In my previous post, I had compared the social technographics profiles for USA/ Europe with Japan/ Metro China to kick off my series on why the social web is not flat.

The Forrester Research Social Technographics Ladder classifies consumers into six overlapping levels based on their of participation in social media –

Basically, Creators create the user generated content, Critics and Collectors help disseminate it and Spectators consume it. Joiners are a special species, specific to social networking sites, who play all the other four roles in that context.

I ended the post by wishing that this data was also available for India, or at least Metro India –

However, given the low penetration of internet, even in Metro India, I suspect that the Creators will be in low single digits, Critics/ Collectors in high single digits, and Joiners/ Spectators in low double digits.

Well, I have spent a few hours in mashing together data from various sources to estimate the social technographics profile for Metro India and here’s how it looks –

- Metro India: I have defined Metro India as the top eight cities in India in terms of population (Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Pune). The total population of Metro India is 52mn (as per World Gazette estimates).

- Active Internet Users in Metro India: IAMAI’s I-Cube 2007 report there are 46mn Internet users in India (with 70% or 32mn active users), out of which 38% or 17.5mn are in Metro India. Assuming a higher active internet user percentage of 80%, the number of active internet users in Metro India can be estimated at 14mn (80% of 17.5mn).

- Creators in Metro India: The number of blogs in India has been estimated between 0.5mn and 1.2mn (see JuxtConsult India Online 2006, Ankit Maheshwari of Instablogs in The Hindu, Amit Ranjan of Webyantra, Debashish Chakrabarty of Indibloggies in Asian Age), even though most sources agree that the number of active blogs in India is much less than 50000. Starting with this baseline, and factoring in users uploading self-created content on photo-sharing and video sharing sites, we can estimate the number of Creators in Metro India at a maximum of 0.5mn.

- Critics in Metro India: India’s largest product review site Mouthshut claims to have 2.3mn registered users out of which 50% or 1.2mn are in Metro India (link). Starting with this baseline, we can estimate the number of Critics in Metro India at a maximum of 5mn.

- Collecters in Metro India: India’s largest social voting site site IndianPad has less than 50000 users. Starting with this baseline, we can estimate the number of Collectors in Metro India at a maximum of 0.5mn.

- Joiners in Metro India: As per JuxtConsult’s India Online 2008 report, 50% of all internet users in India use social networking sites, putting the size of the user base for social networking sites in India at 16mn (I had recently estimated it at 10mn). Assuming a higher social networking usage percentage of 60%, the number of Joiners in Metro India can be estimated at 8.4mn (60% of 14mn).

- Spectators in Metro India: As per JuxtConsult’s India Online 2006 survey, 85% of all Indian internet users regularly read blogs. Assuming that 85% of all Internet users in Metro India engage with social media in some form, the number of Spectators in Metro India can be estimated at 11.9mn. This is also intuitive because at least some internet users who are not on social networking sites must still engage with social media in some form.

- Inactives in Metro India: Once we have estimated that out of 14mn people in Metro India, 11.9mn are Spectators, the number of Inactives in Metro India can be safely estimated at 2.1mn.

To provide a context on how small these numbers are, here’s the social technographics profile for Metro China from my previous post –

It is evident even from a cursory look at the two charts that social media usage in Metro India and Metro China is driven by very different consumer behavior. In Metro China, Creators, Critics and Joiners all play an important role, whereas in India, Joiners are the predominant drivers of social media usage.

In my upcoming posts in the series, I’ll try to understand the reasons for such a difference between social media usage in India and China. Stay tuned.

Check out ‘The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption’, India’s first marketing book-as-a-blog. Subscribe to my full feed in a feed reader or by e-mail.

ShareThis

The Idea

The basic idea is simple: we form a network of five to ten influential Indian business bloggers to promote link-worthy posts from other Indian business bloggers in the form of a weekly digest published on our respective blogs.

The People

The present members in our network are (in alphabetical order):-

- Gaurav Mishra, that is, yours truly, is a marketer and a social media enthusiast (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Gautam Ghosh is an HR professional and a veteran business blogger (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Kiruba Shankar is India’s original A-list blogger and podcaster and a regular speaker at technology conferences (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Palin Ningthoujam is a public relations professional and the founder of India PR Blog (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Rajesh Lalwani is the founder of social media agency Blogworks (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Ranjan Varma is the writer of personal finance online weekly Personal Finance 2.01 (e-Book, Blog, Facebook and Twitter).

