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EDIT: I would like to introduce Vivek Pahwa. Vivek is the Founder and CEO of Accentium Web, an Indian Internet Media company. Accentium has set up and runs various successful websites like SecondShaadi.com, Gaadi.com, StudyNation.com and Taaza.com. Accentium also set up and then sold DesiMartini.com, an Indian social network, to the HT Media Group. Vivek will be contributing ideas and advice on the internet space in India.

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There are a lot of people who are attracted to the Internet as a good start-up oppurtunity for a number of reasons - It has relatively low barriers to entry, setting up a basic site does not take a lot of money, it’s an exciting newish medium to be part of, and there are lot’s of big brands that are online businesses, which attract many people.

Because of some of these reasons, there is a tendency to think that starting and running a successful internet business is relatively “easy” - However, there is no free lunch out there - Starting an internet business has as many challenges, if not more, compared to a regular offline business. The reason is that setting up a website is only the first step, even getting (or buying) traffic is relatively accesible - however, converting the traffic into rupees takes a lot of innovation and trial and error. Also, because of the low barriers to entry, there tends to be a lot more competition, hence it becomes harder to differentiate yourself. There is a big learning curve in this industry, even after years, we still learn new things every day, and gaining that knowledge gives us a real advantage more and more as we go along. Now, if you’re an early mover in a new concept which solves a real need, you have a great shot to build a good business, if you execute well - But chances are, going in, you will have no idea how to generate the all important revenue to build a successful company. Hence, you’re going to have to experiment with multiple revenue models, some of which will be very successful, and some will fall flat, and most would not be viable. This is also a reason, Internet start-ups can lose a lot of money in the beginning.

There are very few pure play highly successful internet businesses in India - Most of the big ones tend to be a mix of online and offline - The offline component is usually sales, where there is a physical transaction. Hence, running a purely online “clean” business may not always be possible - at some point, the business would have to get it’s hand dirty and go “offline”.

So what are some of the revenue models out there online? All models can be broken down into four -

• Advertising
• Lead Generation
• Subscription
• E-Commerce

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