Comments on: Vivek Pahwa Renames Company, Launches Sell Via Sms For Gaadi.com & Hires ISB Grads As Founding Team

By: rujit

rujit — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 09:50:01 +0000

I am cool with the me-too as long as they have the ability to provide choice to the customers. i am not saying that they need to identical, obviously a certain degree of diferenciation is expected as saurabh mentioned choice is more important to a consumer

By: Mayank

Mayank — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 05:19:02 +0000

And as far as original innovations goes, yes there are few. but if you consider real products like Zoho etc then they are pretty good. At least they have a vision. Also look at the founding team Pahwa just built, is there one techie there? NO! And he is entering technology domain! What do people think.

By: Mayank

Mayank — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 05:16:58 +0000

@saurabh

when you closely analyze the space and then jump into it then thats fine. definition for competition is not me-too. Look at bebo,facebook,myspace they compete with each other and arent me-too products. each has differentiation and vision. me-too is not with product but with vision. problem with vivek pahwa and likes is that they dont have any vision whatsoever while entering a market. they just wait for some one do something innovative and then copy it using the capital power they have. and fyi, just logon to desimartini, gaadi.com and any other product by this Mr. Vivek Pahwa and search for listings etc and you will know how many fake profiles/listings are out there! (80%) How did he manage to fool hindustan times is beyond me (Power of Pahwa Indutries in the background I guess).
Also refer comment by Priyank above, that tells you true story. And its not personal vendetta against Pahwa. But same is story with ApnaCircle, TechTribe and all these people with me-too products. VC should really think there positioning in India and think hard before funding such people.

By: saurabh

saurabh — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:06:27 +0000

Mayank, pls list down few of the original innovations that have come out of india in the digital space…Curious of the definition of me-too products…

Other word for me-too products is competition…If there are no me-too products, there would be no choices for the consumers…one bank, one school, one college, one hospital, one camera, one theatre….

As long as you are able to add certain value to the me too products or differentiate it marginally or execute it better and cost effectively…you are in game…

By: Priyank

Priyank — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:39:26 +0000

i just called one of his listings. apparently the gentleman had listed his car with indiaautomobiles.com and sold his car long back..

it was showing top of list on gaadi.com, and he never heard of the site.

could it be the data was scraped…I am sure he wouldn’t….

By: Mayank

Mayank — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 07:15:18 +0000

With all the capital at his disposal all Vivek Pahwa does is me too products. Looking at the ventures he has entered I am not really excited about it. Also Desimartin acquisition was considerably lower than speculated $10 million! (Around 1.2 to 1.5) . Antya.com is also failure and if you look at profiles on Secondshadi.com seems most of the profiles are computer generated. Even same was the case with Desimartini.