- VeerChand Bothra is the organizer of Mumbai Mobile Mondays and head of business development at MyToday (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

The Process

Over the week, we share posts between each other, and select a set of 3-5 posts to highlight. The posts can include all business-related topics including marketing, advertising, public relations, human resource management, finance, and entrepreneurship. The idea is to not link to each others’ posts, unless one of us has written a real gem.

Every Monday, all of us link to the same set of posts, with our own unique perspectives on them. By linking to the same posts together, we maximize the benefit we pass on to the linked blogs, both in terms of traffic and Google juice. By providing our multiple unique perspective on the posts, we hope to kick off conversations around these posts in the Indian business blogging community.

The Best of Indian Business Blogs: Weekly Digest 4

- Sanjay Anandram and Vijay Anand explain why startups should choose their investors/ board members carefully.

My top-of-the-mind views: Most entrepreneurs spend a lot of time getting their product and their team right, but few spend as much time getting their investors and board members right. When I set up my own startup, I’ll do well to follow Sanjay’s and Vijay’s advice and look for investors who’ll not only invest in the business but also help me build it.

- Vijay Anand and Snigdha Sengupta point out that all is not well with the Indian version of BarCamps.

My top-of-the-mind views: Most of my friends who attended BarCamp Mumbai 3 were disappointed by it. Vijay and Snigdha wonder if we have interpreted the concept of unconference wrongly and appeal for a more conversational, startup-focused BarCamp. Well, I personally like the idea of Startup Weekends. If you are in Mumbai, you may get an invite to one soon.

- Jinal Shah wants to make sense of the chaos of the social web.

My top-of-the-mind views: Many practitioners are beginning to see social media conversations as a valuable, but under-utilized, opportunity for ‘free’ qualitative research to provide insights that can be used to develop both products and messages. The tools aren’t quite in place yet, but with natural language and machine learning algorithms becoming increasingly intelligent, this may become a big business opportunity soon. I personally see another model evolving simultaneously — the wisdom of the crowds aggregated via social media outsourcing.

- The Sans Serif blog looks forward to the upcoming Hindu vs ToI battle in Chennai

My top-of-the-mind views: The Jains have proven time and again that nobody else gets the newspaper business like they do. With the launch of The Times of India in Chennai, The Hindu will learn that it has already lost the battle it is preparing to fight.

- Harish B analyzes the launch of Tata Sumo Grande

My top-of-the-mind views: Harish writes an interesting, if partial, analysis of the evolution of Tata Sumo as a brand and the launch of the new Sumo Grande. I’m privy to the inside story on the brand, and look forward to an interesting conversation on the topic with Harish if and when we meet up.

Your Turn Now

We have done our part by starting the conversation. Now, it’s your turn to carry on the conversation by commenting on these posts, linking to these posts in your own blogs, giving us feedback on our idea and execution, or suggesting more posts for our next week’s digest.

Also see: Gaurav Mishra Week 1, Rajesh Lalwani Week 1, Ranjan Varma Week 1, Gaurav Mishra Week 2, Palin Ningthoujam Week 2, Ranjan Varma Week 2, Gaurav Mishra Week 3, Rajesh Lalwani Week 3, Ranjan Varma Week 3, Gautam Ghosh Week 3, Gautam Ghosh Week 4, Rajesh Lalwani Week 4.

Check out ‘The Marketer Who Went Off Consumption’, India’s first marketing book-as-a-blog. Subscribe to my full feed in a feed reader or by e-mail.

ShareThis

The Idea

For a while now, Rajesh and I have been discussing how business bloggers in India don’t do enough to promote each others’ content. Out of that discussion came the idea of forming a network of influential Indian business bloggers to promote link-worthy posts from Indian business bloggers in the form of a weekly digest published on our respective blogs.

The People

The present members in our network are (in alphabetical order):-

- Gaurav Mishra, that is, yours truly, is a marketer and a social media enthusiast (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Palin Ningthoujam is a public relations professional and the founder of India PR Blog (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Rajesh Lalwani is the founder of social media agency Blogworks (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Ranjan Varma is the writer of personal finance online weekly Personal Finance 2.01 (e-Book, Blog, Facebook and Twitter).

