Mar
18
From http://ibnlive.in.com/blogs/jaimonjoseph/326/61644/has-paypal-given-you-problems-yet.html
One lakh seventy thousand Indians regularly receive or send money abroad, through the online banking website PayPal. Actually, about 1.6 million Indians are signed up for the service, though not all of them are regular users. That’s according to Anuj Nayar, Director of Global Communications, at PayPal.com.
There are many blogs that claim to cover India’s online industry , but this is one major segment that they conveniently ignore. Facebook and Twitter are the latest fad (slowly replacing Orkut and Myspace), but if they are down, people’s lives are not affected. Nowadays, in many companies in India, the amount of time you spend in office is an indicator of how “hard working” you are, and when there is no real work , employees spend time on these social networking websites, boosting their traffic.
Websites backed by big media houses have the resources to send out Press Releases and get media coverage, but rarely spend any time understanding the customer needs. Most of these companies and their employees have a very patronizing attitude if you are not well known, but in fact their audience is usually limited to India and NRIs, while many online publishers work with advertisers through out the world.
Also motivation levels differ. An employee with a big media firm will just be doing a job, compiling information from various famous websites, at the end of the day they will get their salary. On the other hand, if you own an online business, you are always experimenting with new things, you have to understand the market, find reliable business partners. There is no replacement for practical experience online. The big companies can hire hackers to sabotage your business, hoping you will sell your websites. But no one can take away what you have learnt, and you can always start again from scratch.
Mar
14
From
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2010/03/13/stories/2010031352990400.htm
‘.in’ registrations have crossed six-lakh mark. Of total registrations (6.1 lakh), as much as 3.8 lakh registrations have been booked in India and 2.3 lakh overseas.
From
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2009/12/15/stories/2009121551320400.htm
There are nearly 1.4 million domain names – an identification label that defines a realm of administrative autonomy, authority, or control in the Internet – registered in India. Of this, .COM is around 800,000 and .IN around 500,000.
While there are 35 million Net users, there are only 1.4 million domain names registered from India – translating to 2 per cent as compared to 25 per cent in the US; 17 per cent in Europe; 9 per cent in Latin America and 7 per cent in China. The poor response in India is due to lack of awareness among companies and individuals on owning domain names.
Though India has a large number of I.T professionals and software companies, most of them are service providers and this attitude continues with respect to the internet. While providing services are low risk, they are also difficult to scale without hiring a lot of people. Developing a money making website is difficult, especially when you are in India and have limited options, but it finally depends on what your long term goals are.
Many people in India prefer to create content / applications for social networking websites like Facebook, Orkut and Linkedin, but if you create the same content on your own domain name, it opens up many options for you. A domain name costs very little (.in domains cost less Rs 100 now for the first year) and can create value in the long term.
Mar
11
Trying to compile a list of secure email clients based on feedback from users.
Most corporations use :
Groupwise
Lotus Notes
Microsoft Exchange
For home users and small businesses, the popular email clients are:
Outlook Express - Not suitable for a large number of emails.
Thunderbird – common error, This folder is being processed. Please wait till processing is complete to get messages.
MS Outlook - seems to be the least secure email client, can easily be hacked.
Plain text is always the best, the possibility of malicious scripts getting downloaded are minimized. Other options are:
Poppeeper.com
PocoMail
Popcorn by Ultrafunk
Kmail (for KDE on Linux)
Pine (replaced by Alpine)
Mar
10
Last week I received confirmation that some mail sent to me never reached my in box ( in fact mails from that sender have not been reaching me for this month). I am trying to trace the problem, and these articles provide some information.
http://askbobrankin.com/missing_emails.html
http://luxsci.com/blog/wheres-the-email-the-case-of-missing-or-disappearing-messages.html
Mar
6
After nearly 5 weeks, Paypal resumed bank withdrawal to India on 4th March 2010 IST. No specific purpose code was to be entered, only the purpose for which the money was being withdrawn was to be selected from the drop down menu. The status of the withdrawal was shown as pending for about 24 hours and then shown as completed. Earlier Indian Paypal account holders could withdraw funds to their debit or credit card up to $500 per day, for a fee of $5 USD, but now that option is no longer available. Earlier all ad networks would pay Indians using Masspay, but now some are not using the option, especially if most of the Paypal accounts are personal or premier. Account holders who requested checks received them after 15-20 days.
