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.in Reasons behind MASSIVE GROWTH in the .IN extension

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Now before I start to give my opinion on the Indian extension, I wish to convey the fact that I am definitely NOT trying to hype up the .IN scene to propagate my own portfolio or investments, which many people often believe when domainers make positive comments on certain extensions. Although I must say that I am the owner of a fair few nice .IN names, I feel that I am quite behind with .IN and therefore playing catch up on pretty much a daily basis now through hand regs and buying on reseller market, trying to build up a decent portfolio of .in at reasonable prices, before its too late. Many strong key (and clever) players have been in the .IN game for many many years, secretly trading amongst themselves and waiting for the explosion that is about to occur in the next few months.

I started investing in .IN a few years back but it has only been over the last couple of years, that I have realized the true potential in this amazing extension. Many years ago, I had initially thought that .in was only good for domain hacks, with quite a few companies all over the globe buying .in names primarily for only that purpose ( many still do) and not even thinking about the traffic from India but I only fully realized a couple of years ago that I was very wrong about .in and wished that I had got in much earlier and I think that the Chinese are also realising that now too.

I am sure you are all aware of the recent rapid momentum with NNN.ins & LLL.ins which are showing growth at an unprecedented speed, prices increasing on a daily basis. This shows the potential of .IN and also a precursor of what is going to happen in the coming months. And in a matter of speaking, I guess it is already starting to happen right now as we speak, with more and more end users buying .Ins and interesting being sparked all over India and globally too. After rapid increases in NNN.ins & LLL.ins sparked by the Chinese, then will come massive increases in sale prices of .IN keywords, which are already becoming hot property in India right now anyway.

The .IN extension is definitely the future of the Indian Webspace and the market is starting to move extremely fast at this moment in time, some very exciting times ahead! Not sure if you guys have been keeping up to date with the news, but over the last few months, there has been some very big news about the Indian webspace market. Flipkart, India’s largest e-commerce company, raised $6 Billion in total venture capitalists, and $1 Billion just last year and the company is now valued at $15 Billion. This funding figure matches facebook’s fundraising back in 2011 and makes it the third largest deal of its kind in the world!

Also during the same week last year, Amazon announced a $2 Billion investment in its India unit and has recently stated that India is the next ‘Trillion Dollar’ market, stating that the size of opportunity in India is so large it will be measured in trillions, not billions!

There are many excellent figures for India's internet entrepreneurs from the commitment and faith in India of the larger firms & global corporations. There have been many such multi-billion/million deals last year and this year seems just as exciting, if not more. There are also major rumors now that Walmart's entry into Indian e-commerce is very imminent! Things are starting to move extremely quickly over there and the market is about to mature to a completely new level guys! Just yesterday, the Prime Minister of India launched a $1.5 Billion fund for new startups. India truly is on the cusp of a digital revolution. Mobile phone subscriptions in the country have already passed the 1 Billion mark and these are now quickly being replaced by smartphones. This is pretty much a once in a lifetime moment, and the prime minister has stated that “the transformation occuring is on a scale that is, perhaps, unmatched in human history”.

The changing landscape in India is now moving at neck breaking speed. Internet access has rapidly expanded and the Reliance Group is due to make a move by summer of this year that will totally change everything in India, with EXTREMELY cheap access to 4G! Already mostly through mobile devices, Indians are now increasingly shifting daily activity online, like reading the newspaper, doing bank transactions and buying goods and services, from shoes to refrigerators etc….

Nowadays in India, billboards, text messages and emails bombard people every day with news of deep online-only discounts and special offers. By June, more Indians are expected to access the Internet on their cellphones — 371 million — than the entire population of the United States! And we are just talking about cellphone internet connections here, not even including the other initiatives in fixed line, fibre optic, cable connections etc…

Just this week, an indian firm just released a smartphone that is priced under 500 rupees, less than 5 USD (1% of the price of the latest Apple iPhone). The current median in India age is 27, nearly a full decade younger than in China!

E-commerce in India is growing at a compound annual rate of 34 percent, according to the Internet and Mobile Association of India.