- VeerChand Bothra is at the organizer of Mumbai Mobile Mondays and head of business development at MyToday (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

The Process

Over the week, we share posts between each other, and select a set of 3-5 posts to highlight. The posts can include all business-related topics including marketing, advertising, public relations, human resource management, finance, and entrepreneurship. The idea is to not link to each others’ posts, unless one of us has written a real gem.

Every Monday, all of us link to the same set of posts, with our own unique perspectives on them. By linking to the same posts together, we maximize the benefit we pass on to the linked blogs, both in terms of traffic and Google juice. By providing our multiple unique perspective on the posts, we hope to kick off conversations around these posts in the Indian business blogging community.

The Best of Indian Business Blogs: Weekly Digest 1

- Rashmi Bansal from Youth Curry interviews the young founders of CMYK Health Boutique Private Limited, operating the ‘Four Fountains’ spas

My top-of-the-mind views: Four Fountains is unique because it’s a brick and mortar startup, in a world obsessed with online and mobile. I also like the attitude of the team, their belief that they will make things work once they leave their jobs, their persistence in letting go of their first discount retail chain idea and moving on to the more marketable affordable spa idea. There are learnings in the interview for everyone who wants to become an entrepreneur.

- Namrata Balwani, Business Director, Media2Win on what ails online advertising in India

My top-of-the-mind views: My pet peeve is that agencies approach digital media with the ‘interruption marketing’ paradigm prevalent in traditional media instead of the ‘permission marketing’ mindset that is appropriate for it. I believe that digital media works well for two extreme objectives — generating leads and building communities — and for little in-between.

- Vijay Mahajan of BASIX on why the waiver of mass debt in Indian budget 2008 only benefits large farmers

My top-of-the-mind views: As I said in the Hindustan Times Young India Forum panel discussion, the big question after the Indian Budget 2008 is: where will the money to fund Mr. Chidambaram’s generous budgetary allocations, including the Rs. 60000 cr. debt relief for farmers, come from? The other big question raised in this post is: will the election-motivated debt relief package actually benefit the small farmers it is supposedly meant for?

- Manoj Dawane, Chief Executive Officer, Mauj Mobile on the future of the Indian mobile-VAS industry

My top-of-the-mind views: In future, Mobile VAS will drive not only mobile usage, but also web 2.0 usage. In fact, mobile will be one of the three dimensions of differentiation for Indian web 2.0 startups, including social networking sites.

- Venturewoods, Ashish Sinha from Pluggd, Pranav Dharma from Startup Duniya and Aditya Mishra on the Jason Calacanis “startups need workaholics” controversy.

My top-of-the-mind views: Aditya, Veer and I discussed this topic in our recent podcast with Aditya Mhatre from Indicast. We agreed that startups do need people who are totally passionate about the business and people who work for large organizations are indeed in for a culture shock if they move over to a startup. The big insight was that entrepreneurs should set an example for their teams by being passionate about the business and practicing frugality themselves.

Your Turn Now

We have done our part by starting the conversation. Now, it’s your turn to carry on the conversation by commenting on these posts, linking to these posts in your own blogs, giving us feedback on our idea and execution, or suggesting more posts for our next week’s digest.

Also see: Rajesh Lalwani, Ranjan Varma.

ShareThis

My First Podcast on Indicast

I had a great time last Sunday recording my first podcast with Aditya Mhatre, Aditya Mishra, VeerChand Bothra (tweet) on why startups need workaholics and why mobile will drive web 2.0 usage in India (tweet).

All three of them have extremely rich backgrounds, resulting in an extremely vibrant discussion —

- Aditya Mhatre is India’s leading podcaster at Indicast (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- VeerChand Bothra is at the center of India’s mobile boom, as MobilePundit, as organizer of Mumbai Mobile Mondays and as VP at NetCore Solutions (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

- Aditya Mishra is deeply involved in the startup ecosystem in India through his work (he has the fancy title of Entrepreneur-in-Residence at TCS) and his role as the organizer of BarCamp and Kickstart (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

It was really good fun, like Leo Laporte’s TWiT for India, and Aditya (Mhatre) had a tough time keeping Aditya (Mishra), Veer and me within time (tweet). Aditya has done some brilliant editing on the podcast and it’s now out in a crisp avatar on Indicast —

Part 1: Why Startups Need Workaholics

We first discussed how the Jason Calacanis startups need workaholics controversy plays out in the Indian context. Since both Aditya (Mishra) (his post on the topic) and Veer are deeply involved in the startup ecosystem in India, I got some interesting insights on the topic. In the end, we agreed that startups do need people who are totally passionate about the business and people who work for large organizations are indeed in for a culture shock if they move over to a startup. The big insight has that entrepreneurs should set an example for their teams by being passionate about the business and practicing frugality themselves.

