Emergic: Rajesh Jain’s Blog

As part of the investments I have in about a dozen (mostly early-stage) companies, I have to attend some of their Board meetings. They give me a good opportunity to catch up with what’s happening (though I do talk to or email many of the CEOs every so often). And as much, I think the [...]

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I will be on as a “High Order Bit” on November 5 (Wed) afternoon at the Web 2.0 Summit. Here’s what I’d like to talk/discuss in my 15 minutes: how the digital infra in emerging markets is different from the developed markets,and why I believe the next generation of innovations can come out of countries [...]

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After we launched MyToday in October 2006, we grew slowly for the first couple of months. We had started with CRICKET, but then launched some more SMS channels. I remember a picnic we had gone on New Year’s Eve and us celebrating the 10K unique subscriber figure. All growth was happening word-of-mouth. We had done [...]

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Continuing with the thinking around the decision to launch free SMS subscription services in October 2006, it seemed such an obvious decision to make given what has happening. But there is always legacy that one has to deal with. In my case, the legacy was wanting to focus on the mobile Internet — I always [...]

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In the coming days, I will share our experience in building MyToday and the decisions we made at some of the challenging moments in the business. We haven’t got everything right, but when I look back at the past two years, we definitely made more right decisions than wrong ones. And in a growing business, [...]

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“Hot, Flat and Crowded” is the title of Thomas Friedman’s new book which was published a couple weeks ago. I bought a copy last Sunday at one of the local bookstores and have just started reading it. The first chapter reminds me of a lot of what we need to do in India — Nation-building. [...]

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Over the past month, I have given four talks and have listened to many panel discussions. Here are a few suggestions to speakers: Respect the time limits that have been sent. This is not as easy as it sounds. Given a microphone and the opportunity to make points, we all tend to go somewhat haywire. [...]

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I bought an iPod Touch on my recent visit to the US — only for trying out the AppStore. I could have re-hacked my existing iPhone but there’s always a risk with the process going wrong and me ending up with a brick. Or, I could have bought the Rs 31,000 iPhone 3G in India. [...]

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I am giving a keynote at the Indian Magazine Congress event later today – on how mobiles can make a difference.  Here is the talk and the accompanying presentation.

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I watched “Batman: The Dark Knight” on IMAX during my US trip. I had finished off my meetings and work for the day, and so decided to take a few hours off and check out the movie (had not seen it in India). The IMAX experience is quite amazing indeed. There are some scenes which [...]

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I have made five international trips this year – with one more to come in November. I have visited USA twice, Spain (Barcelona), Thailand (Bangkok and Phuket) and Singapore. Except Singapore, all the rest were on business. This is more international travel than I have ever done before in a single year! On my most [...]

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I am giving the keynote today at an afaqs event “Mobile Conversations” for which we are also the Presenting Sponsor. It is primarily focused on advertising agencies and brand managers. Here is the text of the talk I am giving, along with the accompanying presentation. (For regulars of the blog, you may find some repetition [...]

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I had written about this once before on my blog a few years ago, but it become very apparent to me as I was listening to the various talks at CTIA. Technology disruptions seem to move in 12-year cycles. Early 70s had the microprocessor revolution, 1984 saw the emergence of the personal computer, 1996 the [...]

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I attended CTIA IT in San Francisco last week. Here are three takeaways as I listened to some of the keynotes, panels and walked around the exhibition floor: 3G + Smartphones + Flat-rate Data Plans = Wireless Data Explosion. We are not there yet at the mass-level, and actual situations vary from country-to-country. In India, [...]

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Jezra Kaye (who once helped me prepare for a presentation at PC Forum) quoted Churchill: “I’m trying to confrim that the following quote truely is attributed to Winston Churchill – If you want me to speak for two minutes, it will take me three weeks of preparation. If you want me to speak for thirty [...]

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Yesterday, I outlined the first part in a pathway to creating an innovative plan in the mobile data space. Here is the second part. How do things change in a 3G world? They become even better. SMS can continue to be the trigger for driving people to the mobile Internet. Rich Media, Richer Monetisation. With [...]

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I gave a talk recently in which I outlined a pathway to creating an innovative plan in the mobile data space. Part 1 is here. Part 2 will come tomorrow. Seven years ago, if someone would have said that the Internet Search box could create a company with $20+ billion in revenue and $130 billion [...]

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I have been using the Amazon Kindle for a few months. And on this trip in the US it has been particularly useful on the long flights that I’ve needed to take.  I like reading fiction on it more than non-fiction. I download a couple of books in advance and then read them on long [...]

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That is the address in White Plains I lived at for 2 years (1989-91). And that is where I found myself earlier this week. I was in White Plains, New York for a business meeting. I had some free time, and so I walked around downtown and went outside the building that was home for [...]

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Reading the front pages of most serious Indian newspapers can be quite depressing. Even as we have stood on the threshold of breaking through on the economic front, the absence of real political leadership holds us back to a frustratingly large extent. There isn’t much we can do at this point of time – or [...]

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