BookMyShow Is Booking Its Way to Profits

According to a recent report by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International, the Indian e-commerce market is expected to grow 33% this year to Rs. 62,967 crore (~$7.5 billion). The market remains dominated by the online travel segment, which contributes 73% of revenues for the year. The remaining 23% comes from other categories, such as online retail and classifieds. Event ticket sales are thus a very small share of the Indian e-commerce landscape, but local portal Bookmyshow.com is making big news in the industry.

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Fashion Forward Maternity Founder Erin Lewis Makes Life Easier for Expecting Moms

Pregnant women struggle with clothing over the term of their pregnancy, with some spending a fortune on new maternity clothes, others borrowing a friend’s maternity clothes, and a few buying cheaper, larger clothes that barely fit. >>>

Trend Spotting: eFood, iEat

The food industry may seem like the last bastion of brick-and-mortar companies, relying solely on human efforts. Think again. A new crop of entrepreneurs are taking our love of food out of the kitchen and into the digital realm. Several members of 1M/1M, our global virtual startup incubator, have created specialty brands that help consumers eat better and cook more efficiently. >>>

These Companies Are Built To Enjoy

In my November 14, 2011, column Reengineering Capitalism I introduced the One Million by One Million (1M/1M) project. My proposal is that if one million entrepreneurs can reach $1 million each in revenues, that would translate into 10 million jobs. Over the past few months I have been studying the entrepreneurs who come to pitch at 1M/1M roundtables. There are exciting opportunities for angel investors to join hands with competent, pragmatic entrepreneurs and make a great deal of money. >>>

The Promise Of E-Commerce

Whichever way you look at it, the web has become the place for commerce.

Online spending grew again over 2011, and the growth rate has outpaced that of traditional brick-and-mortar stores. While many chain retailers’ online sales are growing, their store sales are shrinking.

For the longest time, entrepreneurs wanting to venture off on their own would open a store downtown where foot traffic abounded. But that trend, it seems, is changing. Today’s equivalent of foot traffic is eyeballs. Much of this new traffic flows from search engines and mega-marketplaces such as Amazon.com and eBay. Today an entrepreneur contemplating a retail business no longer leases space on Main Street. She opens a website. Her market is no longer local. >>>

2012: Top Trends and Opportunities

New year. Fresh energy. Time to take stock of trends and open problems for 2012. The most notable change this coming year is that Steve Jobs is dead. In death, however, he has become even larger than life, and his legacy will drive this decade’s technology movement for a while at least. One of his key legacies is the marriage of technology and humanities, which I believe will shape the next phase of evolution in the IT industry. I elaborated my vision in Silicon Valley: The Next Decade.

In Top 10 Tech Trends For The Decade, I outlined a set of key movements which are pretty much the driving factors for the time being:

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1M/1M: Web 3.0 & E-Commerce Module Of The Curriculum Is Ready

E-commerce and Web entrepreneurs, we have just released a new module in the 1M/1M curriculum addressing your specific needs and issues. As always, it has video lectures and case studies, and you can use this module to navigate through the process of building your Internet business. Please feel free to ask questions as you work through this module, and we will do our best to get you the answers. The module makes a deliberate effort to help you create a differentiated strategy, as opposed to going with a me-too approach to building Web businesses.

You can access it on the 1M/1M site, here.

1Mby1M Deal Radar: Dura Doggie

As part of the blog’s renewed focus on college entrepreneurs, today’s Deal Radar features Dura Doggie, a combination e-commerce and traditional retailer that designs and sells dog toys, but with a socially conscious bent. The company has an unusual business model – it donates 20% of its profits to four affiliated causes in a program called “Chews Your Cause.” >>>