The Open India Market Onslaught with Newley Purnell

Leong Chung Wei Bernard -

Newley Purnell from Wall Street Journal joined us to discuss his current coverage on the India startup & technology ecosystem. We examine the day of reckoning for the India startup unicorns and their challenges from both funding and competition from US technology companies. We also discussed how the India startups are competing with the US tech counterparts in ecommerce, on demand transportation and smartphones while addressing the onslaught from China and US companies entering the huge India’s open market.

Here are the interesting show notes and links to the discussion (with time-stamps included):

  • Newley Purnell, Journalist at Wall Street Journal (@newley, LinkedIn, personal website)  
    • Newley’s move from Singapore to Delhi. [0:50]
    • Since we last spoke on Analyse Asia, what have you been up to? [1:24] 
    • Ola and Uber, which app does Newley use in India? [3:10]
  • Observations on India Startup Ecosystem [3:40]
    • As you are covering India startup ecosystem and the western companies in India, what are the interesting observations you have seen in India so far? [3:50]
    • Is Apple & Xiaomi teaming up with Foxconn to manufacturing smartphones in India vs Micromax?  [5:14]
    • Are the India startup unicorns facing a funding crunch in late stage? [5:50]
    • Do you see a mad rush of money from Chinese, Japan and US venture capital and private equity firms in India?  [7:00]
  • Apple in India [7:40]
    • Recently, Apple has launched its new iPhone 7. You wrote it will be more expensive in India. Why is that happening given that India is a price sensitive market? [8:00]
    • Are the Indian users toggling between iPhones or android phones? [9:30]
    • What other kinds of challenges does Apple have in India? [10:12]
  • Ecommerce in India [11:03]
    • What kinds of trends are you seeing? How are Snapdeal and Flipkart doing versus Amazon? [11:08]
    • How does Snapdeal and Flipkart distinguish themselves from one another against Amazon? [12:11]
    • Is there a possibility for a merger between Flipkart and Snapdeal to fight Amazon? [13:00]
    • For Flipkart and Snapdeal, is it possible that these companies be crushed by Amazon given that India is an open market? [14:02]
  • On Demand Transportation [15:10]
    • With Uber giving up China and OlaCabs are laying off their staff, how does the on-demand transportation market look from your eyes? [15:27] 
    • Even with Ola’s problems, you have recently covered Zoomcar, a car rental company getting US$24M from Ford, why did Zoomcar manage to capture the interest from car companies? [17:00]
  • India’s open market challenge from China and US companies

Podcast Information:

The show is hosted by Bernard Leong (@bleongcw) and are sponsored by Ideal Workspace (Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn) with their new Altizen Desk on Indiegogo (Twitter, Facebook, Medium). Also check out Ideal Workspace’s new standing desk, Altizen and sign up for their mailing list. Sound credits for the intro music: Taro Iwashiro, “The Beginning” from Red Cliff Soundtrack.