IQARA is a broadband service provider that has its office just off the western express highway in Goregaon. It is owned by the British Gas group. Yesterday I had a meeting with them on providing content services.

We asked them about the pyschographic profile of customers. And it was fairly standard - in Mumbai early adopters were technocrats - senior management from IT, Pharma, advertising. Outside Mumbai - especially in Gujarat where BG by virtue of its take over of Gujarat Gas is in a fairly strong position - the drivers are teenagers.

Then he threw the googly - guess which suburb has the highest home PC penetration in the world. As my mind began grope for names of New York Suburbs - he answered Andheri Lokhandwalla.

But, I piped in, there are atleast 6-8 cyber cafes in the area. He said that is the inherent contradiction. Kids want to surf the net without parental nosiness. they sit in cybercafes for hours - and i can verify this - speak some language that sounds like a mixture of English, Hindi and clicking sounds - and chat away to glory.

Related Reading

• Women - Crossing the Line…
• The Lord of Mumbai
• Bharateeya BlogMela - a round up
• Our Flood & Their Flood
• Cause and Effect

Tags: Mumbai, Society