sleep. You're running a company, remember? But make sure someone else is paying attention to these guys.



9:35:50 AM    comment []  trackback []

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