Tagged: SMSGupShup RSS

  • Gaurav Mishra 6:49 pm on January 13, 2010 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , SMSGupShup, , ,   

    WSJ Story on SMS-Based Social Networking Platform SMSGupShup 

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    I was quoted recently in a WSJ article on SMS-based social networking platform SMSGupShup. The article delved into the business model for SMS based social networking platforms in India and focused on the need to limit usage to control outgoing SMS costs –

    Analysts say restricting the number of user exchanges is the only option SMS GupShup has to hold down costs. “If 1,000 people in a group can keep sending messages to everyone else, that cost quickly becomes unmanageable,” said Gaurav Mishra, CEO of 2020 Social, a social-networking media consultancy based in New Delhi.

    SMSGupShup is often compared to Twitter, especially in US media, but the comparison is problematic because SMSGupShup is essentially a group SMS service. It doesn’t have a searchable public timeline, a robust API and application ecosystem, or the highly engaged user behavior we see on Twitter that is driven by public one-to-one conversations.

    Most importantly, the default user behavior on Twitter is to “create” a status update, but the default user behavior on SMSGupShup is to “consume” updates created by others. I’ll not be surprised if less than 5% of SMSGupShup’s 26 million users have ever created an update, or created a profile.

    SMSGupShup is hesitant to change the user behavior from “consume” to “create” because sending text messages on behalf of users costs serious money. So, it has limited the number of messages group creators can send daily and restricted many-to-many messaging to small groups. It’s focusing on creating new revenue streams by creating custom channels for brands, opening up its API to application developers and creating an online marketplace for subscription plans, premium groups, and merchandise.

    However, SMSGupShup will find it difficult to become an attractive platform for brands to engage with consumers, unless the default user behavior on the platform changes from “consume” to “create”. Brands use Twitter for market research, lead generation, viral marketing and customer support: use cases that are made possible by users talking to each other and to the brands themselves.

    Given the compulsion to control outgoing SMS costs, it won’t be an easy change. Perhaps, the solution is to segment the users into those who have access to the mobile web and those don’t. For users with web access, SMSGupShup can become a “social platform” driven by compulsively updated status messages. For users without web access, SMSGupShup can remain an “alerts platform” where they subscribe to groups and receive SMS updates. The two sets of users will have an overlap, though, and the success of this web-SMS hybrid model will depend on how SMSGupShup manages this overlap.

    Cross-posted at 2020 Social: Because Business is Social.

     

  • Gaurav Mishra 1:04 am on June 9, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , Indian Premier League, IPL, Naman Sarawagi, , SMSGupShup, , , , , , ZooZoos   

    Guest Post: Social Media Analysis for the Vodafone ZooZoos Campaign 

    (This is a guest post from Naman Sarawagi (Twitter). Naman is a web 2.0 enthusiast. He has worked with Onyomo.com and Adbhai.com in the past, and now works as a copywriter at Webchutney Studios.)

    ZooZoos are advertisement characters promoted by Vodafone during the Indian Premier League Season 2 (IPL). Zoozoos are white, ghost-like creatures with ballooned bodies and egg heads who are used to promote various value added services of Vodafone. These ads though look animated are actually real humans in the Zoozoo costumes. The ads were created by Ogilvy & Mather, an agency that handles Vodafone advertisements and the films were shot by Bangalore based Nirvana Films in Cape Town, South Africa.

    Vodafone Alexa

    Here is an analysis of the various social media tools used in the campaign –

    - YouTube: In just one month the channel became 24th most Subscribed Channel (All Time- India) with 1,741 subscribers. The number is pretty low but given the low penetration of high speed internet in India this is appreciable. The channel has 129 in-links coming from various blogs. Most viewed ad and also the public favourite in conversations was Vodafone Busy Message generating a total of 197,837 views. We must consider that multiple copies of this video are available on YouTube and other video sharing sites so the real no. of views is pretty high.

