Sabeer Bhatia set for internet play again

Sabeer Bhatia, co-founder of Hotmail.com, is once gain trying to leave a big mark in cyberspace.

The Silicon valley entrepreneur on Monday said he was soon going to launch a new software product in the online space targetting a market size of $20 billion per annum.

The product will be launched by InstaColl, a Bangalore-based software product company in which Bhatia is the chairman. The product will be launched in Mumbai in the next two days.

"This will be a world-class product. I think the opportunities will be bigger that what Hotmail did almost 10 years back,¿Bhatia said on the sidelines of Nasscom annual product conclave here.

He however declined to divulge further detail about the product. However industry sources say that the product is something like the Microsoft products which are being offered online. The product was developed out of Bangalore by a team of less than 100 engineers. "Every one with an Internet connection can use the product," Bhatia added.

Bhatia said that he would not sell the product to a big players in the future. He had sold Hotmail to Microsoft in December 1997. InstaColl was co-founded by Bhatia with two other co-founders.

Sumanth Raghavendra and Kaushal Cavale in early 2005. InstaColl is one of Bhatia's three new ventures, the other two being Naveen Communications and Hotseasons.com, both based out of the US.

During the launch of the company earlier, Bhatia had said that Instacoll aspired to be the first made in India product success story. "Instacoll aimed to develop and provide software and services that would transform the Internet into a personal medium for direct communication and interaction," he said.