By next year, many experts agree on the fact that there will be half a billion Indians online. India has already surpassed the USA in terms of number of users. A flood of cheap smartphones in the market is encouraging rapid internet adoption and an online revolution is taking place. Unlike the other BRIC countries such a China, Russia and Brazil, the consumers in India are largely Anglophone which means that as Indians become the second-largest nationality online (after the Chinese), they simultaneously will become the single largest group on the English-language internet. A vast majority of them using the English language as the preferred way to communicate online!


On top of that mobile increase, fibre optic subscribers through the Indian government's NOFN project are likely to reach over 600 million by 2020! With average Internet speeds in India set to triple over the next couple of years, this is going to be the LARGEST MARKET in the world and it will all start kicking off towards sometime this summer!



India is the worlds largest democracy and has the second largest population of English speakers in the world. It also currently has the world's largest youth population. In total the population of India is equivalent of more than the populations of Europe and the US combined! Just think about this sort of opportunity guys!

Just literally a few months ago, Japans richest man (owner of SoftBank) invested $627million in an Indian web company and stated that is had plans to invest $10Billion over the next couple of years due to the vast market potential of India.



India's population has now crossed over the 1 billion mark, more than half of its population are younger than 25 and nearly 70 percent of its 1.25 billion population is under 40. Therefore in absolute numbers, this is actually unprecedented anywhere in the history of the world. It also comes at a time when much of the developed world and also China have aging populations. Overall, India will overtake China as the largest population in the world before 2030. At the current growth rate, India will easily exceed 600 million internet users by 2018 or much before that. This will make India the biggest open internet access market in the world and therefore this is the place to capitalize on some serious growth. And remember guys, India is the largest DEMOCRACY in the world, and that word democracy is what is changing the minds of Google, Twitter, Facebook, Uber etc…to start moving away from China and more into India.

India is also set to overtake the U.S. as the world's largest Facebook market by number of users before the end of this year, which already at over 135 million users, is the only country specific market in the world where Facebook is aspiring to have 1 billion users, nowhere else are they or can they even aspire for this guys. It was literally just a few months ago that Zuckerberg met with Modi to discuss the push forward of internet useage in India and has been in India yet again to push his ideas. Discussions are always continuing with the top web corporations and the politicians of India, to push forward Internet useage in the country.

India added 100 million new users to the Internet in 2015, taking the country to more than 400 million users -- more than there are residents of the US. But with another 800 million yet to be connected, the world's biggest tech companies are eager to be a part of India's consumer tech boom in the next few years. Between Google last month beginning its mission to hook up train stations around India with free Wi-Fi and Facebook's controversial Free Basics initiative, which will give limited e-services to the poor at no cost, expect the numbers to only accelerate. In 2015, smartphone sales in India eclipsed those in the US for the first time ever, according to Counterpoint Research. China remains the world's largest phone market, but it's nearing saturation point, with growth stalling in 2015 for the first time. The US is a similarly tough nut to crack, with 79 percent of people already owning smartphones, according to ComScore.

Due to these statistics and current initiatives and business projects taking place in this country, India is of course set to shortly become the largest population of web users in the world!

I realize guys that many of you may primarily be involved in .COM and you may ask that although India is rapidly becoming a massive user base in the online world, why would the users move to a cctld like .IN rather than .COM or another of the many new/old extensions? My belief is that .COM is becoming slightly saturated or which I why I chose .IN over .COM when concentrating on ROI.


Of course, I believe that .COM is still CURRENTLY king globally and will be king for a long long time, there is no denying that. I personally started off in domaining over 12 years ago with primarily .coms, .orgs and .nets. I now have no .coms in my portfolio and have also sold most of my .nets and .orgs too to generate enough funds to buy into .IN which I believe is the next big thing for sure! .Com is great for primarily international/USA traffic, but Google has a local search site for many individual countries, for example Google.ca for Canada, Google.fr for France & Google.co.uk for the UK. These local search engines tend to give priority to local domains and Google in India will tend to give priority for .IN extensions when end users are searching for specific items. Therefore IF any major corporation is interested in gaining traffic from INDIAN customers then they will need the .IN extension to further this cause and create a highly ranked online portal to their store/services through the Indian webspace, which now many of them are already doing. I know that algorithms are continually changing and take into account many more other factors than this, and I may not be completely correct in my understanding. But using the .IN extension to start operations in India is a growing market and many global/Indian corporations are already doing this. .IN is now the primary extension for India and is unbeatable in generating traffic for businesses through the web whom want to capitalize on India’s enormous population. 



