Dotcom C2W makes a mark in China

new delhi: from the debris of the dotcom dust, the china factor emerges. take contests and gaming dotcom contests2win (c2w), which spread out to china a year back. the dotcom says it is making splendid progress in the chinese market—much better than, in fact, the performance in its country of origin. in less than a year, c2w china has notched up more registered users than what the indian market took four years to deliver.and, revenues from the chinese operations can be safely compared too. “we expect to do rs 2 crore in the first year in china compared to rs 3 crore in india in fy 2002,� says alok kejriwal, founder of c2w. not surprisingly, the dotcom is now considering spreading its wings to korea and japan with a little help from its investor, softbank. though its indian operations achieved cash breakeven in may 2000, it is yet to do so in china (target april, 2000). “while it took us over three years to break even in india, we will take less than 15 months to do so in china,’’ says kejriwal. c2w is particularly bullish on the chinese market as the average revenue per customer is rs 4 lakh compared to just rs 2 lakh in india. “we are quite disappointed with the growth of the indian market. there are not more than five million internet users in the country compared to 35 million in china and over 50 million in korea,� feels kejriwal. in fact, kejriwal expects india to be the back-end hub of its operations—a base for developing software for the markets in china, korea and japan. speaking on c2w’s decision to foray into china, kejriwal says, “we took a whirlwind trip to china and were completely taken aback by the sheer size of the marketplace, the same brands that we work with in india, low cost operations and a similar consumer psyche that was hungry to win.� while there is a core indian team consisting of five professionals in china, the majority of employees are local. c2w china now boasts of a client list that includes coca-cola, nokia, p&g, starbucks, perfetti and local computer-maker legend. “in china, our partners softbank has helped us a lot in getting brand introductions. we expect their help to launch c2w korea and japan,� says kejriwal. with the mobile market exploding in china, kejriwal feels it’s the next frontier to conquer. “we are getting many wireless inquiries from the largest mobile players in china and may soon branch out with a wireless division,� he says. in fact, it has already create a 20-game programme including a sms-based online football game targeted at this year’s world cup to be held in japan and korea. rival hungama.com, however, feels that building brands is more than just contesting and hungama has around 12 interactive ways to hold the attention of users. “contesting alone can dilute the brand,� feels neeraj roy founder of hungama.com. however, c2w maintains that it will keep focus on the ‘win’ platform, ergo the desire to win a contest.