    - Facebook: Official fan club on FaceBook has 294,669 fans. The Zoozoo quiz app is the only attempt made to engage the public around the Zoozoo characters. The quiz is based on identifying “What kind of Zoozoo are you?”. The same app is available on the official site. FaceBook was the centre of all web activities with all videos and the microsite pointing to this page.

    - Twitter:  The efforts on Twitter were a complete fail with only 327 followers. People did tweet about how they loved Zoozoos but no one really followed the official tweets. The sole reason was that the content was not engaging. It was not a value add-on. The tweets were simply links to the various videos. Instead, had there been some ‘Zoozoo facts’ and insight into the making of the ads, more conversation could have been created. The Indian users on Twitter are mostly media and technology people who have an appetite to digest more behind the scene content and more value content. A simple tweet like, “The total cost of production was Rs. 3 crores” could have gone a long way in retweets and thereby making the conversation and engagement truly viral.

    SMSGupShup: Interestingly, the Zoozoo group on Indian group SMS website SMSGupshup did see some participation with 3,847 members (followers) in just 30 posts (tweets). The conversation here was not as in Twitter, it included quiz and trivia, hence the reasonable number of followers. My guess is that this was an official group but the campaign did not promote this. Take a close observation of the posts and you will notice that this group is actually trying to take feedback on the campaign, which is quite an appreciable step.

    - Official Microsite: The official site does not appear in the top 10 results in Google search for “Vodafone Zoozoo”. Instead the site VodafoneZoozoo.in appears on top which was able to garner a lot of traffic. The peak for traffic on both the official and the unofficial site was 11 May, around the middle of the season. An outbreak of traffic can easily be seen marking the beginning of the campaign. The microsite got a total of around 90 in-links from various blogs. Whereas the unofficial site got 73 in-links which is pretty good in comparison. The official site has merchandise, the ads and the quiz app. So basically the only engagement was the quiz app.

    - Orkut (Unofficial): Given the mass adoption of Orkut and even after being the default Socio-net for Indians, activity for this campaign on Orkut was mostly silent because this was not promoted officially. It has 49,637 members on this community, which is pretty low. MTV Roadies had made a perfect use of Orkut for promotion. Ogilvy should have borrowed some insights from there. The reason for not considering Orkut might be that Orkut doesn’t have these options of creating brand pages etc. A lesser accepted reason i believe is that media people are suave and have mostly graduated from Orkut to Facebook. So instead of understanding user behavior, they consider themselves as the user, which is a blunder in marketing. When using social media you have to put the product where the audience is. Doing it the other way around is less effective and costlier as well.

    - Google Search: No points for guessing, “Vodafone Zoozoo” has been a busy search term throughout the season. “Zoozoo Wallpapers” saw outbreak on Google search in India with Delhi and Maharashtra leading. The last day of IPL, 24th May, saw a peak. So merchandise did see enough interest generated.

    Zoozoos Google Insight for Search

    - Conversation: A lot of conversation was generated around the fact that the Zoozoos were not animated. The production agency claims that the high cost of animation was the reason for using real humans with body fit costumes. Overall the sentiment of conversation was positive biased on blogs and microblogs. It is amazing to note that on the blogosphere “Zoozoo” created a buzz equal to the “IPL”. An ad campaign generating conversation equal to an International event could be considered as India having its own Super Bowl.

    Vodafone vs IPL Technorati

    - Media People Verdict: The media and ad fraternity has given mostly mixed views. Some quotes below:

    Rounded edges, weird sounds yet decipherable language, and fluidity of movement add to the ‘innocence of feelings’ in a world that is getting more and more ‘manipulative and angular’ in thought…We are all familiar with the standard measures of advertising effectiveness — memorability, message comprehension, persuasion and likeability. However, getting people to talk and discuss the advertising gives it a multiplier effect that helps to reach and impact more people than before. – Madhukar Sabnavism, country head, discovery and planning, Ogilvy and Mather, India

    “They have a certain madness to them, which makes them likeable and memorable.”- Brijesh Jacob, managing partner, White Canvas.