Most companies based within India are using .IN sites as their primary websites and redirecting their .com sites to the .IN ones and having been doing so for many years now. Also, many international companies are already using .IN sites as their primary portals for Indian originated specific traffic and then transferring into their .com sites or even just using the .IN sites as their primary sites over there, built specifically for the Indian market. Most international companies use ccTLDs in this manner and they are not just bought as a defensive move to protect their trademark and name, although this is definitely also a major advantage of owning all important extensions of a brand in new major emerging markets. Also another great stat is that the IMF have concluded that the total size of the Indian economy is set to surpass that of Japan and Germany combined by 2019.

Again, why not .com for Indians? Well .com is still used by Indians and it always will be just as it is still used by Germans or the British. But INDIAN users do often prefer the .IN extension over .com, unless of course they are specifically looking for products or services that are based outside of India. This is similar to markets such as the UK in which .co.uk is the predominant extension used, German market where .de is used over .com unless looking for global services etc.....Yet India is even more nationalistic than most of these other countries and in a similar manner to China, Indians always prefer to use INDIAN identifiable services & options due to long established trust and pride in their country and this is exactly why the .IN extension is prime real estate for the Indian webspace. It is also the preferred extension that is being pushed by the Indian government and that is exactly why many are now investing in .IN names.



Guys, im sure you're pretty much up to date with the current marketplace anyway but yeah go ahead and check out the statistics for yourself in regards to India and i'm pretty sure that you'll agree with me when I say that it is going to blow up in a massive way! All of these stats that I have mentioned can be verified on many established global business/news sites with a simple google search.

There's literally $Billions currently being poured into the Indian Webspace and Indian Internet usage right now, every single western/global company is dying to get in and many Indian companies are racking up their arsenal as we speak. The newly formed government is extremely pro-digital and the word on the street is that they are going to quickly start easing out a lot of national policies, making it easier to carry out business/services online. This already occurred yesterday in the start up sector.

I'm not sure if you guys are aware of what occurred just over a decade ago in relation to the telecoms industry over there but it went absolutely crazy and led to a full on price war in relation to tariffs and mobile phone products, which led to India rapidly becoming the number two country of the highest users of mobile devices in the world (soon to become number one). Yet this time, the rate of growth is expected to be more than triple that in relation to web usage, smartphone adoption ect.... Extremely cheap 4G with subsidised smartphones, tablets is expected to be rolled out on a national scale in 2016 by major companies such as Reliance ect.....

The number of end users in India is already set to surpass the number in USA, and we've not even reached the quarter way point in terms of the size of population in India.

The major western corporates are already betting big on India and by the end of the year, it'll be far too late to get in on the game as many old school players would've already got a foothold on the major keywords and won't be letting go for spare change. I myself wish I had go in earlier on the .IN game. BUT there is still massive opportunity RIGHT NOW, as it is STILL a buyer’s market which I don’t believe will be the case in one years time!
And since the market is on the cusp of exploding in India and I know the potential worth of these names in a year or two time will be immense.



Guys, you have to realise that by 2018, India will have twice the number of Internet users as the US does and has already overtaken the US in terms of number of user at the end of last year. Of course the market will take a while to fully mature, but in sheer advertising potential alone, this is amazing! And plus the speed of adoption nowadays both in web services and ecommerce is incredibly fast!
India already at this moment in time has over 400 million internet users, which is nearly 17 times the full actual population of the country of Australia guys. And as I write this email this very moment, India is adding 1.25 millions internet users to the web every single week which is nearly 180,000 new unique users of the internet per day! By the end of today, another 180,000 users would've come online and have started searching for things on the web and the same will happening again tomorrow, and the day after and the day after that....ect..... Those figures are just too wild to ignore! Yes of course, all of these users are not mature users as in the west, they will not all buy lots of items on through the web, they may not all spend hours on the web every single day BUT these aspects are rapidly changing and these users are quickly changing their habits and many are starting to replicate our habits here in the west.