Also some personal and premier Paypal account holders are reporting that their Paypal account have been limited. They have to provide proof of the source of funds like Invoices, emails, chat transcripts and then the limitation on the account is removed. Also many Indian paypal account holders have verified their account using Virtual Credit Cards (VCCs) linked to the bank accounts of the VCC seller, not their own bank account and may be facing problems.
Indian banks seem to be becoming more strict regarding wire transfers and people receiving payments from Moneybookers are getting phone calls regarding the transaction, especially HDFC bank. Many Indian banks charge a fee for an incoming SWIFT transfer and so check with the customer regarding the transfer. Sometimes, you have to fill a form confirming that you agree to transfer and pay the fees.
Mar
3
Making money online gets tougher – covers the business models and problems faced making money online in India. I have noted some of my observations based on personal experience, since I have a pure play online business model. Basically internet business income (not a service provider) is unstable, you can earn US$5,000+ in one month and less than $1000 the other due to factors beyond your control.
Your ability to make money online over the long term depends on a number of factors like:
- How you manage your overheads – if you keep them sufficiently low, it is much easier to survive.
- Your family responsibilities and finances – if you have a lot of loans, a dependent wife and children, it can be difficult to survive during the downturn.
- Level of technical competence and ability to learn – if you can do the server admin, content writing and manage advertising yourself it helps
- Diversification – revenue from multiple sources ensures that there are fewer variations in income.
- Ability to take risks – If your business is doing well, it is easy to become complacent, but if you do not take risks and fail, it can adversely affect your future business.
- Choice of business partners – it is important to work with reliable companies who provide good customer support.
- Compared to Western countries making money online is a lot more difficult, you cannot sign up for many advertising networks (since you are from India), affiliate commissions are routinely stolen due to cookie stuffing, so you have to spend a lot of time in front of the computer experimenting to find out what works. Some people may get bored or lack the discipline to do so.
- Lifestyle – If you lead a lavish lifestyle, parties,expensive luxury products, foreign holidays, you have less to see you through difficult times, so a job is better for you.
Mar
2
Paypal has published a list of export codes on their blog for bank withdrawals to business accounts, which will start from March 3, 2010.
Most codes are applicable for goods exporters and service providers. For bloggers and online publishers, the codes P0805 and P0806 seem to be applicable
They also seem to have started charging a fee for personal payments already. There is no mention of how Paypal mass payments will be considered. Some ad networks have already started sending checks and using other payment options, which are less problematic.
At present withdrawals to Indian bank accounts have been disabled, you get the following message
We are making some changes to our product in compliance with India regulations for settlements for exports of goods and / or services. During this time, we have temporarily suspended the ability to withdraw money to your bank account. We hope to resume settlements to enable you to withdraw funds to your local bank account without delays.
As part of the changes, you will also be required to fill out a new field entitled ‘Export Code’ when you request a withdrawal. This information is required in order to identify the nature of cross-border merchant transactions.
Our sincere apologies for the inconvenience you must be facing. Please be assured that we are working to resolve this as quickly as possible and we will make sure to keep you updated.
Feb
27
It appears that Paypal will be resuming bank withdrawals to India by March 3, 2010, but business account holders will have to provide an IEC (Import Export Code) number.
I got the following email today:
Dear ***,
We have been diligently working with the RBI and our business
partners to resume Indian bank withdrawals for the thousands
of Indian businesses who depend on PayPal to sell their goods
or services in the global marketplace.
Today, we are happy to announce that the RBI has allowed us
to continue local bank withdrawals for settlements for exports
of goods and services. We are currently making changes to
comply with Indian regulations for settlements for exports of
goods and services, and we anticipate that, as of Wednesday,
March 3rd, customers will be able to use our
bank withdrawal service.
