2000 Reliance WebWorlds to dot India

BANGALORE: The retail arm of Reliance Infocomm, Reliance WebWorld will have close to 2000 outlets all over the country by next year.

"We have 225 outlets up and running at the moment. Another 350 are being built on and will be ready by December 28 to coincide with our anniversary. The total 2,000 is in the blueprint stage but should be operational by next year," said CEO of Reliance WebWorld Sarup Chowdhary.

According to him, the planned WebWorlds will follow the franchisee strategy already established and is functioning. Each franchisee will have to deposit close to 40 percent of the cost of the store, apart from satisfying other criteria, to manage the Web Worlds. Chowdhary added that 30 to 40 WebWorlds would remain owned by Reliance.

"There are three facets to the investment in the stores — hardware, connectivity and software. As far as hardware goes, each PC unit in each of the stores costs close to Rs two lakh. We presently have 7,000 PCs in our stores and when the rest of the stores come up that number will rise to 20,000 PCs. And that is just the hardware. The total investment is huge and significant," stated the CEO.

Reliance WebWorld doubles up as a retail outlet for its WLL products and services, Internet browsing center, digital entertainment parlor offering games, music and movies. It also offers corporate services such as a virtual office and video conferencing facilities. All this naturally for a value, but as Reliance puts it `very competitive.'

(CyberMedia News Service)