Once an Indian picks up a smartphone, they will never go back! I think that investors in the web game tend not to pay too much attention on new emerging markets in the beginning, always instead looking towards .com & the western markets which I believe have now started to slowly saturate in terms of growth. Why buy up in Beverly Hills when there is no further growth happening there? When instead we can look at a new neighbourhood that is growing beyond all expectations and will soon be the new Beverly Hills of the East! The time is now, the buyers market is now! I don’t think investors here should miss out on this chance! Obviously no one here will take this information as gospel, so therefore I request anyone whom finds all of this interesting, then please research into this for yourself and I am sure that you will find that adding some nice .ins into your portfolio NOW rather than later will be a good financial decision. B-)
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Wow, great posting Umesh, i couldn't stop appreciate the amount of thought process ,very detailed and as well as crystal clear post. a must read for all for serious domain investors. Highly recommended
 
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And remember guys, India is the largest DEMOCRACY in the world, and that word democracy is what is changing the minds of Google, Twitter, Facebook, Uber etc…to start moving away from China and more into India.

I agree with most of what you say except for the above point. I think if anything, people are realising that democracy is not necessarily the only model that works. The reason that some money is moving away from China at the current time is because the Chinese economy is slowing and India is likely to be the fastest growing economy in the world this, and possibly next, year. There also appears to be a credit bubble in China and the potential for a hard landing over there.

The biggest myth about India, I found, was the perception that India has slow internet. When I was last in India, a few years back speeds of well over 100Mbps were quite the norm for landline broadband so I'm quite certain things have moved forward since then. Slow speeds tend to remain in areas that are just economically irrelevant. The major obstacle I see for end user sales is not the lack of capital or the speed of the internet but rather the Indian Mindset. The pace of change in India is far more rapid than any change in the way of thinking.

Indian's culturally have always avoided paying high prices where a cheaper option was available and in general I find that Indian's will be very reluctant to pay high prices for domain names whether dot com or dot in and this is where you need to focus your attention. The question you need to ask is (a) how many domain names have you sold to indians or india based end users. If the answer is few, then you need to ask is whether you expect that to change in the future and by how much.
 
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TLDR: The reason is: Chinese boss said: "Let's go .in". Nuff said.
 
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TLDR: The reason is: Chinese boss said: "Let's go .in". Nuff said.
Chinese investments into .in are still small. Indian prime minister said "Let's go India" :)
 
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Chinese economy is slowing and India is likely to be the fastest growing economy in the world this, and possibly next, year.

India GDP $2.384 trillion Growth 7.3% = +0.174 trillion
China GDP $10.354 trillion Growth 6.8% = +0.704 trillion

Difference in growth tempo between "fastest growing economy" and soon will be biggest economy is just 0.5% and actual compound GDP growth will be 4 times bigger in China that's slowing down. Most countries in the world can only dream about such a "slow down".
 
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Great summary of current events in the Indian market. These are some really exciting times to be invested in .in domain names. You have covered many aspects in your post, well done again.
 
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TLDR: The reason is: Chinese boss said: "Let's go .in". Nuff said.
True or Untrue.. is it really matters?.. end of the day .IN prices are raising and investors has the opportunities to make money its 100% fact.. .IN has .INternational brand appealing.. so any one .INterested in .IN can .INvest , its open for all:)
 
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India GDP $2.384 trillion Growth 7.3% = +0.174 trillion
China GDP $10.354 trillion Growth 6.8% = +0.704 trillion

Difference in growth tempo between "fastest growing economy" and soon will be biggest economy is just 0.5% and actual compound GDP growth will be 4 times bigger in China that's slowing down. Most countries in the world can only dream about such a "slow down".
While the stats are true.. .IN prices are much lower compare .CN , as per the above stats you have shared .IN prices should be at least 1/5 times of .CN price, however they are not close to that.. so we can prove anything with stats .. India is a growing economy it will not over take china for sure at least in next one decade , the other hand INDIA will grow at a faster speed than what it did a year before.. which means the economy size also growing.. its better to invest into a growing economy than a economy which is saturated .. just my 2 cents :)
 
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I gave this example to show that when people talk about slow down in China they don't realize how big is their economy and how hard it's to grow it at such pace. Think about two cars: Chinese truck is going 4 times faster than Indian car this year. Speed is: 4 vs 1 and if it will slow down from 4 to 3,5 and it's still will keep adding more power 3 times more than Indian. And it's not really bad, comparing how fast is China pulling away from other countries.
 
