My 14th column in “Vijay Next” newspaper (Kannada) was about Group Buying in India. Main points were,

• The year 2010 has seen very good ecommerce activity in India. We saw one of the leading ecommerce companies, Makemytrip.com, got listed in the US stock exchange successfully.
• Bulk buying is nothing new. In Bangalore the rates in city market are cheaper because a lot more people buy from them. Retail users (families) get vegetables at almost whole sale rate.
• Group buying has become very popular in the US. Sites in India have been inspired by US major Groupon.com
• Group buying sites promote just one deal for each city every day. For e.g. if a Pizza costs Rs 200, it will be available for Rs 100 on their site provided a certain number of Pizzas are sold.
• The famous ones are Taggle.com, DealsAndYou.com, Mydala.com.
• There are sites that don’t insist on group buying but yet offer products at great discounts. One such site is snapdeal.com.
• At times you save 60% on MRP! What more do you want? And when you buy a product you don’t have to use it the very same day. For e.g. if you buy a coupon for a restaurant, you don’t have to go the very same day.
• You can save anywhere from 20-60% on some products.

Read more on Column: Ecommerce – save on group buying sites…

My eleventh column in “Vijaya Next” (Kannada) was about mapping applications. Main points were,

• One of the most often applications used on the mobiles these days is Maps.
• Devices like mobile phones have GPS receivers help you identify your exact location. There are 5 GPS satellites in orbit which are used by civil & military in various applications.
• GPS is owned and operated by the U.S. Government as a national resource. The first GPS satellite was launched on November 26, 1990 and the most recent launch was on May 28, 2010.
• GPS has become a widely used and useful tool for commerce, scientific uses, tracking and surveillance. GPS’s accurate timing facilitates everyday activities such as banking, mobile phone operations, and even the control of power grids. Farmers, surveyors, geologists and countless others perform their work more efficiently, safely, economically, and accurately. [from Wiki]
• Qualcomm tested GPS receivers in a mobile phone successfully in Nov 2004.
• The popular map providers in India are Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, MapMyIndia.

Read more on Column: Use Internet Maps and you will never lose your way!…