How many web applications are you aware of, where you can upload and share photographs online? Flickr, Ringo, Photobucket, Smugmug, Picturetrail…there are hundreds of them on the web. Now, imagine you want to take prints of these photos and send them to your (non computer savvy) Indian friends & family members. How many of those websites allow this? Not many…in fact, its possible that you may not be aware of a single such website.
That’s set to change with Picsquare, a Bangalore based startup. Picsquare is an online service that enables users to upload their digital images online, get it printed and delivered to any address within India. It is targeted at tech-savvy members of the Indian community (within India or abroad) who want to remain connected with their non tech-savvy friends or relatives by sending them photographs. I think it’s a niche well identified, for not every one in India is web enabled or knows what Flickr/YouTube is. For this audience, hard copies make more sense than digital images and Picsquare serves that need.
Picsquare has been founded by two ex-IIT Mumbai students, Manish & Kartik. They bootstrapped initially from their own savings but have since, received funding from some angel investors. Recently, Picsquare was the first amongst the 10 selected contestants in the entrepreneurship acceleration programme (EAP) at TiE Bangalore.
What I like about Picsquare is that, unlike most other contemporary web startups, they have a clearly defined and working revenue model. They don’t make money from ads, instead they make money only if they provide real value to users i.e. when users order for prints. The TiE-EAP accredition must surely have been influenced by this fact.
So what all can you do with Picsquare? You can upload your images, tag them and share tagged images with your friends via email invitations. You can order prints (by choosing print size, paper types etc) and get them delivered to any address within India. The costs are very inexpensive (app Rs 5/- per postcard size plus delivery charges) and I read some user reviews which vouched for their efficient service.
You can also create customized photo greeting cards (with embedded photographs) and have them delivered to an address. Again at very affordable costs (app Rs 100/- per card).
That’s not all. For pretty soon, Picsquare will extend photo image imprints to customizable souvenirs like mugs, T shirts, calendars, CDs etc. I found Picsquare’s basic approach very end-user focused and I’m sure they have other exciting plans up their sleeves.
The example of Picsquare shows that not every successful web startup needs to be as tech oriented as Google or Skype. Many profitable and successful web businesses are based on simple but workable ideas, which are borne out of a real need felt by users. What is needed is the foresight to identify these needs and deliver really well on them.
Links :
Website : Picsquare
Founders: Manish & Kartik
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This is brilliant.
Something I think india needed it for a long time. Just incase the Manish & Karthik are listening here, I would like to see them go ahead and make Apple like Albums and Books generated out of photographs. To make it WYSIWYG interface for making their album on the website itself would be challenging but it would keep any competition away in the future. Also, while it and non-it connection while be a good point, I see a good scope for building up the community.
Congratulations!
Shalin,
Thanks for the comment.. agree with the idea of building differentiators by implementing strong features like apple album and having a community element will definitely be a value add to Picsquare users..
Will keep you posted about new features..
Manish
http://www.picsquare.com
Amit,
Should link picsqaure logo and first mention to it to their website.
I had come across a similar website i.e
http://www.itasveer.com/
This is also an IIT product, but IIT delhi.
It will be great to see that how they compete or collaborate?
All in all, great Idea. Hope these startups take care reagrding their Intellectual Property :p
“How many of those websites allow this? Not many…in fact, its possible that you may not be aware of a single such website.”
there are over a dozen that i know of…such as
http://www.123shots.com/
http://www.merasnap.com
http://www.photomasti.com
http://photojagat.internetimagingnetwork.com/photojagat/main.jsp kodak express’s etc
How do you compare with merasnap.com and other similar websites?
Prem, I was not aware of any of those. I think this space is really open until someone aggressively markets this idea and make it reach to the masses.
Hi Manish & the Picsquare team,
There’s one specific feedback I have regarding the application. When I uploaded the image onto the greeting card section, the output image was actually cropped. This was totally unexpected. I think the application should scale up/down the size of picture to fit the imageholder but certainly not crop it arbitrarily on its own.
amit
hi kartik i have been trying 2 reach u since a long time hope u reply me soon if u havent forgotten me yet i hope bye take care.r u in banglore till now.rply soon
I think this site has been put together very well. The usability and interface is well thought out and easy to use.
Personally I think having more than one player in this space is a good thing. Competition drives innovation and progress. Will be interetsing to watch how things develop. Good luck.
Maneck
http://india.recruit.net
Thanks a ton all you guys, we at picsquare really appreciate your feedback keep it coming
ciao
Rashmi
i tried using both picsquare and itasveer. unfortunatley, both are way too slow and invariably gets timed out. well, i suppose worth the initiative.
Hi,
I have used such service before in United States through Yahoo and various other shopping chains in Malls like Sears etc.
They do allow you to upload photographs and get it printed. But we should really appreciate that such a service is available for Indians in INdia through these startups.
My suggestions:
1) Also include Custom T-Shits, Custom Mugs with photographs/personalized greetings on them. This will definetly be a needed feature.
Thanks
eNewss
It’s a little disappointing that most of these sites appear to be IE 5.5 optimized. How about Firefox (on Linux and Mac) and Apple Safari support. IE 5.5 is sooooo Web 1.0 🙂
Amit, photos on the greeting card are scaled up/down and then cropped if required. We need to crop because we can’t change the aspect ratio of photo as that will lead to distortion. Ideal here would be to provide enough flexibility to user, we are trying to include that feature in next release.