Background links: Jason Calacanis, Duncan Riley, Micheal Arrington, Robert Scoble, Michael Ryan, Techmeme, Aditya Mishra, Ashish Sinha, Pranav Dharma, Venturewoods.

Part 2: Why Mobile Will Drive Web 2.0 Usage in India

We then moved on to why mobile will drive web 2.0 usage in India and why mobile advertising will become really big in India. We agreed that mobile — along with local content, vernacular languages and local social dynamics — will drive web 2.0 usage in India. We also discussed why an Indian web 2.0 model will have the entire cycle — registration, friending, content creation and content consumption — on SMS. Finally, we discussed that new mobile advertising formats based on permission marketing will evolve to tap into this opportunity.

Background Links: Gaurav Mishra, Hindustan Times, Wall Street Journal, Agencyfaqs.

Watch Out For Our Next Podcast

In the next podcast, we will cover how the ‘economics of free’ is hitting the music industry and how the web is getting widgetized (tweet). So, share any interesting links on either topic on del.icio.us using the tag TKM2 and, if we use them, we’ll credit you with a hat-tip (tweet).

ShareThis

Alootechie, which has established itself as the Indian online industry’s news monitor, has a new look and a new focus.

I have known about the revamp for a few weeks now through conversations with Sidharth, Ravneesh, Saket and Asfaq, so when Ravneesh told me today that the new website was up, I knew what to expect.

Apart from the staple Indian and international digital industry news, the new magazine-style homepage displays a featured news story, an interview of the month, job and event boards and several guest articles. Inside, Alootechie has extended its coverage to include mobile and gaming.

While the present website is still work-in progress (watch out for the newsletter, podcasts and vidcasts), I must congratulate the Alootechie and Webchutney teams for the really cool revamp.

My favorite part of the revamped website are the guest posts, which are basically expert opinion pieces written by industry insiders. While each topic covered in the first set of these guest posts deserves a separate post on this blog, here are my top of the mind thoughts on some of them –

- Sandeep Singh, Business Director, Quasar on the future of the digital advertising agency in India —

The specialized agency model has come of age and has proved itself to be a successful one. The success can be seen by the interest large global advertising networks & VC’s have shown in the space. Now, with specialized agency model getting more specialized and niche (search marketing agencies, mobile marketing agencies, social media agencies, and digital creative hot shops making their presence felt) the scene is heating up further.

We will soon see a deluge of digital agencies and, apart from the top half a dozen integrated digital agencies, the only players to stand out from the crowd will be specialized search marketing agencies, mobile marketing agencies, viral marketing agencies and social media agencies.

- Manoj Dawane, Chief Executive Officer, Mauj Mobile on the future of the Indian mobile VAS industry –

VAS revenue predictions (are) estimated to reach Rs 4, 600 crore by the end of the current fiscal from Rs 2, 800 crore in 2006-07, according to Assocham. Going ahead, content, platform and exhibition are the key factors that will mould the existing structure of the industry.

My top-of-the-mind views: In future, Mobile VAS will drive not only mobile usage, but also web 2.0 usage. In fact, mobile will be one of the three dimensions of differentiation for Indian web 2.0 startups, including social networking sites.

Kalyan Manyam, Founder, Indyarocks on how can an Indian social networking site differentiate itself –

The possible areas, where a new SNS can differentiate are: 1. Innovative ways of communicating and sharing 2. Localization through Entertainment or Education.

My top-of-the-mind views: I think Language (English vs. vernacular), mode of access (Internet vs. mobile) and social dynamics (global vs. Indian) will be the three dimensions of differentiation for Indian social networking sites.

- Sunny Saurabh, Co-founder, Antya on people-powered search engines –

Simply put, a human-powered search engine is a search engine that takes into account human intelligence and leverages the power of the community to provide the most relevant information to the end user. India today attracts over a billion searches per month. As more and more people come online every year, the need for relevant information increases.

My top-of-the-mind views: I think people-powered search engines will be the limited in terms of both scope and scalability and their promise of more intelligent search results will only be realized once the semantic web takes over.

