How Indian Startups Are Competing With Global Giants Like Google & Facebook 3,100 startups, and 800 more every year, startups are changing the way the markets are working today in India.
By Samiksha Jain •
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India is the youngest country with 75 per cent of its population being the youth. It is one of the countries which is known for its startup ecosystem and emerging trend of entrepreneurship.
In past few years country has seen massive growth in its startup ecosystem mainly driven by factors such as enormous amount of funding, consolidation activities, evolving technology and burgeoning domestic market.
Market Outlook:
The growth of startup ecosystem in recent years has indicated the transformation not only in India but across the globe. With increase in internet, smartphone penetration and online active users, Indian startups today are building global digital solutions to capitalize on this rapid growth. Indian startups have well positioned themselves in both domestic and international market to address the entire Asian market opportunity and also expand beyond the US region.
"The Indian startup ecosystem is rapidly evolving driven by an extremely young, diverse and inclusive entrepreneurial landscape. This is leading to emergence of focused domain solutions for verticals like healthcare, agriculture, and education etc. An additional driving force is a four-fold increase in access to capital through VCs, angel investment and seed funding is allowing Indian entrepreneurs to work on building tailor-made products for their customers," said R Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM.
If we talk about the figures, presently there are more than 3,100 startups and this number is expected to reach 10,000 by 2020. According to the NASSCOM 10000 Startups Report, India is the 4th largest country after the US and China in terms of emerging startups.
With 3,100 startups, and 800 more every year, startups are changing the way the markets are working today in India.
Competition with Global Giants
It is very well said by Nancy Pearcey, "Competition is a good thing; it forces us to do our best.'
Indian startups are always compared with the globe giants like Facebook, Google, Amazon or Microsoft. There is always one or the other speculation about Indian startup stating that it is hard for them to compete with these globe giants. However, these startups have the potential to compete with these giants because they can do things which no one has done. They have the ability to take risks, change things, move fast, break and disrupt things without the fear of losing.
Here are some Indian home grown ventures which are giving head-to-head fight to these global giant.
- Flipkart.com: Giving unique shopping experience
Flipkart.com, India's leading e-commerce marketplace is giving neck to neck competition to Amazon. It offers over 20 million products cross more than 70 categories including Books, Media, Consumer Electronics and Lifestyle. Launched in October 2007, Flipkart has become the preferred online marketplace for leading Indian and international brands. It has estimated valuation of $ 11 million and it has acquired 5 companies and exclusive tie-ups with 30 others.
- MakeMyTrip: Making travelling more Fun
The competition between the two giants is really very tough as Expedia is a bigger player. But still MakeMy Trip is leaving no stone upturn to give him tough fight. As per Millward Brown report MakeMyTrip has emerged as the clear leader with the largest market share among all Online Travel Agents (OTAs). The company led the pack with a 25b per cent market share in the segment.
- CashKaro: Offering Cashback & Coupons to its users
CashKaro is competing with Top CashBack and it has emerged as clear winner among the two. CashKaro.com is India's largest Cashback and Coupons site which has recently raised Rs 25 crores in Series A funding from Kalaari Capital. It had earlier raised $750,000 in the year 2013 in angel funding from a group of investors based in London who belong to companies like Paypal, Investec, Goldman Sachs etc. Till date CashKaro has credited over Rs 20 Crores as cashback and driven over Rs 500 Crores in GMV and is growing at over 30% month on month.
What else to be added to rise and shine in global market
Though these startups are in a neck-to-neck battle with these globe giants, still they need to add certain flavour in them so that they can survive and give tough fight to these giants.
Budding entrepreneurs need a strategy, a positioning so that they can differentiate and build something interesting and unique. The only think these home grown venture lack is the resources for which they have to make up with creativity and courage. They need to disrupt the traditional forms to come out with flying colours and compete with these giants.
So, if you are confident about the idea, your product and you think it will make a difference than go for it. You don't need to become Google or Facebook, you just need to be yourself and it will be enough to compete with these big players.
And always remember what Barack Obama has said, "India is not simply emerging, it has emerged."