    “I think Vodafone has made delightful stories in the past with humans as well. Maybe I’m too old, so I didn’t particularly like the Zoozoos personally.” – Mythili Chandrasekar, senior vice-president and executive planning director, JWT India

    This coverage on Afaqs! has 275 comments, mostly positive. This is the highest number of comments on any post on Afaqs! and i don’t need to check the stats before is say that.

    Key takeaways: Campaign Successful? Yes. Period.

    Social media was not fully tapped as engagement around the campaign was missing. They could have done better than a quiz app. When in India, you cannot ditch Orkut, yet.

     

    • Gaurav Gurbaxani 9:45 pm on June 9, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Hats off to Ogilvy & Mather for this brilliant marketing strategy. It could not get better than this in terms of response.

      What I really find truly more amazing is that it has had such an enormous online buzz considering that it was the TV commercials that initiated this response. If it was not for web 2.0 platforms, how would consumers like us react and discuss and engage the new Zoozoo phenom. Perhaps in conversation
      over drinks though now its in your face every where you go, in a very positive light.

      Sunsilk Gang Of Girls had a similar response. I’m not sure what the numbers say, though I know it was a very successful campaign with their blog.

      While Social Media Marketing is definitely the new way of advertising I believe it would be sometime atleast in India, where traditional Newspapers and Television would be the primary outreach and would be complimented by these
      platforms.

      Why does it have to be a blend? Couple of reasons that come up straight are the low Internet speeds in India.

      It is almost impossible to watch a full video on youtube without having it buffer.I have broadband connection, a few people are still using dated dialup connections.

      The older Gen still do not visit most networking sites such as Facebook, twitter youtube or orkut.

      This is another reason why the Zoozoo campaign was so successful. It had thought of its target market, used exactly the right platforms, listened to the conversations and really pulled the crowds into engaging with the brand.

      Interactive campaigns such as the Axe alarm and Sachin’s call an IVR number did not really participate much online.

      If you look at the online trends for the term Vodafone using Google Insights you will find it absolutely phenemonal to how the brand awareness increased during the IPL period. Perhaps not everyone went out and bought new connections, though it certainly did build the awareness.

    • Juhi Raje Upadhyay 10:04 am on June 18, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      The entire analysis is quite insightful. Although, I’d liek to know what was the ROI for this zoozoo campaign. You think its a fad? An attractive way to phase out the pug? Or a long lasting face of Vodafone?

  • Gaurav Mishra 4:08 pm on January 2, 2009 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , Google SMS Channel, group SMS, , , SMSGupShup, ,   

    Search Trends for Group SMS and Microblogging Services in India 

    Here’s some interesting data on search trends for group SMS and microblogging services in India using Google Insights for Search data for 2008.

    Search Trends for Group SMS and Microblogging Services in India

    All four services — SMSGupShup, Twitter, Vakow and Google SMS Channel — show a rising trend. SMSGupShup is far ahead of the others, Twitter is second and Vakow and Google SMS Channel are still to become popular. It’s interesting to note that Twitter overtook SMSGupShup in serach volumes during November, due to the interest in the #mumbai Twitterstream for the 11/26 Mumbai terror attck.

    The data is consistent with Alexa traffic data for India which ranks SMSGupShup at #429, Twitter at #549, and Vakow at #4205.

    Search Trends for Group SMS and Microblogging Services in India

    What’s even more interesting is the state-wise interest in the four services. Interest in Google SMS Channel is limited to NCR and interest in Vakow is limited to NCR and Maharashtra. Interest in Twitter has spread beyond NCR and Maharashtra to Karnataka and Tamilnadu and interest for SMSGupShup has spread beyond these four states to Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. There seems to be a clear diffusion pattern for these group SMS services in India: NCR to Maharashtra to Karnataka/ Tamilnadu to Gujarat, then elsewhere. Also, none of these services seem to be particularly popular in North and East India.

     

    • gwasan 12:15 am on October 8, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      twitter and others are no doubt nice, but I always wanted to bring in a concept to microblogging !