As part of the changes, you will be required to fill out a
new field entitled ‘Export Code’ when you request a withdrawal.
This information is required under the current laws of India in
order to identify the nature of cross-border merchant transactions.
On Monday, March 1st, we will be back in touch with specific
instructions on how you can move your money into your bank account.
Moving forward, the RBI has told us that PayPal needs specific
approvals to allow personal remittances to India, which we
currently do not have. Until we get these approvals, personal
payments into India will remain suspended. However, if you are
an exporter, you will continue to be able to use the PayPal
service for payments of goods and services. In fact, with the
changes we are making to our system, PayPal is now set to be a
more powerful engine for exporters in India. With purpose codes
for export transactions and FIRCs (Foreign Inward Remittance
Certificates), you should now be able to get the export
related benefits you seek.
You can check the PayPal blog for additional updates.
www.thepaypalblog.com
We thank you for your business and for your patience during
the past few weeks.
Sincerely,
PayPal
Feb
26
Most of the media coverage of the Paypal problems in the Indian media have been just about RBI stopping Paypal operations, not about the inconvenience caused to the lakhs of Indian account holders. If a small co-operative bank collapses, RBI will take steps to ensure that the account holders interests are protected, but with Paypal, there seems to be no progress for a month.
This article http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/business-capital-stuck-in-paypal-accounts/386902/
mentions the problems faced by small business account holders in India, but underestimates the number of people affected. It is not 30,000-40000, it is more likely to be 400,000( my estimate is that it should be more). I have an old work at home website, about making money online, and the yearly traffic is much more than 30,000 – 40,000. If you make any significant amount of money online, and have diversified income sources, Paypal is the most popular payment option for online payments.
This issue has adversely affected many businesses, especially service providers who have to pay their employees and freelancers who have loans and families to support. It is nearly a month now, mass payments sent to even Indian business accounts between Feb 1-3 were reversed, and some senders are not returning the money. Both Paypal and RBI could have handled the issue better and at least indicated a time frame for resolution, so that users can plan for the future.
The mainstream media can give extensive coverage to film stars and cricketers, who are basically entertainers , but is totally isolated from issues which really affect people online. This could be the reason why despite all the investments they make, there is little growth in their internet business. Though Twitter, Facebook and social networking websites get a lot of media coverage, they are basically time pass activities. In India, people are looking for value for money, if I can make money online, I do not mind spending money online, but I definitely do not care for fake “friends”online.
Feb
21
For most users of Paypal, there has been no major update this week on transfers from Paypal to Indian bank accounts.
Direct transfer of funds from Paypal to Indian bank accounts is still not possible. Paypal seems to be contacting business account holders with large balances of over $10 K and offering them the facility to withdraw the balance by wire transfer to their bank accounts. Many eBay sellers need the funds for buying new stocks. However, many banks charge a fee for incoming wire transfer , but the exchange rates are usually higher for SWIFT transfers than the rate Paypal offers. The eBay sellers seem to have been contacted by Paypal directly or through their Paypal account manager.
Currently Indian Paypal account holders can withdraw using a credit card or check. For both there is a $5 withdrawal fee, but the $5 fee for checks will be reimbursed according to the official Paypal blog. Earlier there was no limit on withdrawals for certain business accounts, but now there is $2500 monthly limit for check withdrawal. The checks are sent in Indian Rupees, drawn on Citibank.
Many Indian freelancers with a verified Premier and Personal account could withdraw money from their Paypal balance using Xoom , but now they are facing problems since intra-India transfers using Xoom seem to be getting blocked since 21 February. RBI seems to have imposed restrictions on Xoom and the issue may be resolved in 2-3 months.
The issue seems likely to get resolved by March 10, 2010, when there is going to be a new Paypal policy update and all payments to Indian personal accounts will be charged a fee similar to that charged for premier and business accounts.
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