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I gave this example to show that when people talk about slow down in China they don't realize how big is their economy and how hard it's to grow it at such pace. Think about two cars: Chinese truck is going 4 times faster than Indian car this year. Speed is: 4 vs 1 and if it will slow down from 4 to 3,5 and it's still will keep adding more power 3 times more than Indian. And it's not really bad, comparing how fast is China pulling away from other countries.
India's econmoy cant be compare to china , the author of the first post tried to say India's economoy is the fastest growing economy in the world which is undisputable fact :)
 
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@HUKU, you are correct in stating that people are realising that democracy is not the only model that works BUT it is still the most accepted model for western economies which is why the large western corporations (US & European) prefer to operate in democratic parts of the world rather than in restricted countries whom clamp down on every little adjustment they try to make to their businesses, making operations very difficult for them. Democracy equals more freedom for both the consumer and the business enabling a business to directly interact with the consumer, without constant scrutinization from the state. The domain game in China is still quite restricted and closed to Chinese domainers, it is also not so straight forward in comparison to .IN which is very open and as India has a massive English speaking population, the opportunities with .IN are extremely vast. As Shiva previously mentioned, the .IN game is open to everyone worldwide and easy to enter to native English speakers too.

@djum, I am not sure that you fully understand the economics of these countries, the GDP effect is not as clear cut as you state, you are just spitting out numbers which do not tell the whole story my friend. China and India have very different approaches to generating growth. China has directed the massive investment percentage of GDP into the creation of industrial capacity, aimed substantially at export markets. It is therefore vulnerable to downturns in global markets, particularly in the USA & Europe. The level of consumption had fallen to 38% of GDP by the end of 2005, just about the lowest level of any major world economy. Due to this, excess capacity generated by the high level of investment relative to consumption has resulted in overcapacity, stagnating or reducing prices, growing levels of unsold inventory and pressures on profitability.

But India has followed a different path of growth, the size of India’s middle class has quadrupled to almost 250 million people over the past 15-20 years. Overall population growth has slowed considerably, with large gains in per capita income. India’s demographics are beginning to resemble those of the developed West. As the current generation of potential baby boomers matures and the consumer sector of the economy continues to prosper, spending power and modern consumer behaviour look set to “trickle down” through the economy for decades. India has relied considerably on a combination of growing domestic market demand and investment in knowledge-intensive industry and services, which has meant that India has been to a great extent insulated from global downturns affecting physical trade that have affected China.

And that is why India is a very different story to China. India is following the western model, which in my opinion has been extremely successful right?!
 
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"India is the largest DEMOCRACY in the world,"

India Remains One Of The Most Corrupt Countries In The World

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ronakde...-corrupt-countries-in-the-world/#4240bfe025d8


DEMOCRACY = CORUPTION
Great share, thank you for the same. What is interesting to me its correcting its positions from
2013 --> 94
2014-->85
2015 --> 76

Author of the article stated the below details
"
Denmark topped the CPI, while North Korea and Somalia were the worst performer, earning the dubious distinction of being the most corrupt countries in the world. The United States earned a score of 76, while China fared slightly worse than India, receiving a 36.


India’s score remained unchanged from last year, but its overall position in the index improved notably compared to years past. Transparency International ranked the world’s largest democracy the 85th and 94th most corrupt country in the world in 2014 and 2013, respectively.

Some may see this as evidence of receding corruption in India. More likely, however, is that other nations have become comparatively more corrupt, improving India’s relative position in the rankings."


China is performing worser than India , however chinese domains are selling like hot cakes.. from domains invest point of view its already proven corruption is nothing to do with the success of domain investment to large extent offcourse its good to have corruption free and its further add to the investment friendly atmosphere what is interesting is at the speed the democracy nation is maturing and also India is relatively young country and compare to the most corruption free nations , Indian PM has identified the need and pushing "Digital India" to reduce the amount of corruption ..
 