      I hereby post a Review-Request for http://www.emote.in ,

      A microblogging service; which is a platform to -
      1. Make yourself heard, comment on news, stories and current affair.
      2. Share your experiences, memories and events with your friends and family.
      3. Connect with different people with similar emotional attributes as yours.
      (eg: if attrocities on animals make you sad, connect with others who share the same feeling)
      4. Jot-down your experiences. You usually have so many things to say – a constant stream of thoughts, comments and observations running through your head continuously.
      5. Last but not the least, has everything (and much more) that twiiter has.

      6. A wonderful timeline coming shortly (in few weeks)

    • gwasan 4:15 am on October 8, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      twitter and others are no doubt nice, but I always wanted to bring in a concept to microblogging !

      I hereby post a Review-Request for http://www.emote.in ,

      A microblogging service; which is a platform to -
      1. Make yourself heard, comment on news, stories and current affair.
      2. Share your experiences, memories and events with your friends and family.
      3. Connect with different people with similar emotional attributes as yours.
      (eg: if attrocities on animals make you sad, connect with others who share the same feeling)
      4. Jot-down your experiences. You usually have so many things to say – a constant stream of thoughts, comments and observations running through your head continuously.
      5. Last but not the least, has everything (and much more) that twiiter has.

      6. A wonderful timeline coming shortly (in few weeks)

  • Gaurav Mishra 11:57 am on December 29, 2008 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , , , SMSGupShup, , ,   

    An Overview of Citizen Journalism in India 

    I was recently asked to comment on citizen journalism trends in India. Here are some quick thoughts.

    BACKGROUND:

    Citizen journalism is news created by amateur reporters who were previously seen as audiences, viewers or readers. The roots of citizen journalism lie in the self-printed pamphlets that were distributed on the street-side. However, by enabling everyone to report news without the permission of gatekeepers like news organizations or editors, social media has democratized journalism and enriched it by bringing in a diversity of views and voices to it.

    There are four aspects of citizen journalism. Do note that when I say blogging, I mean it in the broadest sense, including photo-blogging (on sites like Flickr), video-blogging (on sites like YouTube) and micro-blogging (on sites like Twitter).

    1. News blogging: Re-blogging, commenting on, giving context on, or curating news that is often reported in traditional media. WATBlog and Pluggd.in, for instance, curate news on the IT/ Telecom/ Media industry in India.

    2. Local blogging: Blogging about local news that is not usually reported in traditional media. For instance, the Metroblogging network, which has chapters in Mumbai , Chennai , Bangalore and Hyderabad, is focused on covering local city news.

    3. Change blogging: Blogging about a cause or an issue. The Blank Noise Project, which writes against street sexual harassment is a good example of this. The Indian Water Portal Blog is another, especially Sharda Prasad’s K2K project .

    4. Crisis reporting, which involves live blogging about a crisis as it unfolds. Often, these are game-changing events that bring citizen journalism into the mainstream, because citizen journalism is often the fastest and the most inclusive/ interactive source of news on these events. Examples include the Tsunami in 2004 and the Mumbai terror attack in 2008. While blogs like TsunamiHelp and MumbaiHelp have played an important role in coordinating such efforts, they are essentially distributed efforts.

    Sometimes, corporates have experimented with their own citizen journalism initiatives, like MTV India’s My India Report and IBN Live’s Citizen Journalist. Similarly, there are citizen journalism websites like NowPublic, GroundReport, Merinews and Instablogs. Still, citizen journalism remains a bottom up, distributed phenomenon.

    WHAT HAPPENED IN 2008?

    Many observers have argued that citizen journalism on social media came into its own in 2008. First the Democratic party Netroots, led by blogs like Talking Points Memo and Daily Kos, played an important role in president elect Obama’s campaign, both in the primaries and in the presidential elections.

    Then, we got a preview of how important citizen journalism is likely to become in developing countries when social media played a leading role in covering the China earthquake and the Mumbai terror attack.

