Category: Digital

  • Share Market

    The success of youtube and the mega deal had spawned a lot of wannabe sites locally – Apna Videos, Video Dubba, Desi Lassi etc. There was even one called SuckooBai, though i don’t know its current status. A fairly comprehensive list can be found here. Though the sites have attempted a lot of localisation, I’m not sure how much of traffic they’ve been able to manage. Its actually a bit of Catch 22, isn’t it? As a user I’d like to share it on a platform where it gets maximum exposure, and as a visitor, I’d visit the site where i can expect maximum content.

    The last couple of days, Rediff has caught my attention, purely on content merit. Rediff, as a site, has massive traffic coming in because of various things. It has been updating itself on a regular basis for a long time now, news, mail, blogs (I started blogging thanks to them), shopping, images, classifieds, air ticket comparison, stocks…These are diverse things, and rediff, in my view, is using its existing equity quite well to leverage its new products. But, we digress.

    What caught my attention yesterday was the trailer of Sarkaar Raj, followed today by one of Spiderman 4, though the latter has many fake versions on YouTube already, so…  I also remember the c2w april fool video finding its way here, and as the day’s top blog. Not to mention the trailer of Love Story 2050. Rediff is increasingly encouraging content providers across media platforms to use its iShare. Desi content creators most likely will have a limited understanding of digital media, and would be more than happy to share the content on Rediff’s platform. And it’s not just videos, its also pictures, music etc. And over a period of time, there’s no reason why it cannot become a stand alone brand.

    I can already see one snag though. A lot of us started blogging with rediff, but when we became familiar with blogging, moved on to blogger/ wordpress/ live journal/ typepad etc because rediff was nowhere close in terms of user interface design, technology etc. If they learn from that, and keep updating themselves on the tech front, they stand a good chance in the share market 😉

    until next time, if.. rediff

  • Pro Social

    No, this is not about me being gung ho about social networks, this is more about job search portals and social networks for business, specifically LinkedIn.

    The context is that i saw a huge ad of Shine (HT’s new jobsite) in the paper today, and my inbox had a mail that asked me to check out ‘Where is my boss’. Shine has a contest running promising the winner a month’s salary. They’re also doing a salary survey, whose results are promised soon – finally, scientific proof that i am underpaid 😉

    I’m not sure where exactly WIMB is being pitched. The site says “Get instant interview calls from Bosses all over the world! Set your online status as Available for live interviews.” Wonder if it’ll actually happen. Otherwise, the features seem to be the same as what a naukri/monster gives.

    Like this post mentioned, I also wondered why HT would seek to create a new brand, especially when it has something running in the same genre. One possibility is that they want this to be seen beyond a normal job classifieds poral. This is perhaps validated by what they say on the page “We recognize that your job is an integral part of your career, but we believe that your career is far bigger than the job itself! It is more about gaining the right perspective, building your skills and enhancing competency. And that’s what Shine is all about! ” Hmm, that makes it a wannabe LinkedIn, but stopping short of networking.

    So, what works? I still think all of them serve their purpose. When one is looking for a job, any job in their category (and there are tonnes of people who do just that) the portals like naukri/monster would work fine. However, if one is pretty clear about the specifics of the job he’s looking for, then a site like LinkedIn will help him connect with the right people. LinkedIn’s ‘questions’ and discussions also helps air one’s views on topics of interest, thereby adding flavor to a normal resume.

    I’m not quite sure if the normal social networks can be a serious threat to a job networking site. To me, its a problem of context. I’m on FB to play scrabble, poke friends, join the Bollywood group etc. Yes, it does tell a person a lot about me, but is that the kind of info a person would be looking for while hiring? Doesn’t a LinkedIn fit the bill much better?

    Until next time, or is it social pro 🙂

    PS. If Yahoo decided to launch Shine in India, wouldn’t the existing shine take its shine off?

  • Interesting Times

    All my favourite sites absolutely trashed Indiatimes’ attempts at social networking – ITimes. I didn’t log into the site myself, and I doubt if i will, until either something drastic happens to facebook or itimes brings in such a revolutionary feature that it totally blows me out of my stasis. And from what I read in the Contensutra article, that has not happened, at least not yet. To be fair, though the reviews have been scathing, I saw some comments at Contentsutra, which gave iTimes a chance.

