Redbus’ Ride to Success and Its Implications

India’s startup ecosystem is celebrating a recent success. Founded in 2006, online bus ticket seller Redbus is making big news due to its acquisition by Naspers for $137 million. We spoke with Redbus’ co-founder and CEO, Phanindra Sama, a couple of years ago about the bootstrapping phase of his venture. Here is a quick recap of Redbus’s successful ride so far.

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Flipkart’s E-retail Success in India

According to retail consultant Technopak Advisors, India’s online market is projected to grow to $70 billion by the year 2020.  Another researcher pegged the e-commerce market in the country to grow 50% this year from $1.2 billion in 2012 to $1.8 billion. The industry is prompting international giants like Amazon and eBay to experiment with their offerings in the market. As the Indian government still struggles to finalize the norms for foreign investment in retail, domestic players are making big strides in the market.

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Chinese Internet, Mobile, and Social: An Overview

According to a Gartner report, worldwide revenues from mobile advertising are projected to grow 400% over the period 2011 through 2016 to $24.5 billion. Gartner estimates the market to grow from $9.6 billion last year to $11.4 billion in 2013, driven by the economies of China and India as their growing middle classes become a more attractive advertising target for global and local brands. Another researcher, Informa, estimates that China will have more than 354 million smartphone subscribers by the end of this year, compared with the 219 million smartphone users in the U.S. China smartphones account for a comparatively lower 29% of total mobile phones in the country. In the U.S., smartphones account for 58% of the mobile phones. The increased use of smartphones in China will help drive the growth of mobile advertising there. Chinese internet giants are increasing their online offerings to take advantage of this mobile boom.

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AirBnB Valued at $2.5 Billion

Market reports pegged the vacation rental market for the U.S. and Europe at $85 billion in 2010. The market continues to grow, and according to recent reports last year, its value increased 10% over the year. Besides entire homes being rented out for vacations, there is also an increasing trend of individuals sharing rooms within their own homes as vacation rentals. Players like AirBnB are being named as forerunners in this emerging “sharing economy”  – a concept where people connect through online media to share services with each other.

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Online Music Industry Needs to Stop Catering to Freeloaders

The growing popularity of internet radio stations has led several technology giants to enter the space. In June, Apple announced the release of iRadio, its online radio offering, to directly compete with internet radio stations like Pandora. Google also entered the space with the release of a paid service, Google Access, that lets users listen to on-demand music. Microsoft too is updating its XBox’s music offering to add a subscription service that will let users create stations based on artists and music genres and stream live to mobile devices as well as XBox consoles.

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Tremor Video’s Shaky IPO

eMarketer expects overall advertising spend in the U.S. to grow at 3.5% annually over the period 2012 through 2016. Within advertising, online video advertising is among the fastest growing segments, with a projected compounded annual growth rate of 28.9% during this period to be an $8 billion segment. Advertisers spent $2.9 billion last year on online video advertising out of $165.8 billion spent on advertising overall.

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RetailMeNot’s IPO Aspirations

According to Euromonitor International, global retail sales, excluding grocery sales, were worth $7.5 trillion last year. Globally, as access to the Internet and mobile devices increases, there is a rise in the use of online tools to make purchase decisions. A recent report by IDC estimates the consumer e-commerce market at $987 billion globally. IDC projects a growth rate of 18% annually for the e-commerce market from 2012 through 2017. IDC also estimates the mobile commerce market to grow 36% annually over this period from $63.4 billion in 2012.
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Good Technology Prepares for an IPO

A report by MarketsandMarkets published last year, “Bring-your-own-device (BYOD), Consumerimization of IT (Co-IT) and Enterprise Mobility Market – Global Advancements, Business Models, Market Forecasts & Analysis (2012 -2017)” estimates the BYOD and Enterprise Mobility market to grow 15% annually from $67.21 billion in 2011 to $181.39 billion by 2017. In 2011, North America accounted for $24.26 billion of this market. It is projected to grow 13% annually to reach $58.60 billion by 2017.

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Accenture Enhancing Services Through Acquisitions

According to a report by GIA, the global IT consulting market is projected to be worth $255 billion by the year 2015. Over the past several years, the economic recession had hurt the industry and growth had slowed. The analyst expects the market to pick up soon. Meanwhile, current depressed conditions in the European region continued to hurt the industry. Global IT consulting giant, Accenture (NYSE: ACN), suffered setbacks and its financial performance and outlook fell short of market expectations.

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BlackBerry on Huawei’s Radar

For a while now, BlackBerry (Nasdaq:BBRY) had been counting on its much-awaited BB10 phone releases to help pick it up from a financial mess. But the wait seems to have been in vain. Last week, the company reported disappointing quarter results driven by lackluster sales of its smartphones. The results sent the stock plummeting 28% in a day, making it the worst day in nearly ten years.

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