Why don't Indians buy software?
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India has 1000s of software shops (many of them run out of one room home offices). So there will be cheap alternatives for pretty much every piece of business software you can think of. Of course there may be significant compromises in quality/stability etc. but because they are so cheap, users get value for money.
Regards, Nish
Latest article: Code Project Posts Analyzer for Windows Phone 7 My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com
Yeah I guess that explains it. It just seems weird to waste our time and their time when they know they aren't going to buy. Makes me want to just make our website go dark to India to save the hassle all around. I won't but it makes me want to. :) Thanks for the insights Nish.
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They do (or at least that's our experience, albeit in a different sector - dev tools). For us by far the worst major country for sales is (no surprise) China. I'd be really surprised if piracy isn't a significant factor in that case though; I know our online merchant is really strict about credit card orders from that part of the world.
Anna :rose: Tech Blog | Visual Lint "Why would anyone prefer to wield a weapon that takes both hands at once, when they could use a lighter (and obviously superior) weapon that allows you to wield multiple ones at a time, and thus supports multi-paradigm carnage?"
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We were going over our analytics the other day and a question came up: "Why don't Indians buy software?". We sell a small to medium sized business application online and we have regular sales in over 70 countries. In our web analytics we see India quite high on the list of countries where people download our software, very high, like fifth out of all countries, as well Indians regularly request a full trial license from us to fully test our software so we know they are engaged and interested. The mystery is that in over a decade in business we still have zero sales to India, not one single one. This despite thousands of downloads by Indians. The countries below India in downloads, even *way* below India still account for a large amount of sales. It's not piracy, we monitor that regularly. We've contacted the Indian people who requested a license as we do everyone and we always get an answer like "We thoroughly checked it out and decided to go with another package". Is there some kind of cultural thing we're not getting? Is it that they will always try to find a local equivalent if they can? Does anyone have a theory as to this mystifying behaviour?
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Yeah I guess that explains it. It just seems weird to waste our time and their time when they know they aren't going to buy. Makes me want to just make our website go dark to India to save the hassle all around. I won't but it makes me want to. :) Thanks for the insights Nish.
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One thing worth trying is to try and find a reputed software vendor/dealer in India. You may not find a national level vendor but you may find some city specific ones for major cities like Bangalore or Bombay. Offer them a commission and they may help you get some sales. Worth a shot anyway, I mean it's crazy that there are all those millions there and you can't sell to them. The USD to INR conversion is not good though, so even something that's affordable here (say 50-150 bucks) will be quite expensive there (2500-7500 INR). You might want to think of a slightly function-reduced India edition that you can sell for a lower price.
Regards, Nish
Latest article: Code Project Posts Analyzer for Windows Phone 7 My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com
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Yeah well China I don't even count at all. Do you have local people in India or just sell direct online?
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We've a couple of resellers over there, but in practice they don't seem to be anywhere near as effective (efficient?) as their US and European counterparts. I imagine it probably won't come as a surprise if I reveal that most of the purchases in that area are on behalf of multinationals rather than SMEs or lone developers.
Anna :rose: Tech Blog | Visual Lint "Why would anyone prefer to wield a weapon that takes both hands at once, when they could use a lighter (and obviously superior) weapon that allows you to wield multiple ones at a time, and thus supports multi-paradigm carnage?"
modified on Tuesday, February 15, 2011 3:24 PM
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maybe you should look for blunders in the Indian localization then. :)
Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [My Articles] Nil Volentibus Arduum
Please use <PRE> tags for code snippets, they preserve indentation, improve readability, and make me actually look at the code.
Kinda funny, but less than 1% of software used in India is localized. Everyone uses English language applications. (you won't think that from the grammar used by Indians in forums these days)
Regards, Nish
Latest article: Code Project Posts Analyzer for Windows Phone 7 My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com
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One thing worth trying is to try and find a reputed software vendor/dealer in India. You may not find a national level vendor but you may find some city specific ones for major cities like Bangalore or Bombay. Offer them a commission and they may help you get some sales. Worth a shot anyway, I mean it's crazy that there are all those millions there and you can't sell to them. The USD to INR conversion is not good though, so even something that's affordable here (say 50-150 bucks) will be quite expensive there (2500-7500 INR). You might want to think of a slightly function-reduced India edition that you can sell for a lower price.
