PublicSoft

Infobox_Company
company_name = Public Software Library India Pvt Ltd
company_
company_type = Private
parent =
owner = M S Gupta
foundation = 1998
location_city = New Delhi, Delhi
location_country = India
key_people = M S Gupta, Cyril Gupta, Cecil Gupta| num_employees =
industry = Software CD-ROM
products = Astrology Sofware, Language software, Business Software, Portals
revenue =
operating_income =
homepage = [http://www.itbix.com/ Itbix.com]

Public Software Library India Pvt Ltd (PublicSoft) originally started as a publisher of freeware and shareware software on CD-ROM products. Based in New Delhi, India, founded in 1998, PublicSoft India (as it's better known) is the creation of ex-banker Maithily Saran Gupta. Gupta is the company's CEO.

The company was launched during the CD-ROM boom at the 90s end, and initially grew rapidly capitalizing on the lack of CD-Rom titles in the market. Between 1998 to 2001, the company published several collection of shareware software, and fonts for working in Indian languages. The company's policy of low pricing brought gave it a quick start.

By the end of 2002 the CD-ROM party was coming to an end in India, and the market for shareware software had become virtually non-existent due to free shareware CDs being bundled with computer magazines like CHIP and PC-Quest India. The company saw shrinking fortunes and many of its were taken out of the market due to falling sales. The dot-com bust and the depression in global economy also hurt the business.

During this period PublicSoft India began its transition from a publisher of shareware software to a publisher of proprietary software. The company created HindiPad, a software that made typing in Devanagari very easy in 2001. Negative market trends prevented it from becoming a quick success, though it did better in later years. The system became popular and was adopted by other software, for Devanagari, and other scripts as well.

Horoscope Explorer

Due to a flat market, the sales were bleak till 2004 and most of its development projects were canned. During this time, the company launched its online sales website www.itbix.com, and a new multi-lingual vedic astrology software - Horoscope Explorer.

The product could generate horoscopes in 5 Indian languages, and sold at a tenth of the price of competing software. It received a very good response in the market.

Entry Into New Segments

Till 2006, Vedic Astrology was its focus area. The company created several Vedic astrology software in 10 major Indian languages. By this time the company also started testing newer software segments. In early 2006, the company entered the market for language learning software with Cafe English.

By the beginning of 2008 the company had diversified its product offerings considerably, its software products spanning business, astrology, language learning, working in Indian scripts, designing, education, and Internet portals. Correct Accounting Software, was an important launch from the company of this period.

Blogvani.com, a popular aggregator of Hindi blogs was created by the company in June 2007.

External links

* [http://www.itbix.com/ Corporate website]
* [http://www.blogvani.com/ Blogvani.com]
* [http://www.indinator.com/ Indian language scripts interchanger from PublicSoft India]