    Two trends in citizen journalism became evident in 2008 –

    1. Mobile technology is playing an increasingly important role in citizen journalism. In the 2004 Tsunami, citizen reporters in the affected areas text messaged updates to their friends who had access to the internet and they collated these text messages into blog posts and wikis. In the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, Twitter, which can be updated via SMS, became one of the most important sources of news on the crisis.

    2. Mainstream media is now willing and eager to integrate citizen journalism in their news coverage. News organizations are not only promoting citizen journalism platforms like IBN Live’s Citizen Journalist, but also engaging in platforms like Twitter (see @DNAIndia, @BangaloreMirror, @IndiatimesNews).

    PREDICTIONS FOR 2009

    We will see a continuation of these trends in 2009 –

    - Citizen journalism will play an important role in the 2009 Indian general elections. Young people in India are very engaged with politics in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attack and this engagement will make an impact in the 2009 elections. This will include more debate on the many problems facing India and even specific political parties and candidates. This will also involve a serious “get out the vote” campaign to get more young people to go out to vote. Some politicians will also experiment with social media. BJP’s V K Malhotra, for instance has a Twitter account @VKMalhotra .

    - More news organizations will experiment with citizen journalism, both by creating citizen journalism platforms on their own websites and by actively tracking social media for stories and sources.

    - We will see some new initiatives for tracking and curating citizen journalism, in order to make sense of it, especially in the 2009 general elections. This can include a social voting website like IndiaTalks which I intent to launch later in the year, or an automated website like mumbaiterror.informm.in created by social media measurement company Informm, or a mix of both. In fact, Venkat Ramna from Informm, who is a friend, promises to quickly put up election2009.informm.in in the run up to the 2009 election.

    - We will see Twitter and other mobile based applications like SMSGupShup and MyToday, playing an important role in the 2009 general elections, both in the campaigning and in the coverage of the elections.

    You should also see this great series on citizen journalism in India by Pramit Singh: 1, 2, 3, 4. When I have some time, I’ll update this post to include some of the interesting points in Pramit’s posts.

     

    • mumbaikar 7:50 am on December 30, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Here’s a page tracking the social media response to the Mumbai attacks. Thought it was relevant to this article….

    • Dhara 9:53 am on January 1, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      Gaurav, most of these so called citizen journalist sites you have mentioned are more commercial and not very democratic i must say. I think you need to do a lot more research on Indian citizen journalists sites and to see their workings before you put in your report. However, the background that you have mentioned was commendable. BTW, check out whitedrums.com, although not backed by commercialization and huge funding, it is still ambitious enough to move forward.

    • Gaurav Mishra 6:12 pm on January 4, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      @Dhara: Thanks for pointing me to White Drums, although I can’t see how it is less commercial than MeriNews or Instablogs.

  • Gaurav Mishra 8:07 pm on March 13, 2008 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: BharatMatrimony, , , , , I-CUBE, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , NRS, , Readership, , , , SMSGupShup, , , , , , Trendsotting, Vernacular,   

    Three Dimensions of Differentiation for Indian Social Networking Sites 

    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.

    - X – X – X -

    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).

    Three Dimensions of Differentiation for Indian Social Networking Sites

    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 Vernacular Languages and Mobile Will Drive Web Usage in India

    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 deep content in a wide range of vernacular languages and not only English.

    - 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?

     

    • Anjali 9:08 pm on March 13, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      I think that Reliance and Nokia will have a tough time breaking into this space, more because the Nokia blog can only be used by Nseries users, if I understood the website correctly. Reliance looks like it is still very basic, plus its glamour has worn off – the Rworld stuff I mean, so moving into blogs/micro-blogging requires a whole dedicated campaign, which I doubt they are ready for yet.

      As far as language is concerned, I feel that computer users who will use Hindi or other local languages are likely to be older and therefore less inclined to blog, given the dynamics of blogging/microblogging in India, where it is mostly young people who engage in it. Younger kids tend to prefer learning English, even in rural areas or the lower middle class in the urban ones, so the potential success of the vernacular social networking sites is questionable. I like your thought process though.