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India GDP $2.384 trillion Growth 7.3% = +0.174 trillion
China GDP $10.354 trillion Growth 6.8% = +0.704 trillion

Difference in growth tempo between "fastest growing economy" and soon will be biggest economy is just 0.5% and actual compound GDP growth will be 4 times bigger in China that's slowing down. Most countries in the world can only dream about such a "slow down".
I fully agree with you regarding the Chinese economy, that can't be compared to other countries expected USA, in term of GDP. It is huge, and solid.

But regarding the growth, taking your figures, if you invest $100 in China, end of the year you have $106.8. If you invest $100 in India, end of the year you have $107.3. This is better.

This is why investors are closely looking at India now. I never said they leave China. I just said they are very interested in India :)
 
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India GDP $2.384 trillion Growth 7.3% = +0.174 trillion
China GDP $10.354 trillion Growth 6.8% = +0.704 trillion

Difference in growth tempo between "fastest growing economy" and soon will be biggest economy is just 0.5% and actual compound GDP growth will be 4 times bigger in China that's slowing down. Most countries in the world can only dream about such a "slow down".

You may be right but it's worth mentioning that there's also a lot of scepticism about the 6.8% number on Wall Street - just search around and you'll find 1000's of news items and analyses throwing serious doubt on this figure (I daresay India's GDP figures are also inaccurate). I travel regularly to India and visit China every year without fail and I have to say, it doesn't feel like 6.8% economy (you can feel it!). As I said in a previous post, all the "other" indicators used by analysts such as electricity consumption, commodities imports, baltic dry index suggest a sizeable slowdown. Some very well respected economists believe China's GDP is likely to be growing at 5% on the optimistic side.

China has had a very prolonged period of exceptional growth so a slowdown was long overdue. It's difficult to grow at such a high rate when your economy is so large. However, Institutional money (including Wall Street) definitely isn't going into China right now on anywhere near the prior scale because there are many risks and issues such as capital controls and the possibility of currency devaluation. You could make a capital investment in China right now and take an immediate 20% hit on the value of your assets (regardless of their performance) through currency devaluation alone and that's bound to deter inbound money. Just watch Bloomberg - its all they seem to talk about when it comes to China.

Mark Mobius and Kyle Bass have both recently spoken about India being a bright spot for investment but India too carries risks and there are also many problems in a country which is developing... poor education (endemic in my view), corruption and bureaucracy being the main ones. India's bureaucracy is mind numbing - a simple job that would take 5 minutes in the US can take days in India because of all the paperwork requirements.

That said, as the OP commented, major venture capital is moving into India so it doesn't seem to be deterring investments for the time being. India is currently experiencing a major Startup Boom. One additional major stimuli for the Indian Economy (in a country which imports over 80% of its oil) is a low oil price... whether that will last or not, there are a confluence of factors that "appear" to be favorable for India right now.
 
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India has been slowly gaining in most categories for years now. If I'm not mistaken they are the only country with nuclear capability that do no belong to the united nations. A lot of money to made in India soon.
 
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@HUKU, you are correct in stating that people are realising that democracy is not the only model that works BUT it is still the most accepted model for western economies which is why the large western corporations (US & European) prefer to operate in democratic parts of the world

Well I disagree. In my view, the importance of democracy has been overplayed as its the largest democracy in the world. Has it hindered China in any way shape or form that it is not a democracy? I doubt it...... to live and do business in China, you cannot tell that you are not in a democracy. Chinese people are not oppressed.

In India, you have strong Religion and weak Government.

In China, you have strong Government and weak Religion.

The bottom line is that although the Government does intervene, China has been very successful because its easy to do business and democracy just doesn't come into it. The obstacle in India is mainly, as I said previously, poor education, corruption and bureaucracy. Nothing gets done quickly in India unless you pay a bribe..... bribing people do to jobs is just NORMAL BEHAVIOR especially when it comes to dealing with the bureaucracy which is far more of a discouragement for business than anything else you'd like to mention.

Incidently, the Ease of Doing Business yearly report that ranks the top 190 countries for business. The most recent puts Singapore in first position as the most easy place to do business. China is at position 84 and India is at position 130.
 
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Well I disagree. In my view, the importance of democracy has been overplayed as its the largest democracy in the world. Has it hindered China in any way shape or form that it is not a democracy? I doubt it...... to live and do business in China, you cannot tell that you are not in a democracy. Chinese people are not oppressed.

