An eye on the numbers in India

There's a really interesting little piece over at contensutra.com which gives a good feel for the current size of the B2B online market in India. It's based on an article in Outlook Business magazine. Highlights include:

• Total B2B transactions in India this year will likely hit the equivalent of US$100 billion.
• B2B online marketplaces could account for $15 - 20 billion of that.
• There is no source for these numbers which first emerged in an Economic Times article.
• Indiamart.com claims revenues of Rs38 crores (roughly US$10 million) and that they have been growing at 50% a year since 2003. It claims 500,000 buyer enquiries a month.
  
• Rival tradeindia.com claims 700,000 registered buyers and, although revenue numbers are not given, says they have grown at at 35% a year and will double this year.
  
• Other web sites quoted in the Outlook piece include Matexnet and Auction India. I wasn't familar with either of those.

The Outlook Business piece concludes 'Tradeindia’s aggressive expansion plans this year may well have something to do with Alibaba’s entry. "Competition is good, it keeps you on your toes," says CEO Bikky Khosla'.