itasveer: Saying it with pictures
Posted on September 15, 2007
Filed Under Start-Ups, Interviews / Leaders |
More and more Indians may be going shutter-happy, but the fun may have been stopping after the pictures were taken. No longer. They can now not only print their pictures, but do on a whole range of gift items like mugs, collages and mousepads. All from their desktop at itasveer, the country’s first such truly world class service. (Tasveer means picture in Hindi).
Image Caption: itasveer’s four promoters (clockwise from top): Ashish Goel, Animesh Jain, Ankit Khanna and Nishant Kyal.
Here co-founder Nishant Kyal in an exclusive chat with TechGazing.
What is itasveer all about?
itasveer is an online digital photo printing, photo sharing and personalized gifts service. Our service offering is about making photo printing more convenient and cheaper than visiting a photo studio. It’s also about connecting people staying far away from their friends and family by means of photographs and gifts which feel more personal than, say, a box of sweets. We have created a browser based software called DoodlePad which makes getting creative with your photographs so much fun and within the reach of non-technical, or should I say non-photoshop knowing, people.
What is your vision for iTasveer?
itasveer wants to be the preferred choice for photo printing and custom merchandise requirements for everybody. Personalization can make the t-shirt you wear, the mug you gift, the collage poster of your child so much more special than anything picked off the shelf. And when you personalize, the quantities required are usually not large. Being the printer of choice for these customers is our goal. We want to put more control into the hands of our users and assist them in realizing their creativity and have fun along the way.
What are the cost-benefits to your users?
There is a huge cost benefit for people who want to print their photos or create their own gifts at itasveer. For our users sitting abroad, the price advantage is in the actual cost of printing and the cost of shipping it to India. Users in India save themselves the hassle of visiting the photo studio with itasveer. We offer prices competitive or better than the local studios and top it up with facilities like custom gifts and unlimited storage to make it a better deal for everybody.
What kind of traction are you generating currently, and what do you see in the future?
We are hearing excellent things being said about our service from different people. We won the ‘Best Photo Printing Website in India’ award from the popular tech magazine PC World in May this year.
What do you need to do, or how does the eco-system need to evolve, for you to generate greater traction in your business?
As with most online services, one of the obvious things we need is for the e-commerce scenario to improve in India. A higher broadband penetration can help us very much. Till that happens, we are looking at ways to make our products and services reach more and more people through channels they are acquainted with. We are making efforts in this direction and you’ll be able to see the results soon.
What are the challenges you are up against currently? Any expected in the future?
The biggest challenge for us, as I already mentioned, is the state of e-commerce in India. We’re also seeing the challenges of scaling up since this is a consumer business, unlike the service industry where it may easier to scale up.
Who would your competition be in this space? Are global biggies a threat to you?
We do expect the global biggies to open shop in India soon. We’re ourselves offering a world class service, better than many global counterparts in some respects. So I hope the competition brings out the best in us.
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