SUMMARY
Last week, Inc42 hosted Zoho Corp’s Sridhar Vembu to discuss the rising opportunities in the Indian SaaS companies
#TheInc42Show, “Will OTT Redefine India’s Media & Entertainment Landscape?” was organised last week
AWS Summit Online India is now available on-demand until 31 August 2020
Having built Zoho in 1996 and seeing his fair share of crises over the decades, founder Sridhar Vembu recently spoke about the big shift awaiting Indian SaaS due to Covid-19, at the ‘Ask Me Anything’ (AMA) series hosted by Inc42. Vembu, talking to Inc42 cofounder and CEO Vaibhav Vardhan, spoke about India’s digital abilities, Indian SMB challenges, delayed impact of Covid-19 and much more.
“A lot of work has to be done for Indian SMBs to tap into the MSME opportunity. I don’t think it’s going to be an easy game and all the massive global players are also here. India is a wide-open market so that is also a challenge,” he said.
Vembu also highlighted that since a lot of companies have not adopted tech technology so far, even with such an opportunity challenges like extremely low price points, onboarding, regional and local support remain.
Zoho founder also noted that the landscape today is different than six months ago and that it’s barely recognisable. “We have to thread this needle wire— keep our optimism, invest in R&D, technology etc and at the same time, keep ourselves alive. That is threading the needle, and that is not an easy challenge that founders of all startups must grapple with,” he added.
Besides this, TheInc42Show last week also held a discussion on “Will OTT Redefine India’s Media & Entertainment Landscape?”. The discussion involved Zee5 CEO Tarun Katial, MX Player CEO Karan Bedi, Hungama Digital Media Founder & CEO Neeraj Roy and Pocket Aces Founder Ashwin Suresh in a session moderated by Vaibhav Vardhan, cofounder and CEO, Inc42 Media.
During the discussion, panellists agreed that there is huge scope for OTT right now, especially due to the nation-wide lockdown. Bedi from MX Player also pointed out that these last two months have actually been a fair paradigm shift situation for OTT, and video streaming has moved from the bedroom to the living room.
“I think that while, of course, we are discussing these issues around, releasing directly on theatre vs OTT etc. You will notice that no one is talking about TV in the middle and it’s odd. So I think that there has been a huge shift. Of course, after the lockdown, some behaviour will start moving back, a lot of the shift will be permanent,” he added.
As we step into a new week, here’s a list of upcoming events:
AWS Summit Online India
Empowering Tech Startups To Scale Sustainably
Last week, Amazon Web Services hosted AWS Summit Online 2020, which was specifically curated to help startups increase their efficiency and productivity by leveraging cloud technology. The summit was designed specially for executives and IT professionals.
Now, the AWS Summit Online India is available on-demand until August 31, 2020. Those interested can make up for the missed event, and sessions by accessing the recorded summit.
Points Covered:
- AI And Machine Learning
- Data And Analytics
- Containers
- Modern Application Development
- Building Applications At Scale
- Security
Who Should Attend: Entrepreneurs, IT Professionals, Executives
Date: Available until August 31
Time: 24/7
Venue: Virtual Summit
Alibaba: Online Seller Summit
Go Global 2020- Make in India, Sell Globally
Chinese ecommerce platform Alibaba is hosting an online seller summit to educate sellers about the new initiatives launched by the platform and how they can leverage it. The summit aims to reach out to current sellers and educate them about Alibaba.com’s strategy for 2020, buyer trends toward products from India and introduce new value-added services that will enable the sellers to better leverage the platform.
Talking Points:
- Alibaba’s growth strategy
- Global trends for Indian suppliers
- New tools and price plans catered to each suppliers’ business needs
Who Should Attend: Sellers
Date: May 18, 2020
Time: 3:00 PM
Venue: Virtual Event
