Experts told the ongoing annual corporate conference of the Asia Society that even though the e-tailing business had taken a beating over the last one year, e-commerce was here to stay.

Ajit Balakrishanan, CEO, Rediff.com, said the rate of growth of internet users in India was amazing and that over the last year alone, the number of internet users in the country had grown from five million to 50 million by the end of December 2000.

Of the 50 million users, 10 million e-shoppers contributed about US $3 million towards the total revenue collection for the e-commerce industry, he added.

Rediff alone added one million new e-mail users every month, elaborated Balakrishnan at a session on the "future of e-commerce in Asia".

Accepting that the percentage of total population using internet for business was very small as compared to 30 per cent of population in US, Balakrishnan said that e-tailing could be increased by enhancing the number of home users of internet.

Karan Trehan, president and CEO, Easiafinance.com, was of the opinion that internet would revolutionise the financial sector services.

Internet, he said, provided easy accessibility to the capital market and has resulted in a change in the traditional relationship between the banks and the clients. It had opened up the banking sector in India also to competition.

For the success of e-finance services, Trehan felt that there should be a balance between the bricks and the clicks since money matters demanded client's trust.

On the trends in e-business, R Ramaraj, Managing Director and CEO, Satyam Infoway, felt internet should become the enabler for formulating business design and strategies.

Product innovations should provide for better contact with the customer, better purchase schemes and should keep in mind the basic mantra for business success, customer care.

Moreover, Ramaraj felt that the e-tailing should market specific and should not blindly replicate the services offered in different regions and countries.

Matthew Burlage, CEO and co-founder, Ireality Group, said that in the new economy, investor expectation had increased. People were now looking for cash flow models with more profitability and a 12 month break-even time.

On the future of e-commerce in India, he said the very number of companies doing business in Indian market was amazing. The Indian market offered great opportunities to the investors and he was of the opinion that India and China were the investment destinations of the future. For his own part, Burlage looked forward to doing business with Indian companies.

Kara Swisher, staff reporter, the Wall Street Journal, said despite the fact that stocks were down and there were bad times in the economy for the e-business, what was interesting was that the number of internet users was still surging.

It was not necessary for the companies to be a pure internet player, but it was absolutely necessary for them to be on the net. For the success of e-tailing, it was important to have simple customer friendly e-tailing schemes.