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Now, book your bus tickets ONLINE
February 26, 2010
Source: Tapash Talukdar, ET Bureau
The next big opportunity, many have discovered, lies in Web 2.0 services that save consumers time and effort. There is not a single product or service that shoppers today cannot buy online. And that was the thought that inspired two management graduates from IIM-A and one MCA holder to start travelyaari.com, a website that focuses solely on booking of bus tickets via debit or credit cards and net-banking. “We’re trying to make booking of bus tickets through agents an avoidable hassle,” says Arvind Lama, 30, co-founder of Mantis Technologies, the company that manages Travelyaari’s technology.
The idea, which came to Lama in 2004, is now yielding fruit. “I was planning a trip to Tirupati from Bangalore. However, despite repeated attempts, I was unable to get a ticket. That gave me the idea of having a booking portal for bus travellers,” remembers Lama. Having figured out the basic idea, Lama devised a revenue model involving commission earnings from agents, bus-operators and other similar portals on a sharing basis.
However, convincing bus operators to install Travelyaari’s software at their offices was far from easy. Lama grimly remembers the initial days, when bus operators flatly refused to even listen to his idea. Most of them thought it couldn’t even be done. But his patience eventually paid off. Today, more than 50 bus operators spread across 18 states have installed Mantis’s technology to aggregate their inventory for booking. Travelyaari helps them minimise operational cost, gain control on business and augment sales for the operators. “We are doing real-time bookings of nearly 1,500 tickets on a daily basis and are expecting to do up to 2,000 by the end of 2010,” avers Lama, an IIM-A pass-out of 2007.
His partners—Parthasarthy Sinha, 30, and Prateek Nigam, 34—are passionate about technology and take care of software updates, while Lama oversees Travelyaari’s business development. The firm, which started with an initial capital of Rs 5 lakh, and later invested close to Rs 40 lakh, is now doing business worth over Rs 10 crore a year.
According to current estimates, the bus travel industry does a business of Rs 5,000 crore annually. “We are contributing less than 5% of this; so the scope for online bus bookings is clearly unprecedented,” Lama says.
Next, the trio is looking at raising funds through venture capital firms to expand operations to other destinations and strengthen their back-end software support. The firm has also drawn up plans for lump-sum corporate booking in various cities. The trio is hopeful that the upcoming Commonwealth Games in New Delhi would give a boost to their business.
However, Lama thinks mobile booking would be the next-big thing. That’s why Mantis recently refused a significant buyout offer from a major travel portal. Instead, it is eyeing a partnership with a major overseas travel player to upgrade on the technology and marketing fronts. In addition to combating the challenge of deploying the technology at the premises of most of the agents, Mantis has also been educating its stakeholders about value-added products. “Nowadays, it’s become a little easier to convince the operators, as people understand the importance of online security and increasing their sales channels,” says Lama.
To win the confidence of bus-operators, Lama and his partners have not only learned the local dialect, but also adopted the food habits of Gujaratis. With many innovative ideas lined up, Travelyaari is all set to take on its competitors Makemytrip and
Redbus.
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Google incubates ideas at workplace
February 26, 2010
Source: Peerzada Abrar, ET Bureau
BANGALORE: A casual walk around the Google workplace might have you believe you’re in Disneyland. There are aeroplanes hanging from the ceiling; round the corner, you might bump into a blue Chelsea football club banner, while teddy bears, soft toys and trains are all over the place. You can even walk around in sportswear and shorts.
The only difference is, this isn’t a playhouse. Then again, perhaps it is. This is one way the Google HR team can “romanticise the passion for work” and help churn out innovations.
“The chilled out, fun-loving atmosphere of Google encourages conversations between employees and helps them feel more comfortable and special,” says Manoj Verghese, Google HR head for JAPAC.
At this workplace, there are chess boards, table tennis, carrom boards and musical instruments which help cement the synergy between employees. Massage chairs, swings and bubble chairs hanging from ceilings where employees and clients can sit, conduct their board meetings, or have a tete-a-tete just ramps up the creativity quotient, say employees. Each employee has at least two large screens that double up as a workstation. Employees also discuss their ideas in zones which look like ‘baithaks’ or informal seating arrangements, with treasure chests, coloured cushions and mattresses. Employees often sit cross-legged on mattresses.
The results are there for all to see. Lalitesh Katragadda of Google Engineering says most of his innovations come up during conversations at work, with the environment facilitating them.
“One of our major projects was recently born during a breakfast conversation,” says Rahul Roy Chowdhury, senior product manager. Mr Chowdhury is one of the innovators of the Google Transliteration IME (Input Method Editor), a software that allows users to type words phonetically in any of 15 Indian languages using an English keyboard. “We have now done work for other languages as well such as Arabic, Russian and Persian,” he says.
His team probably hit upon this idea while exploring the micro-kitchen or the cafeteria at the company’s Bangalore campus. There’s quite a spread awaiting employees here for free. Employees may still prefer to have the chocolates, fruits, cookies, potato chips, ice-cream and corn flakes, but care is taken to make the food nutritious.
Employees see a method in their unconventional settings, and a reason for what they do. “Earlier, innovations used to come from the West. Now, it’s the reverse,” says Katragadda, who co-founded Google India and helped start several projects, including Google Finance and Hindi Transliteration. He now leads a crew of engineers who conceived and developed the Map Maker, currently available in around 200 countries. With Map Maker, Google plans to map the entire world and make it accessible to everyone in a few years’ time.
Rutvik Doshi, product manager at Google, who created a Google search application for mobile phones, says a peaceful environment can help creative juices flow. “There is transparency in communication and everyone contributes to your idea to make it better,” he says.
Conversations also help in easing frayed nerves, says Manik Gupta, product manager at Google. Mr Gupta is working on an platform that help people reach places using a landmark-based direction system. “We have launched it in India and now, other countries are also interested,” says Mr Gupta.
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10 billionth song and media software sold by Apple's iTunes
February 26, 2010
Source: ET AGENCIES
NEW YORK: Apple's iTunes has sold its 10 billionth tune. Apple said on Thursday that its online music store crossed the threshold Wednesday when 71-year-old Louie Sulcer of the state of Georgia bought ``Guess Things Happen That Way'' by Johnny Cash.
iTunes had promoted the 10 billion mark and celebrated the milestone by giving Sulcer a $10,000 iTunes gift card.
Introduced in 2003, iTunes became the top overall music retailer in the US in 2008.
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