    • Rajesh 10:40 pm on March 13, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Already happening Gaurav. You of course know of SMS Gupshup – they are going great guns and the potential of private networks is yet to be touched.

      Check out mygamma.com another -very- successful social networking site on the mobile.

      There are a couple of others that I have sampled but are yet to be launched formally an d even as they run in silent mode have already built up significant following through word of mouth.

      Keep writing.

      Cheers.

      Rajesh

    • Navin 6:10 pm on March 14, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Nice article. Good data and analysis.

      As for the “killer Indian social networking site”, I think it will not be a site at all. I think it will be a sms based network. Your data shows that non-internet enabled mobiles far outnumber everything else. I have another interesting data point. One one of my websites the number of SMS subscribers outnumber the RSS/E-mail subscribers. This is despite the fact that the RSS feed has existed for twice as long as the sms feed. And the fact that the website is not mobile enabled at all.

      The only problem I have with existing mobile social networking sites is that they are really treating mobiles are little computers and hence we end up with services like SMS GupShup which is simply Blogger.com in 140 characters per post. Somebody is going to come up with a radically different way of socializing via SMS – and we’ll all think, in hindsight, that it was such an obvious and simple idea. And that guy will have a killer app on his hands.

      I should explicitly point out that this hasn’t happened yet. I haven’t been able to figure out how to use SMS GupShup or twitter in the context of my current friends circles. So we are stuck to sending group SMSs.

    • Gaurav 5:40 am on March 17, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      @Anjali: As I said, the killer Indian social networking site will probably not even look like a website, so I’m not talking about vernacular blogs/ microblogs. The real value is in getting the non-computer savvy users to engage with a social network via SMS.

      @Rajesh: Will spend some time at MyGamma . Didn’t have a great first impression though. Also it doesn’t seem to have had much traction yet, in terms of traffic and user base.

      @Navin: Yes, the present business models don’t quite leverage the full potential of mobile. I agree with you that the killer social network will need to offer full functionality on SMS, including, posting, profiles, friending, following, and more.

  • Gaurav Mishra 4:46 pm on February 17, 2008 Permalink | Reply
    Tags: , m-blogs, , , , MOBS, , , , , , , SMSGupShup, ,   

    My Interview with Indian Daily Hindustan Times on Micro-Blogging in India 

    Yours truly was quoted today in a very well-researched Hindustan Times article on micro-blogging in India.

    Twitter, a popular microblogging service abroad, recently introduced an India number. Says Biz Stone, Twitter’s co-founder, “The people of India are very sophisticated when it comes to using SMS to stay connected.”

    In Mumbai, Twitter recently inspired a ‘tweetup’, when Gaurav Mishra, a marketing professional and an “early adopter of technology”, wrote out a post saying “Blog meets are so passé. I want a Mumbai Twitter meet.”

    The article covers the entire spectrum of the micro-blogging space in India, from Twitter to MyToday MOBS and Webaroo SMSGupShup to the Reliance m-blog and Nokia N-Series m-blog.

    The article also has quotes from Ideasmith, Veer, Kiran, Rajesh and Biz Stone.

    Here is the full text of the article —

    Blogging by SMS, new rage in cool India
    Neha Tara Mehta, Hindustan Times
    New Delhi, February 17, 2008

    At 21, Ludhiana management student Harjinder Singh already has a mega project in hand, albeit in a micro medium. His 160-character blog posts, punched out on his Nokia handset, instantaneously reach 57,659 Sikhs across India — all at the cost of a single SMS. “I aim to arouse the pride of young Sikhs through my writings,” says Singh, who started blogging on his phone last May. “Many of my Sikh readers voted for Ludhiana’s Ishmeet Singh in Star Plus’s Voice of India — and contributed to his victory,” he adds. Singh has hired two people to get him cell numbers of 200,000 Sikhs, because he wants to reach “one in ten Sikhs soon”.

