This Isn’t China: The “Amazon of India” Will Be Amazon and “Uber of India” Will Be Uber

Monday, April 4, 2016

I was at a conference the other day, speaking on a panel with VCs and angels, when we were asked a question: With the softening of valuations and the famous Flipkart markdown, is there still a large internet opportunity in India?

My friend and co-panelist from a large VC fund jumped up and trotted out the now-standard schtick: that the combined market cap of Chinese internet firms is half a trillion dollars and as of now the combined market cap of all Indian internet firms is just around $30 billion — so yes, there is loads of room to grow. Maybe 10x or 15x or more.

But I believe there’s something terribly wrong with this logic, and the sooner we realise this, the better off we all will be.

Because you really can’t compare the internet opportunities in China and India.

Source: Quartz (link opens in a new window)

Categories
Investing
Tags
business development, venture capital