- Venkat Ramna, Chief, Valuepitch Interactive on how negative search results can erode the equity of consumer brands –

Search phrases on corporates can be categorized as brand words, negative words and research words. For negative phrases (icici sucks), one can expect negative results; for phrases pertaining to research (icici bank reviews) it’s ok to expect some negativity along with the positives; but for brand phrases (icici bank), finding negative results is a bad brand association.

My top-of-the-mind views: It’s obvious to me that online reputation management will involve much more than only search engine optimization.

Sachin Bhatia, Co-founder & Chief Marketing Officer, MakeMyTrip on online reputation management for brands –

With e-commerce growing in India, the Internet becomes a great place for people to both review and then buy a product. Therefore it’s critical for brands to ensure that they are positively mentioned online, that positive reviews are far greater than negative comments that customer ratings are high for their products and this can then lead to immediate and higher conversions.

My top-of-the-mind views: In future, brands will need to embrace social media because social media will be the only cost effective to reach consumers.

Namrata Balwani, Business Director, Media2Win on what ails online advertising in India –

With over 30 Million active internet users, and mobile internet also coming up, this is no longer a medium to ‘test’ but to integrate into the marketing plan. Some of the leading websites in India have more users than the total readership of leading English dailies! And the brand can directly interact with the consumer.

My top-of-the-mind views: My pet peeve is that agencies approach digital media with the ‘interruption marketing’ paradigm prevalent in traditional media instead of the ‘permission marketing’ mindset that is appropriate for it. I believe that digital media works well for two extreme objectives — generating leads and building communities — and for little in-between.

So, I don’t agree with all the opinions in these guests posts, but I think, if done well, they have the potential to start off discussions around the Indian digital media industry. Going foward, the challenge for Alootechie will be to ensure that its guest posts are of consistently good quality.

In summary, it’s a step in the correct direction for Alootechie, and, if you are interested in understanding the Indian digital media industry, I would strongly recommend that you check out the new Alootechie.

ShareThis

In my previous post, I wrote about why Indian social networking sites need to differentiate themselves –

Most of the Indian social networking sites are basically India-focused Facebook/ MySpace/ Orkut/ LinkedIn clones. Such clones would only be popular amongst a small set of twenty-something Indians in metros who won’t want a clone anyways.

I also presented a typology of Indian social networking sites on a 2X2 matrix with Indian-vs-global social dynamics on the X-axis and Indian-vs-global user appeal on the Y-axis –

– and suggested that –

To really build an identity and a broad Indian user base for themselves, Indian social networking sites need to reflect the unique nature of relationships in the Indian society.

Three Dimensions of Differentiation: Language, Access and Social Dynamics

Based on the discussion in the comments section and on Twitter, Facebook and e-mail, I have realized that there are, in fact, three dimensions of differentiation for Indian social networking sites — language (English vs. vernacular), mode of access (Internet vs. mobile) and social dynamics (global vs. Indian).

Why is Social Dynamics a Dimension of Differentiation?

I have already illustrated in my previous post how an offering that reflects the unique Indian social dynamics is likely to be well-adopted by Indian users –

Matrimonial sites like BharatMatrimony, JeevanSaathi and Shaadi are the Indian equivalent of international dating sites. A lot of my Indian friends who wouldn’t risk being seen on a dating site, use matrimonial sites basically to meet interesting people they can date (and, just maybe, marry).

In this post, I’ll share some numbers with you to illustrate how language and access are the other two dimensions of differentiation for Indian social networking sites.

Why is Language a Dimension of Differentiation?

According to various sources, the number of Internet users in India is estimated to be between 20mn and 30 mn. According to NRS 2006, the readership of English language newspaper is only 26 mn, less than 10% of the overall readership of newspapers in India. Given that English is the predominant language on Internet in India, is it any surprise that English language newspaper readership in India and Internet usage in India are in the same ballpark? Also, if you flip the numbers, vernacular language newspaper readership in India is ten times higher than English language readership in India. It’s probably reasonable to project that, if vernacular language Internet was to become popular in India, Internet usage in India will potentially increase tenfold.

Why is Access a Dimension of Differentiation?

