Tag Archives: MySpace

Three Dimensions of Differentiation for Indian Social Networking Sites

Thursday, March 13th, 2008

Quick Summary: Read why 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.

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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 –

A Typology of Indian Social Networks

– 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).

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What’s Wrong With Indian Social Networking Sites?

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

Quick Summary: To 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.

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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.

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Google’s Social Networking Plans: OpenSocial is Not About Facebook

Wednesday, October 31st, 2007

social-networking

What is OpenSocial?

TechCrunch revealed today that, instead of launching a new social networking platform, Google will launch OpenSocial, a set of three common APIs that application developers can use to create applications that work on any hosts, social networks, that choose to participate. These APIs give developers access to the data needed to build social applications: access to a user’s profile, their friends, and the ability to let their friends know that activities have taken place. The initial lineup of hosts, or participating social networks, include Orkut, Salesforce, LinkedIn, Ning, Hi5, Plaxo, Friendster, Viadeo and Oracle (update: MySpace, Bebo and SixApart have also joined OpenSocial). The initial lineup of developers include Flixster, iLike, RockYou and Slide.

You can also see a press release on the subject posted on John Battelle’s Searchblog.

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What is my overall impression of OpenSocial?

In my opinion, Google gets three on three for not calling it Maka-Maka, for not falling into the Orkut vs. Facebook trap -

While a lot of bloggers are looking at ‘Maka-Maka’ in a Orkut vs. Facebook context, I think Google will be short-selling itself if it looked at the opportunity in such a limited way.

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Social Networking and Niches

Sunday, April 22nd, 2007

According to Compete, Orkut, which is the default social networking site in India, is only ranked #8 in terms of attention and an even more lowly #22 in terms of number of visitors, amongst all social networking sites.

The question to ask here is: for a precocious teenager in Kolkata, what is more important -

- That MySpace is 300 times bigger than Orkut?
- That a million other social networking sites offer more advanced features than both Orkut and MySpace?
- That all her friends have profiles on Orkut?

The key to building a successful social networking site is to own a niche. MySpace owns the bigger niche (USA), but Orkut owns the niches that will grow faster (Brazil and India). These numbers will look very different in a few years from now.

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In Clown Co, Murdoch is the Big Winner

Wednesday, March 28th, 2007
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Now that News Corp and NBC Universal have tied up to launch the “YouTube Killer” - an online library of big media video assets that could be licensed by online distributors like Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, and MySpace - Rupert Murdoch may be the only one in the online video market-space who ends up owning both content (via the JV) and distribution (via MySpace) in any material and meaningful way.

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