Some years back I happened to attend a Holiday Club presentation. We were explained how we can save by committing to annual holidays with their chain of holiday resorts for next 20 years. The sales guy took pains to explain, among other things, how each of their resort standardized services and amenities, so we are[…]
In Delhi-NCR an estimated 61,000 homes get rented out every month. How many of these get listed by owners online? Not much. 99acres.com, the largest real estate classified platform in India, shows 4,500 owner listings across NCR in last one month – that’s only 7.3% of all homes rented out. The number is actually worse[…]
In the pre-Uber era, there existed a world where you paid Rs. 2,000 for an early morning cab to catch a flight. Even then there were anxious moments of uncertainty before the cab actually arrived. What did Uber change? Let me try to answer that. Cab drivers did two jobs – first driving customers from[…]
On a lazy Sunday afternoon, you are reminded that you need to replace your old television. You log in to Amazon and place an order for a brand new television. Over years consumers have adapted to do low and mid-value transactions online. But would you be ok finalizing your house online, just like a television?[…]
Three years back in June 2015, the Indian government launched the Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojna (PMAY) with the aim of providing affordable housing for urban poor. The scheme proposes to build 20 million houses for urban poor and low income groups by 2022. The objectives of the scheme are noble and far-reaching. Contrast this to the 2011[…]
An average home seeker checks out 14 different home options with 4-5 different brokers over a period of 18 days before finalizing a rental home. 87% of them find the process moderately or extremely cumbersome. This is the story of 45 Lac families in urban India, who move to a new rental accommodation in a[…]
Jack-Ma, the legendary founder of Alibaba, once made a controversial statement when he said “the worst people to serve are the poor people”. He reasoned it around how poor customers are always complaining, which contributes to them being poor. One may or may not agree with that, but I believe the market at large does.[…]
The largest brokerage network in China – Lianjia.com – has a 45% Market share by volume. In contrast Realogy, the market leader in US, commands only 6% market share. At the surface that looks counter intuitive. US is a far more organized market compared to China and conventional wisdom suggests that in a mature, organized[…]
On a beach holiday in Goa, the last person you want to deal is a Hawker. They are pushy, unreasonable and aggressive. However, this is not unique to Goa or to even tourism as a sector. But why do holiday hawkers treat you so different from your regular neighborhood shopkeeper? Because he has no hope of ever[…]