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Printer vendors are looking at different services and models to generate revenues and grow their business. With margins in printers hitting rock bottom, online photo printing is one service that has become increasingly popular with them in the last few months.

Companies that dominate this market are Picsquare, Snapfish, itasveer and ZoomIn while others like Snapgalaxy, Printcamp, Photohugs are in the fray. The pricing of this service varies between Rs 2-4; while the vendors primarily compete against each other on branding. It could be Doodlepad or photo framing by itasveer or the exclusive designs offered by Picsquare. Recently even ZoomIn launched Prints on Canvas where users can convert their digital photo into a work of art, on a real artist canvas. Snapfishs latest addition has been the magic muga black colored mug which displays the photograph as soon as a hot beverage is poured into it. Consolidation too is happening: in May 2008 Snapfish acquired Merasnap and gained 100,000 more customers.

The Growth Angle
The companies already in this market claim to have had more than satisfactory growth in the past two years. Picsquare has grown tremendously over the last few years with more than 100% growth year-on-year. We have more than 5 mn photos uploaded online, and have catered to more than 25,000 customers across 250 cities in India, says Kartik Jain, founder, Picsquare.

Ankit khanna, co-founder, itasveer says that though initially (2006) the company did face problems, as photo printing was a budding concept in India, since then there has been a 200-300% growth, especially in 2008-09. Snapfish by HP (www.snapfish.in) is the leading online photo service in the world with over 60 mn members in 22 countries, and is adding a quarter billion new pictures per month,says Bala Parthasarathy, managing director, Asia Pacific, Snapfish.

The demand has also shifted toward innovative and unconventional personalized products, going beyond photo prints. Today, ZoomIn offers seven product categories with fifty variants, says Sunny Balijepalli, founder, ZoomIn.

Though these companies have expanded in terms of products and services, as well as infrastructure, they do not feel the need to diversify as of now. There is still a long way to go in the field of online photo printing and personalization/customization. Their focus is to capture this space first and then go further.

Itasveer offers the use of doodle pad to customers Ankit khanna, co-founder, itasveer	Snapfish has 60 mn members in 22 countries Bala Parthasarathy, managing director, Asia Pacific, Snapfish	Picsquare has grown more than 100% year-on-year Kartik Jain, founder, Picsquare	The jury is still out on the economics of home printing Sunny Balijepalli, founder, ZoomIn

Healthy Competition
Apart from mutual competition amongst these photo printing and photo sharing sites, the corporate gifting and personalization players are, to some extent, potential contenders in this race.

Sites like Pringoo, eYantra and Dilsebol also offer a range of products and services. But these sites offer designs (a huge variety and range though) which are created by their own designer community. As a result there are limits to personalization for the user. He is indirectly encouraged to buy the designs of these sites and there is lack of freedom to design a personalized product for himself, as compared to sites like itasveer which offer the use of doodle pad.

Corporate gifting sites like eYantra specialize in brand merchandising and corporate gifting. On the spot fulfillment kiosks in malls are an indirect offline competition, but this oligopoly market only helps the photo printing market in India.

The launch of photo home photo printers by HP, Canon, Espon, etc, is not a great competition for these companies. This basically is because of two reasons. Firstly, these printers offer only minimal number of sizes in photographs. They cannot print a size of more than 6 by 8 inches, and neither are they proficient in giving a metallic finishwhich not only enhances the quality of photos but also extends their life by an additional 10 years. Secondly, it is more economical for the user to print photos online as it would only cost him Rs 3-4 for a single photograph. Khanna of itasveer calls home printing as impulsive printing.

Balijepalli, ZoomIn, adds: The jury is still out on the economics of home printing. While the printer may be inexpensive, consumables are not cheap. Its the classic razor blade strategy of pricing. Give the razor away for free and make margin on the blades. There really can be no replacement for the real feel and color depth that a professionally developed photo print using photo paper delivers.

Kartik of Picsquare, however, has a different take on the launch of home printers: If you look at mature markets like the US and the UK, online photo printing services are huge, even though there are home printing options available. The whole experience of buying/printing/doing-it-yourself with the home printing solution, along with the costs involved, is not a feasible solution for the masses. I think both the solutions will co-exist and will cater to different market segments.

A major tool to fight against competition is exhaustive advertising. But these companies seem to be relaxed on this front. They believe in advertising through word of mouth and having huge marketing budgets is not their cup of tea. Level of service and quality of products is the main focus to attract customers in this market.

Since this is an online venture, blogs and partnership with photo sharing sites like flickr are a part of their publicity. As Menon of ZoomIn and says: A majority of our customers come to us by referrals from existing members. We also rely on strategic partnerships. Were focused on the kinds of partnerships where both parties have value to add, while building on existing traffic and member bases. Even picsquare has been actively involved in TiE and other entrepreneurial social get-togethers, which has helped them spread awareness. Initially, even itasveer started its publicity with the help of Facebook. Though the trend is catching up, online photo printing still has a long way to go before it becomes mainstream.

Diksha Dutta
dikshadutta@cybermedia.co.in

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