Pankaj, agree that the site is not very well optimized for Firefox and Safari. Next release will have features optimized for other browser as well.
Thanks guys for all the feedback, it’s truly encouraging..
Manish
http://www.picsquare.com
Manish,
I’m looking forward to playing with the site using Firefox on Linux and Safari on Mac Mini PPC and MacBook Intel. If you need a tester, drop me a note.
Pankaj
Pankaj, thanks a lot. Sure will keep you informed.
Hey guys,
Picsquare recently got featured in CNN-IBN. Here is the link of the article:
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/startup-it-firms-mushroom-in-blore/17115-7.html
You can watch the news clip at the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUr_lvgpwNg
kartik
I’ve just posted following comment on another blog that was discussing online digital photo printing providers –
It’s good to see more photo sharing websites are emerging lately. I’ve had registered with picsquare and a couple others. I found snapgalaxy the best so far. It’s easy to navigate, loaded with great features and yes, i can send the photos to cousins in USA and Canada.
Everyone, keep it up. Good Job. More competition better for us 😉
The service of picsquare sucks .. Read on for details
I had placed an order almost 72 hours back [17th Oct 2006]. The money was debited immediately from my bank a/c (almost 500 Rs) . But till now,there’s no acknowledgement of the order by email/phone, no phone number to check the status and no idea when will I get my ordered items. In the website it says ‘order processed’ – no help what that means. Its really pathetic.
I sent 2 separate mails in last 2 days, no response for any of them.
Avoid this service is all I can say.
Sanjeev
The first time I used picsquare, I was very satisfied with the service. The second time around, my order wasn’t shipped even after two week, and there was no reply from customer service inspite of repeated enquires on the status of the order
Hi Sanjeev, Kiran
I sincerely apologize for the delay in processing and shipping your orders. The delay has been due to the Diwali rush and holidays of the printing lab and courier service. I will personally look into the issue and resolve it at the earliest. If the process is taking time, we would re-print and ship your entire order at the earliest.
We are glad to have you as a part of Picsquare family. We always try to serve you better.
Thanks,
Kartik Jain
I had come across a similar website i.e
which offers similar service with Print Quality.
I had come across a similar website i.e http://www.printcamp.com which offers excellent quality photo prints.
Hi All,
Digital photography has never been so vogue.People are preffering digital photography to older manual (film based) photography.Now people can click, save or delete.No need of expensive photofilms.Added to these are the new avenues where peple can park these digitalphotos of their dear ones and even convert those to gift items.Now digital dreams are coming to life ;like in the website http://www.uclickweprint.com, one can upload and park the photos for future use .Uses like normal snap prints ,printing them on t-shirt to wear your own attitudes.Converting the photograph of your son into a coffee mug and gift it to your betterhalf(emotional touch to giving gifts) at affordable price.www.uclickweprint.com had been in offline photography business since twenty years and walking with the time it is their latest offering to the digital photography enthusiasts.
do u guys even send us our pictures on iron- on transfer printer papers? for printing them on t-shirts?
Hello,
Are you doing printing on t-shirts? if yes. how much will it cost per T-shirt? could you let kne know pls..
Thanks
Naaz
Look! Only now! Discounts!
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Picsquare still sucks in customer service ! I placed an order on 16th March and till now [23rd Mar] I don’t have any clue when it will be done. order# PIC93721174032521007. Based on Karthik’s comments, I thought they would have improved as there’s no Diwali rush in March!!! but looks like I should have gone to merasnap.com or itasveer.com
Sanjeev
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Sanjeev,
You can find list of photo printing websites at http://www.indiaupcoming.com/tag/photo.
Check it out.
-Anup
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Try this out!!
Get your Photos Printed for as low as Rs.2.99 (6×4 prints) at http://www.gkvale.com
Prices are inclusive of all the taxes.
Also place an order for just Rs.100 and above to a get a “Special Photo Frame†Free!!!
To avail this offer just log on to http://www.gkvale.com.
Hurry!!! Offer valid only till the stock lasts.
So, order now to get your Special Frame…
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Good news for all the Picasa Web Users…..Picasa Pictures can now be printed at GKVale.com.
GKVale.com has integrated with Picasa Web Albums to make our life easier. This feature will allow you to order prints & create personalized products using photos at Picasa without uploading them again at http://www.gkvale.com.
We all like to share photos with our loved ones, and would like to get them printed without going through too much trouble. This is one more step to providing best of printing technology and services to our valued customers. Just upload the photos on Picasa and get them printed & delivered at your doorstep by http://www.gkvale.com.
Now preserve & cherish the special moments of your life with GKVale.com.
So get your cameras out and start clicking!!
This site sucks. I made a couple of orders. They are not deleivered. They did not even respond to my mails or calls.
It looks like a scam to me.
PLEASE DO NOT ORDER FROM THIS SITE.
There are far better sites
I had ordered for print on t-shirt from picsquare site. Must say it sucked big time on quality of shirt. In bid to decrease the overall price they compromise on shirt quality which is straight to the trash. Rather provide option for quality of shirt..so that some1 can use it atleast once. Had also posted my feedback to them but seems they turn blind eye
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