    I’m sure the Times group will soon launch a blitzkrieg to promote the site through print, radio, mobile, Indiatimes which pretty much covers media options. Oh, okay Times OOH, Zoom, Times Now also, happy? The possibilities are endless, from using social media as a platform to fight serious issues (and campaigns like Lead India) (Read this) to building Bollywood/fashion based communities based on Zoom content and everything in between. The only snag is how much of good integration have we seen with the existing properties?

    The WATBlog post mentions how internationally, its usually the tech guys who build web properties and the big media guys come in later. I think it has a lot to do (sigh, again) with interent access. The internet has been adopted by the mass there, and they can actually build a brand on the web. But lack of penetration here means that either the techies need huge pockets and backing (eg.Ibibo – Naspers) or they have to wait for a looong time for the critical mass – revenues. The alternate scenario is happening where a media company has the money and the media (reach) to promote a web property. The problem, i guess is when they use existing/sub standard resources, and apply learnings from other media, which just won’t work.

    In the larger picture, remember that HT bought Desi Martini, so we might see the same players fighting on a different platform. And so, while it does sound like an Apple platform for news sharing, we’re in for some interesting times.

    until next time, whats next twitimes? 😉

  • The future of the Internet in India

    is mobile. That’s a feeling I’ve been getting for quite sometime. Take a look at the figures

    Internet – 46 million according to the iCube report 2007

    Mobile – 250 miilion, according to TRAI

    I read two articles today which pushed me in this direction. One was Indiagames’ new mobile distribution deal, and the other was TringMe opening up its API for developers. While the first supports the title of the post, the second might seem contra, but i feel the development will happen more on the mobile front.

    From a consumer standpoint, i see a convenience factor. While I am more a web fan than a mobile one, the sheer fact that i always have my mobile with me as opposed to my broadband connection explains the accessibility parameter. Yes, the amount of stuff i can access, and the small screen are deterrents, but i feel its a matter of time before that gets resolved. And yes, Facebook’s on Blackberry too, so…. 🙂

    From a brand point of view, while the net does give a filtered reach, the population which would use the net on mobile would be just as filtered. Most of the stuff being done on the net, from vanilla contests to rich applications, I’m sure can be adapted to the mobile platform. And what better platform for a brand than an always on consumer’s mobile? Unlike the net, I can push stuff onto the consumer (all those malls now proclaim ‘Bluetooth Zone’. I dont think they’re aiming at my laptop, maybe because i wasnt carrying it?)

    A convergence will happen, and for now, unless broadband suddenly starts coming out of taps, in India, it sees like the offspring will look more like a mobile than a comp. Wht d u thnk?

    until next time, mob justice?

  • Evolution, or is it?

    I read a couple of posts which made me think about this issue – social media’s role in the human mind’s evolution. What started out on  a tangential note here (tangential only because of the context change, on its own its definitely a compelling thought) was given this direction here.

    The idea as expressed quite clearly in the first post’s title is ‘has asking become a substitute for thinking?’ The second post takes it on further and explains how asking for information, that otherwise ‘almost redundant’ info which could have been easily gathered anyway, is asked for, and not gathered, thanks to the proliferation of networks like Twitter.

    Well, this ‘asking’ has been a common phenomenon in the workplace for quite some time, in the garb of ‘info sharing’ and otherwise, only with the advent of the web, the questions are now asked to a collective, the vast expanses of the www. It reminds of something I’d read a while back which basically said that if God could be equated to a collective consciousnes, then perhaps the internet is our first baby step towards reaching God.  And if that is the case, then (like i commented in the second post) this outsourcing of info collection to a collective is perhaps a way of evolving i.e. by crunching the time for ‘lower’ level problems, we will find more resources to tackle the bigger riddles of life. But that could be just wishful thinking,eh?

    Meanwhile, if the crowd is going to supply the info, then it becomes all the more important for brands to be tuned in and be able to ensure that the crowd has enough data, and the right emotions towards the brand. Because going by this trend, the new age consumer will stop doing what he does these days – painstakingly gather information about his next purchase.

    until next time, click away