The electronics greetings (e-greetings) business in India is gathering momentum due to increased Internet penetration coupled with the fact that e-greetings companies' are diversifying to grow their businesses in India.
About eight million users are estimated to be sending and receiving e-cards per month in India, and companies like 123Greetings and Webdunia are now attempting to increase their user base by making e-greetings available on mobiles too.
Moreover, they add more bells and whistles to plain vanilla e-greetings. 123Greetings, for instance, is talking to around three US-based singers to record songs for occasions and these would be uploaded on its website for use with greetings.
Currently, only musical tunes can be sent with 123Greetings. It is also planning to introduce video-greetings for MMS-enabled mobile handsets. It is also talking to various community portals for offering newer applications.
Arvind Kajaria, founder, 123Greetings, said his company was in talks with Handygo.com, the mobile assimilator, to provide 123Greetings original ringtones and wallpapers for downloading on mobile handsets.
The facility will be available only on GPRS-enabled mobile handsets. Handygo is a wireless solution provider for mobile entertainment and value-added-services.
Started with just one partner Yahoo, Handygo currently covers 80 per cent of the mobile operators in India such as Airtel, Vodafone, MTNL and BSNL.
Initially, 123Greetings plans to offer close to eight ringtones per celebration for download, covering five celebrations a year. Currently 123Greetings offers over 20,000 greeting cards, covering a mix of 3,000 special events and everyday celebrations.
Similarly, according to Pankaj Jain, president and CEO of Webdunia, the company is looking at wireless applications so that its e-greetings could be downloaded on JAVA and GPRS-enabled mobile handsets. E-cards, on the other hand, have already made cards for mobile phones and social communities.
"Our first mobile offering was launched in 2002. We are now exploring new improved options for phones and web communities," said Robert Waterman, founder, E-Cards. Adding music to e-greetings is another area that the e-greetings companies are exploring. E-Cards is also planning to expand its music library with popular music.
Webdunia too is looking at increasing its base for musical cards. It would look at tying up with music companies for the audio and individual singers for vocals.
"Currently, we have less than 100 musical e-greetings since most users access Internet from cyber cafes and offices where audio is not available round the clock," Jain reasoned.
E-greetings are inexpensive. Even in a slow economy, there is no particular dip in sales. According to the Greeting Card Association, the average person receives 20 greeting cards a year, and nine out of 10 people prefer a mailed greeting to an e-mailed one.
Birthday cards have the lion's share of the market at 60 per cent of everyday cards purchased. Anniversary cards account for 8 per cent and get-well cards command 7 per cent.