In India, you have strong Religion and weak Government.

In China, you have strong Government and weak Religion.

The bottom line is that although the Government does intervene, China has been very successful because its easy to do business and democracy just doesn't come into it. The obstacle in India is mainly, as I said previously, poor education, corruption and bureaucracy. Nothing gets done quickly in India unless you pay a bribe..... bribing people do to jobs is just NORMAL BEHAVIOR especially when it comes to dealing with the bureaucracy which is far more of a discouragement for business than anything else you'd like to mention.

Incidently, the Ease of Doing Business yearly report that ranks the top 190 countries for business. The most recent puts Singapore in first position as the most easy place to do business. China is at position 84 and India is at position 130.

I think you are not upto date with whats going on presently in India

After the General elections in May 2014, everything has changed for good:

1) Govt. is very Strong Now with full majority & one of the STRONGEST LEADER after Indra gandhi.

2) Corruption has reduced drastically and TOP and middle level has almost vanished.

3) Ease of doing business has improved considerably. India's position has improved from Over 165 to 130 now and improving further.

Present govt. is very committed to root out the corruption, they are very taking decisions very fast, bureaucracy is on their toes, they have set targets for everything-from road projects to port projects.
They are making everything transparent and open to the citizens. Digital India project launched by Indian govt. is a great success which is helping poorest of the poor as leakages are kept at bay and benefits are reaching directly to the poor.(like gas subsidies, insurance etc)

In fact, In the History of independent India, It is the FIRST GOVT. which is committed to DELIVER and making India realize the dream of becoming "DEVELOPED COUNTRY"
 
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@HUKU, great comments and I value them very much but I still have to disagree with you in regards to the power of democracy in business. It is a know fact that democracy increases gross domestic product by about 20 percent in the long run and business investment has always been higher in democracies. An open political system would always be much better for business as stable, transparent governments built on respect for human rights and the rule of law tend to foster environments that are conducive to the establishment and unfettered operation of private enterprises. Conversely, regimes that oppress their populations are more likely to limit business opportunities. Of course democracy is clearly not the only factor behind good economic performance, but more often than not, it provides the long-term political stability and corrective mechanisms that form a foundation for safe investment and steady growth.

And yes of course, India has its own 'other' problems such as poor education, corruption and bureaucracy which you mentioned, although these are rapidly changing under the new government too and soon will not be a hindrance to doing business out there, the red tape is being cut into shreds on daily basis, things are becoming much more easier out there now with new policies coming through. I do not any longer believe that India has a weak government as it previously did, the current government is making massive reforms and changing the whole nature of doing business in India, it is now a extremely strong force on both a national and global scale, with the current PM actively travelling the world to bring in more investment to India and being very successful at this too. Yes you do have strong religion in India but I don't see this as detriment to prosperity, recent studies suggest that faith can positively impact the economy through at least two distinct vectors: ethos and engagement. Socially responsible business is certainly a theme championed by many religious leaders. Take for example the Zoroastrian ethos of Tata Group, India’s largest conglomerate with operations on six continents and in more than 80 countries. Tata’s operating philosophy, based on the Zoroastrian faith, is: “Improving the quality of life of the communities we serve.” By producing affordable and reliable products, supporting charitable causes, and standing against corruption, Tata has been recognized as one of the most reputable companies in India.
 
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It is a know fact that democracy increases gross domestic product by about 20 percent in the long run and business investment has always been higher in democracies.

Well if that's the case then why is India so far behind China? They have around the same population size. India has been an democracy and a free market economy for almost 70 years. Yet China is more than four times larger than India by GDP.

Anyway, if India was as big as China, there would be less opportunity not more. The investment opportunity is multiplied by the growth trajectory. Also I definitely don't think that the prevailing view today is that democracy is always desirable. In fact, the idea of democracy as a system has been somewhat degraded in recent years and with western interventions in foreign countries ie "bringing democracy to Iraq" etc as well as big money political campaigns. Democracies don't always listen to their people and they can often just become big government sucking up resources like a humongous parasite.

An open political system would always be much better for business as stable, transparent governments built on respect for human rights and the rule of law tend to foster environments that are conducive to the establishment and unfettered operation of private enterprises. Conversely, regimes that oppress their populations are more likely to limit business opportunities. Of course democracy is clearly not the only factor behind good economic performance, but more often than not, it provides the long-term political stability and corrective mechanisms that form a foundation for safe investment and steady growth.