Regards, Nish
Latest article: Code Project Posts Analyzer for Windows Phone 7 My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com
We do have a version that is function reduced and a fraction of the full price and it sells very well in *far* poorer countries than India. The local distributor thing is definitely an idea, we've avoided that successfully since day one but it might be worthwhile. Cheers!
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maybe you should look for blunders in the Indian localization then. :)
Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [My Articles] Nil Volentibus Arduum
Please use <PRE> tags for code snippets, they preserve indentation, improve readability, and make me actually look at the code.
It's not practical or necessary in the case of India. We do French, Spanish, German and English in the "box" and our users can easily translate it right in the interface and have to many other languages. Even Thai which was the most complex language we had to support.
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We were going over our analytics the other day and a question came up: "Why don't Indians buy software?". We sell a small to medium sized business application online and we have regular sales in over 70 countries. In our web analytics we see India quite high on the list of countries where people download our software, very high, like fifth out of all countries, as well Indians regularly request a full trial license from us to fully test our software so we know they are engaged and interested. The mystery is that in over a decade in business we still have zero sales to India, not one single one. This despite thousands of downloads by Indians. The countries below India in downloads, even *way* below India still account for a large amount of sales. It's not piracy, we monitor that regularly. We've contacted the Indian people who requested a license as we do everyone and we always get an answer like "We thoroughly checked it out and decided to go with another package". Is there some kind of cultural thing we're not getting? Is it that they will always try to find a local equivalent if they can? Does anyone have a theory as to this mystifying behaviour?
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John, It is very intriguing question. I wish I can offer you a simple answer, but given your situation it is plausible. Given your account not even single sale, I have to suspect there is something you did not think or imagine of India. Given the size of it's population (1 Billion +), the size of downloads, the duration and frequency, I ought to assume some sales however small, even if handful. The only thing I can suggest given the number of downloads and interest, you or someone need to take a closer look into the data, target specific region(s) within India and set up a trip. I am sure you will learn a lot more and it may pay back, at least it may answer some of your questions. Good luck and let us know your findings.
Yusuf May I help you?
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Nope, we monitor that very carefully and after a decade we're pretty good at spotting the signs. Plus people who have a crack don't email to request a trial time limited full license key which they almost always do.
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i have some frnds who use kaspersky antivirus , without paying money, 1st month they use kaspersky antivirus 2006 trail version , after the month they uninstall it and use kaspersky 2007 trial version and next month another version, if version run out they start another company trial version. and one in a year, the re setup their OS, and this os is pirated so they can again start from kaspersky antivirus 2006. :) may be this is the same case happening to u
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John, It is very intriguing question. I wish I can offer you a simple answer, but given your situation it is plausible. Given your account not even single sale, I have to suspect there is something you did not think or imagine of India. Given the size of it's population (1 Billion +), the size of downloads, the duration and frequency, I ought to assume some sales however small, even if handful. The only thing I can suggest given the number of downloads and interest, you or someone need to take a closer look into the data, target specific region(s) within India and set up a trip. I am sure you will learn a lot more and it may pay back, at least it may answer some of your questions. Good luck and let us know your findings.
Yusuf May I help you?
This sounds very reasonable; probably finding some local consultant will be cheaper than traveling to India?
There is only one Ashley Judd and Salma Hayek is her prophet! Advertise here – minimum three posts per day are guaranteed.
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Nope, we monitor that very carefully and after a decade we're pretty good at spotting the signs. Plus people who have a crack don't email to request a trial time limited full license key which they almost always do.
There is no failure only feedback
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We do have a version that is function reduced and a fraction of the full price and it sells very well in *far* poorer countries than India. The local distributor thing is definitely an idea, we've avoided that successfully since day one but it might be worthwhile. Cheers!