    In Delhi, Lalchung Siem, a 33-year-old Food Corporation of India employee, whips out his phone several times a day to blog in Hmar, a tribal language spoken by a small group of people in India. His posts are sent free to 6,106 readers in the North-East by SMSGupShup, a microblogging platform. “Recently, I got an SOS call after two boys fell in a river in Saidan village, Manipur. I flashed the SMS on my blog, and within minutes, a hundred people reached the spot, and managed to rescue one of the boys,” he says.

    Microblogging, i.e., blogging on cellphones in SMSes is on its way to become an absolute sell-out among compulsive cellphone users and enthusiastic communicators.

    HOW?

    “Microblogging is redefining what a conversation is all about, blurring the line between SMSing and blogging, and between the private and public,” says Kiran Jonnalagadda, who microblogs as ‘Jace’.

    Says Ramya aka IdeaSmith: “Blogging on the phone has no extra baggage that blogging on a computer carries: you don’t have to be grammatically correct and your blog post could be just any stray thought.”

    Twitter, a popular microblogging service abroad, recently introduced an India number. Says Biz Stone, Twitter’s co-founder, “The people of India are very sophisticated when it comes to using SMS to stay connected.”

    In Mumbai, Twitter recently inspired a ‘tweetup’, when Gaurav Mishra, a marketing professional and an “early adopter of technology”, wrote out a post saying “Blog meets are so passé. I want a Mumbai Twitter meet.”

    Webaroo Inc, which launched the free microblogging service SMSGupShup in India last April, claims to be growing at nearly 4 per cent every day – purely through word-of-mouth publicity. “We expect users in excess of 20 million before the end this year,” says Webaroo vice president Chirag Jain.

    Costs are recovered by placing contextual ads at the end of the SMS. MyToday MOBS, a microblogging service from Netcore Solutions that took off last July, sees nearly 25,000 people ‘publishing’ on a daily basis – again, with zero advertising and marketing costs.

    “India has the world’s third-largest mobile base. If you create services leveraging the mobile as a platform – they will work,” says Netcore MD Rajesh Jain.

    It’s not even just text anymore – phone companies are ringing in an era in which pictures, video and audio can be blogged instantaneously.

    Nokia Nseries introduced its ‘M-Blog’ last year. “When blogging began in the ’90s, the only way to blog was to get to a computer and upload images, text and video. But not any more,” says Vineet Taneja, GTM head, Nokia India.

    Reliance has seen a four-fold increase in its m-blog usage since it started advertising the feature last month, to make blogging appear “less geeky.” And Sony Ericsson, buoyed by the success of its mobile blogging feature, has recently launched the K660i “for the Orkut generation”.

    In Japan, five out of ten of last year’s best-selling novels were originally written out on cellphones. Will India’s mobile bloggers end up compiling novels from their writings? Veer Chand Bothra, the organiser of MoMos (meetings of mobile experts on Mondays), doesn’t discount the possibility. “Microblogging is helping people release a lot of creative energy free of cost. They could be inspired to compile the microblogs as books eventually.”

     

    • Ravi 6:27 pm on February 17, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      Congrats :)

    • Anil 6:38 pm on February 19, 2008 Permalink | Reply

      If this is the way to go as in a viable option, then will need to try out Micro-blogging.

      Informative piece.

    • gwasan 12:28 am on October 8, 2009 Permalink | Reply

      twitter and others are no doubt nice, but I always wanted to bring in a concept to microblogging !

      I hereby post a Review-Request for http://www.emote.in ,

      A microblogging service; which is a platform to -
      1. Make yourself heard, comment on news, stories and current affair.
      2. Share your experiences, memories and events with your friends and family.
      3. Connect with different people with similar emotional attributes as yours.
      (eg: if attrocities on animals make you sad, connect with others who share the same feeling)
      4. Jot-down your experiences. You usually have so many things to say – a constant stream of thoughts, comments and observations running through your head continuously.
      5. Last but not the least, has everything (and much more) that twiiter has.

      6. A wonderful timeline coming shortly (in few weeks)

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