I can see where you got the above line but you should have given them a credit since you copied them word for word (freedomhouse.org/blog/democracy-good-business) from a website dedicated to championing democracy which is hardly an objective source. Anyhow, I am not saying that an open transparent government and human rights etc is not beneficial.

I am simply saying, as per my previous comment, that the importance of democracy has been overplayed and is, in my view, somewhat exaggerated. Singapore is one of the most successful modern economies and it's not a classic democracy either.

As for oppression, there is no doubt about it. Indian's are far more oppressed than Chinese people. However, in India its religious, caste, social, poor education and other things. Having interests in both countries and having spent years traveling through many cities of both countries, I know a thing or two about this.

the red tape is being cut into shreds on daily basis

There is no way that this will be resolved over night. It's a deep rooted problem. Have you ever spent more than 1 month outside of India? Indians are fiercely nationalistic but very few of those who live in India have spent a significant amount of time outside of India and so have very little to compare it with. Talk to any foreigners in India and they will tell you that the red tape is absolutely mind numbing.

Yes you do have strong religion in India but I don't see this as detriment to prosperity

I never said that it was and in fact, I believe its beneficial. I was just referring to the differences between the two. Anyhow, to round off I am in no way saying that India is not a great opportunity for investment. Investing in .in domains is investing in Indian internet business and it's a smart move but I am simply saying that there are many things to consider.

US Dept of Agriculture recently published a report anticipating India will be a top three economy by 2030 which means India has to move up 7 places which would be a great leap up the rankings. The order would then be (1) United States (2) China and (3) India.
 
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Wow, long post! But, interesting
 
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@HUKU, I very much agree with many of your comments but at the same time disagree with others too. I still believe that democracy is a major positive in doing business in a country, and that an open and transparent market will always entice businesses. I believe the reason why India stagnated behind China was due to an age old bureaucratic culture, which is now rapidly changing and therefore showing (as you mentioned) a very promising growth trajectory.....which will continue for the long term.

You mentioned that the lines from the website that I used for championing democracy is hardly an objective source, yet are your opinions not subjective in themselves anyway? Governmental politics will always be a completely subjective topic, as the definable measures of success can be so varied in this area of discussion.

You state that Indians are far more oppressed than Chinese people? So then why did the Tibetans migrate en masse to India? You state that religion oppresses people in India yet people in India are free to practice whichever religion they choose or none at all, but in China the government completely controls the institutions of all religions and faith is actually very much frowned upon by the state. China is notorious for its lack of press freedom etc...And why is Facebook banned in China? But anyway, lets get back to the main topic at hand.....DOMAIN NAMES. The internet in India is a much more open market than in China, and this is why I believe that there is far more opportunity and easier access to the Indian marketplace for foreigners and foreign businesses.

You also asked me as to whether I have ever spent more than one month outside of India. May I ask the same question to you Huku? And why ask ME that question? Im sorry, but why assume that I have spent my whole life in India? I am actually British, I was born and raised in England, so I am quite familiar with the differences in how things work in India. I am extensively travelled individual, and often visit other European countries as well as the States. But I have also travelled throughout India and visit it on an annual basis due to my links over there, as well as having visited China too. I completely understand when you say that the red tape issue is a deep rooted problem in India BUT that is changing and again it is changing at a rapid pace.

At the end of the day, we should not be discussing political philosophies but rather discussing as to whether .IN is a good bet or not. I think we BOTH AGREE that .IN is a good bet and that due to the current rate of growth happening in India, the ROI on .IN names is going to be great right? Lets agree on that mate? ;)
 
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I was registering .in and .co.in since early days, but truly realized .in potential when a major corporation bought a .co.in (great product keyword) from me in 2010. They were buying the keyword in all cctlds. Paid a great price ($xx,xxx) and I sold it practically overnight. I know that doesn't happen often, but that showed me what is possible when the right buyer comes around. Are you willing to wait ? That's really the question here..

For domainers there is plenty of options around, but for those who want to participate in India's future growth (whether your Indian or not), can't think of a better way right now.
 
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