According to TRAI, there are 250 mn mobile phones in India compared to only 3 mn broadband connections. It is also estimated that there are 38 mn mobile web users in India (note: I’m still searching for a reliable source). Even if we leave alone mobile web, 250 mn Indians have access to SMS compared to the 20 mn to 30 mn Indians who have access to Internet and the 3 mn Indians who have access to broadband. Not only that, mobile phone access is more widely distributed across both urban and urban Indian than Internet access. It’s quite a no-brainer, therefore, that web usage in India will be driven by the mobile web (with SMS integration) and not the PC web.

Early Signs: Micro-Blogging and Mobile-Blogging in India

While Twitter is still very niche in India, Indian micro-blogging networks like MyToday MOBS and Webaroo SMSGupShup have wide user bases –

‘We expect users in excess of 20 million before the end this year,” says Webaroo vice president Chirag Jain. (HT)

I’m sure that a large percentage of these 20 mn users will be passive users, who only receive messages instead of sending them. However, it’s no laughing matter that one micro-blogging service in India claims to have almost the same number of users as the entire Internet user base in India.

Expect more action in the micro-blogging and mobile-blogging space with Reliance and Nokia entering the space.

The Killer Indian Social Networking Site

So, what will the killer Indian social networking site be like?

I’m sure that the killer Indian social networking site will be differentiated along all the three dimensions of language, access and social dynamics –

- It will offer users a unique value based on Indian social dynamics beyond friending and following people.

- It will offer users multiple access points, including PC web, mobile web, SMS (and maybe voice), so much so that most users won’t even think of it as a “website”.

What will the killer Indian social networking site be like, in your opinion?

ShareThis

According to a recent cover story in the Outlook Magazine, there are almost 10 mn users of social networking sites in India. Orkut has 7.1 mn users, Facebook 1.6 mn, BharatStudent 1.7mn, Fropper 1.0 mn, BigAdda 1.4 mn, Minglebox 0.6 mn, adding up to 13.4 mn (tweet). Add smaller social networks, factor in duplication across social networks, and the total user base for social networks in India may be ~10 mn (tweet).

As the number of Internet users in India is estimated at between 20 mn and 30 mn by most sources, at least one third of all Internet users in India now use a social network.

However, according to the IDC Value Web Matrix study, there are only 1.5 mn users for India focused web 2.0 startups, including social networks (you can find a good list of Indian web 2.0 startups at Prabhu’s blog). As the study includes enterprise-focused web 2.0 startups like Zoho, the number of users for social networking websites in India may be closer to 1 mn. I know that BharatStudent in itself claims to have 1.7 mn users, but that number looks overstated to most people I have spoken to. In any case, we can safely peg the number of users for Indian social networking sites between 1 mn and 2 mn.

Therefore, out of 10 mn social networking users in India only 1 mn to 2mn (only 10% to 20%) are on Indian social networking sites. Which begs the question: what’s wrong with Indian social networking sites (tweet)?

Most of the Indian social networking sites are basically India-focused Facebook/ MySpace/ Orkut/ LinkedIn clones (tweet). Such clones would only be popular amongst a small set of twenty-something Indians in metros who won’t want a clone anyways (tweet).

To really build an identity and a broad Indian user base for themselves, Indian social networking sites need to reflect the unique nature of relationships in the Indian society (tweet).

To illustrate my point, let me plot the Indian social networking sites on a 2X2 matrix with Indian-vs-global social dynamics on the X-axis and Indian-vs-global user appeal on the Y-axis (tweet) –

Quadrant 1 (Global social dynamics and global user appeal): These are original concepts and tweaks with broad international appeal, Indian only because they are started by Indians (tweet). Examples include: Slideshare, Like, and my friend Shweta’s Criticat. Please note that most of these startups have a mix of Indian and foreign founders.

Quadrant 2 (Indian social dynamics and global user appeal): I couldn’t find an example of such a social network, but a yoga-centered social network based on the guru-shishya tradition would probably fall in this quadrant.

Quadrant 3 (Global social dynamics and Indian user appeal): These are India-focused Facebook/ MySpace/ Orkut/ LinkedIn clones. Most of the well-known Indian social networking sites would fall in this quadrant.

Quadrant 4 (Indian social dynamics and Indian user appeal): These are original concepts & tweaks with niche Indian appeal. So far, I have been able to find only two examples. BabaJob - a Bangalore-based professional social network for household help - taps into the unique Indian dependence on household help (tweet). Sumitr allows you to create a password-protected, closed-wall private network for family members and close friends.

