I don’t see one single reason why it couldn’t have been done in India."

face="Arial">Rohit Chandra Founder and CEO eCode.com






Rohit Chandra is the founder and CEO
of eCode.com, the internet’s first and only internet user identity company. The

service has already attracted over 100,000 registered users from 124 countries. Before

founding the company, Chandra has worked with HP, Wells Fargo and Informix among others.

An alumnus of the Delhi Institute of Technology and MS in Computer Sciences from

Vanderbilt University, US, Chandra spoke to DATAQUEST about the service offerings from

e-Code. Excerpts:

Consider a situation where

you have given your business card to about 100-200 people whom you met in a conference.

Next time around you meet them again, and during this period, your job or say even your

phone number has changed. And so all the above people will need to update their own

databases. So I felt that it just does not make sense, as all your contacts would be doing

the same job again and again. Hence the concept of e-code, your one composite record at a

one single repository for your personal details and everybody can get an updated

electronic copy of the same.

• Is e-code only about
  
  web business cards?

Of course not. Web-enabled

business cards are only a part of it. It is all about personal information management. We

want to make life less complex on the Net. We have other services like the Autofiller that

fills out any web form automatically at a click of a button. Another service we have is

the Autologin utility, it enables users to preset their user IDs and passwords to their

favorite web sites. It automatically fills in the



necessary information, thereby granting instant connectivity.

•   size="2" face="Arial" color="#000080">How do you plan to sell the idea?

It is a very grassroot and

ground swell movement. E-code has a subscriber base in 124-plus countries. The revenues

will come from transactions made to the business entities. For example, if you have a

cellphone for any change in the number of any of your contacts, you will need to do an

updation. However, wouldn’t it be nice that when I update the information, your

cellphone too gets updated? Won’t the cellular service provider pay for such a value

addition? There are hundreds of such business opportunities for us.

• Where do you see
  
  e-code in the coming future?

We think that e-code is all

set to become the grand daddy of internet IDs. So, in all probability, the next time when

you bump into your old college friend, he will not ask what your phone number or email ID

is, but just "what’s your ecode". We will be the clearing house for any and

all contact information.

• Do you think your
  
  e-code venture would have been possible in India?

Absolutely. I don’t see one single

reason why it couldn’t have been done in India. In fact, I started this venture from

my bedroom.