There is no failure only feedback
-
One thing worth trying is to try and find a reputed software vendor/dealer in India. You may not find a national level vendor but you may find some city specific ones for major cities like Bangalore or Bombay. Offer them a commission and they may help you get some sales. Worth a shot anyway, I mean it's crazy that there are all those millions there and you can't sell to them. The USD to INR conversion is not good though, so even something that's affordable here (say 50-150 bucks) will be quite expensive there (2500-7500 INR). You might want to think of a slightly function-reduced India edition that you can sell for a lower price.
Regards, Nish
Latest article: Code Project Posts Analyzer for Windows Phone 7 My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com
Five for the idea, but there is a pit trap in there. Working with an distributor could give you the fake feeling that you’re actually doing something. The big distributors tend to focus on the well-recognized products and brands with expected high sales and put the products from the small companies to gather dust on the shelf “in case somebody asks”; this regarding my personal experience.
There is only one Ashley Judd and Salma Hayek is her prophet! Advertise here – minimum three posts per day are guaranteed.
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Five for the idea, but there is a pit trap in there. Working with an distributor could give you the fake feeling that you’re actually doing something. The big distributors tend to focus on the well-recognized products and brands with expected high sales and put the products from the small companies to gather dust on the shelf “in case somebody asks”; this regarding my personal experience.
There is only one Ashley Judd and Salma Hayek is her prophet! Advertise here – minimum three posts per day are guaranteed.
Which is why the smaller companies give a bigger commission (so the vendor has some incentive to sell them too).
Regards, Nish
Latest article: Code Project Posts Analyzer for Windows Phone 7 My technology blog: voidnish.wordpress.com
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We were going over our analytics the other day and a question came up: "Why don't Indians buy software?". We sell a small to medium sized business application online and we have regular sales in over 70 countries. In our web analytics we see India quite high on the list of countries where people download our software, very high, like fifth out of all countries, as well Indians regularly request a full trial license from us to fully test our software so we know they are engaged and interested. The mystery is that in over a decade in business we still have zero sales to India, not one single one. This despite thousands of downloads by Indians. The countries below India in downloads, even *way* below India still account for a large amount of sales. It's not piracy, we monitor that regularly. We've contacted the Indian people who requested a license as we do everyone and we always get an answer like "We thoroughly checked it out and decided to go with another package". Is there some kind of cultural thing we're not getting? Is it that they will always try to find a local equivalent if they can? Does anyone have a theory as to this mystifying behaviour?
There is no failure only feedback
That is Exact Case in my current project. I cannot name it, client from UK asks us to try various softwares and find one suitable. Later he proposes that software to business and they decline, asking to build something in-house replacement. Given the tough competition in teams, everybody wants to try everything.Damn! The point is, major support work goes to India and at client level they expect my colleagues to know about every damn software on Earth! WTF! They try most of them related when ever they get time. And my reply in most such case to such company goes as ' I am doing some task over short time, if needed for a full-fledge project, i will surely recommend this.' The most common scenario is: 'This works slow, find faster alternative, even if you wish to change code'
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This sounds very reasonable; probably finding some local consultant will be cheaper than traveling to India?
There is only one Ashley Judd and Salma Hayek is her prophet! Advertise here – minimum three posts per day are guaranteed.
I am sure local consultant may be cheaper, but I believe taking the trip will give you the bigger picture where the local consultant will be like a binoculars looking into the whole picture. May be part of the trip could be finding reliable consult who can do follow up work. just my 2cents
Yusuf May I help you?
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That is Exact Case in my current project. I cannot name it, client from UK asks us to try various softwares and find one suitable. Later he proposes that software to business and they decline, asking to build something in-house replacement. Given the tough competition in teams, everybody wants to try everything.Damn! The point is, major support work goes to India and at client level they expect my colleagues to know about every damn software on Earth! WTF! They try most of them related when ever they get time. And my reply in most such case to such company goes as ' I am doing some task over short time, if needed for a full-fledge project, i will surely recommend this.' The most common scenario is: 'This works slow, find faster alternative, even if you wish to change code'