Over time, such social networking sites that reflect the unique nature of relationships in the Indian society are more likely to build an unique identity and a broad Indian user base for themselves. Otherwise, most of the Indian users of social networking sites will continue to flock to Facebook/ MySpace/ Orkut/ LinkedIn and not their Indian clones.

Do you know of any other Indian social networking sites that are built on uniquely Indian needs and sensibilities (tweet)?

Ideasmith raises a very important point regarding Indian matrimonial websites in the comments section –

I’ve a suggestion for Quadrant 2 - the matrimonial sites. Or don’t you consider them social networks?

In fact, when I started writing this post, my starting point was that matrimonial websites — like BharatMatrimony, JeevanSaathi and Shaadi — are the Indian equivalent of international dating sites. A lot of my Indian friends who wouldn’t risk being seen on a dating site, use matrimonial sites basically to meet interesting people they can date (and, just maybe, marry). Ideasmith has a valid point. Matrimonial websites are also social networks — you create a profile, you browse or search for other people with similar interests and you connect with them online or offline. Except that I’ll classify matrimonial websites in quadrant 4 (Indian social dynamics and Indian user appeal), which means that my case that Indian social networking sites need to reflect the unique nature of relationships in the Indian society just became stronger.

ShareThis

I’m delighted to invite you to join SocialPundit, a collaborative wiki-based community for social media practitioners in India.

What is the need for SocialPundit?

As I started tracking social media trends and resources in India, I felt the need to create an easily accessible master-resource on social media in India.

When I made a small start in this direction by compiling two directories — list of social media agencies in India and list of marketing, public relations and social media blogs in India — I received several requests to share them in the form of a wiki. I listened, and the result is SocialPundit.

What is the purpose of SocialPundit?

To start with, the SocialPundit wiki will track trends and resources on social media in India.

Over time, I can see SocialPundit playing an active role in evangelizing social media in India by organizing events and workshops on a non-profit basis.

Who should join SocialPundit?

You would really benefit from joining SocialPundit if you are an advertising, marketing, public relations or social media professional from India.

However, anybody, Indian or otherwise, who is interested in tracking trends and resources on the evolving social media landscape in India will benefit from being a part of SocialPundit.

SocialPundit is based on an open, collaborative, wiki-based platform.

A wiki is software that allows users to easily create, edit, and link pages together. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites. (Wikipedia)

To become a member of SocialPundit, you need to visit the Join SocialPundit page and register using the “secret password” “socialpunditwiki”.

To start with, you’ll have “member” access, which means you’ll be able to create and edit pages.

On a selective basis, I’ve already shared “moderator” and “admin” access with some members.

So, what are you waiting for? Join the SocialPundit wiki and help us shape the social media landscape in India.

ShareThis

Over the last few months, I have met many interesting people through Twitter, and the two @MumbaiTwit tweetups that I organized (1 and 2) and I’m amazed by some of the cool things these people are doing. Take Aaalap Ghag (Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter), as an example. Aaalap, a developer at Web 18, is also India’s most prolific Twitter user (3400+ tweets!) and the creator of the really cool link aggregator LinkBunch.

LinkBunch is a nifty new service that allows you to bunch multiple long links into one tiny link like http://linkbun.ch/3ox (which is a bunch of all my blog, feed and social network profile links). You can then share the link over IM, Twitter, email or even a mobile phone SMS. When the recipient clicks on the LinkBunch link, it opens up into a page that contains all the links that you have put in the bunch. They can then open one link at a time or all the links, all at once.

Here are a few ways in which people are using LinkBunch –

- Bunch all your blog, feed and social network profile links into one tiny link (here’s mine).

- Bunch of all your open tabs in the browser using the LinkBunch Firefox extension.

- Bunch all the links in a directory into one tiny link. For instance, I have bunched all the links from my directory of social media agencies in India into a LinkBunch.

As of now, there isn’t a way to edit bunches, but Aalaap is working on a user account based system that will let you easily manage all your created bunches, favorite bunches, friend’s bunches etc.

LinkBunch has an active official blog, a GetSatisfaction based support forum, and an easy-to-use API.

LinkBunch has been getting a lot of traction on technology blogs and even mainstream media and I can see it becoming a really popular service very soon.

Also see: CNet’s Webware, Mumbai Mirror, Download Squad, Lifehacker and more.

ShareThis