Online DVD Rental in India

Sahad from ContentSutra reports:

I was at TiECon India - which is being held in New Delhi - yesterday. (Nikhil Pahwa will be writing some session highlights soon). Interestingly, I bumped into two online DVD rental start-ups based in New Delhi / Gurgaon area. I briefly met with the founders of CineSprite.com, a Gurgaon-based online DVD rental firm. I also came across Madhouse.in, a Delhi-based DVD rental company. It looks like DVD rental companies are sprouting up in various cities. Bangalore already has Catchflix, besides Seventymm which raked in $7 million in second round funding from Matrix Partners India.
When I bumped into a venture capitalist, I asked him how come so many players in online DVD rental space. His short answer: “It’s a large market.” So expect more online DVD rental companies to get funded in India soon.

I also found this very interesting post at webyantra:

The online DVD rental business in India is on the verge of taking off. Here are four reasons why I think so. Firstly, unlike most other web businesses, this has a clearly defined (and proven) revenue model, the bugbear of the internet economy. Secondly, the blueprint for a viable service model has been provided by the immensely successful Netflix, so you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Thirdly, with cinema in India being the ‘opium of the masses’, there’s no dearth of market demand. And finally, as the success of online railway ticketing shows, Indian internet users are likely to switch online, if the service makes for real convenience. What is needed is somebody, who can think big and execute really well to take the first mover advantage.

So, this seems like the current list of players: SeventyMM , CineSprite.com , CatchFlix , HomeView , ClixFlix, Madhouse.in