6 ms·

"copying well-established international websites and derive their success from paying attention to the Indian market before the country " I'm not sure if this

"copying well-established international websites and derive their success from paying attention to the Indian market before the country " I'm not sure if this is such a bad thing. Flipkart copied Amazon and its thriving in this country.

microarchitect 16y ago
I'm not saying it's a bad business goal. Obviously, a lot of companies have succeeded doing this. My point is that such a policy is not very attractive if you're an engineer who "wants to build cool stuff".
gaius 16y ago
Oh yeah, but the margins in arbitrage always come under pressure.
malnourish 16y ago
Very tangential, but I was just checking out Flipkart and some things are extremely inexpensive. Portal 2 and Crysis 2 are under $20 USD.
- xubz 16y ago
  Most new PC games are prices less than Rs.999 in India (not just in Flipkart). Pre-order price of "Duke Nukem Forever" for example is just Rs.444 ($10).. I suppose it's one solution to rampant piracy of PC titles. (XBOX 360 and PS3 titles are more or less priced the same as elsewhere)
- aksbhat 16y ago
  what is even more interesting is that books are also much cheaper e.g. Algorithms by Cormen, et. al. cost only 6$. It would be interesting how eBooks are priced in India, as compared to US.
  - zorked 16y ago
    Unfortunately they only ship to India...
    - mark_h 16y ago
      abebooks.com (and I'm sure plenty of others) frequently middle-man for sub-continent re-sellers.
  - signa11 16y ago
    these are generally titles meant for countries in the indian sub-continent e.g. india, pakistan, bangladesh etc. usually, paper quality, printing quality etc. takes a nose-dive. for example, i have a sedgewick book with almost translucent pages, which makes it next to impossible to read anything...
jagira 16y ago
->Flipkart copied Amazon and its thriving in this country. Would you say the same thing about Jet Airways? Did they copy Delta Air? Or did Tata Motors copy Ford? Or did Airtel copy AT&T? Some companies are about management and execution, and not about idea.
kamaal 16y ago
Flipkart did well because they executed the Idea well. They still have a long way to go. But last time I checked they too hire and give a lot of preferences for people from IIT's.

microarchitect 16y ago

I'm not saying it's a bad business goal. Obviously, a lot of companies have succeeded doing this. My point is that such a policy is not very attractive if you're an engineer who "wants to build cool stuff".

gaius 16y ago

Oh yeah, but the margins in arbitrage always come under pressure.

malnourish 16y ago

Very tangential, but I was just checking out Flipkart and some things are extremely inexpensive. Portal 2 and Crysis 2 are under $20 USD.

xubz 16y ago
Most new PC games are prices less than Rs.999 in India (not just in Flipkart). Pre-order price of "Duke Nukem Forever" for example is just Rs.444 ($10).. I suppose it's one solution to rampant piracy of PC titles. (XBOX 360 and PS3 titles are more or less priced the same as elsewhere)
aksbhat 16y ago
what is even more interesting is that books are also much cheaper e.g. Algorithms by Cormen, et. al. cost only 6$. It would be interesting how eBooks are priced in India, as compared to US.
- zorked 16y ago
  Unfortunately they only ship to India...
  - mark_h 16y ago
    abebooks.com (and I'm sure plenty of others) frequently middle-man for sub-continent re-sellers.
- signa11 16y ago
  these are generally titles meant for countries in the indian sub-continent e.g. india, pakistan, bangladesh etc. usually, paper quality, printing quality etc. takes a nose-dive. for example, i have a sedgewick book with almost translucent pages, which makes it next to impossible to read anything...

jagira 16y ago

->Flipkart copied Amazon and its thriving in this country. Would you say the same thing about Jet Airways? Did they copy Delta Air? Or did Tata Motors copy Ford? Or did Airtel copy AT&T? Some companies are about management and execution, and not about idea.

kamaal 16y ago

Flipkart did well because they executed the Idea well. They still have a long way to go. But last time I checked they too hire and give a lot of preferences for people from IIT's.