Welcome to Gauravonomics! Subscribe to my RSS feed in a feed reader or by e-mail and you'll never miss my posts on marketing, technology and social media.
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.
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.
Comments (13)
Gaurav,
Your post seems to assume that there is indeed a need for an Indian/Indian social networking site that has broad appeal. Maybe that is not true. Maybe Indians are not that different from the rest of the world after all and facebook/orkut/linked-in are good enough for us to handle our online social lives.
The two examples for Indian/Indian that you have listed (babajobs, sumitr) are both very specific (and tiny) niches, and I would say will never get more than a tiny fraction of users.
I can only see a Indian/Indian site really hitting it big if it manages to draw in the non-web-savvy crowd. They guys with the mobile phones (but no computers). Or even the guys without computers (example)
I’ve a suggestion for Quadrant 2 - the matrimonial sites. Or don’t you consider them social networks?
@Ideasmith Very valid point. Yes, matrimonial websites are also social networks, except that I’ll classify them 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.
@Navin: Wow! You have raised some great points.
You’ll find that I often approach the social media/ social networking space form a “business opportunity” perspective. I’m myself saying that most urban twenty-something Internet users will prefer Facebook/ Orkut/ LinkedIn to their Indian clones.
Maybe BabaJob & Sumitr aren’t great quadrant 4 examples, but matrimonial websites are (see the update).
I also agree that the big value in the future lies in the mobile web space:
http://www.blogworks.in/blog/blogs_social_media/reliance_entertainments_social.php
http://www.blogworks.in/blog/blog_the_talk/blog_the_talk_edition_2_impact.php
You might find some interesting perspectives on this subject on these 2 posts.
Cheers.
Rajesh
I have posted some similar thoughts on ibibo.com here - http://www.daneshzaki.com/post/24301579
Also a lot of Indians just like to try out something that’s tried and tested by millions of users across the world. Rather than try something new everytime and get confused.
Nitin
http://www.my2dimes.com/
@Rajesh: Great insights in your BlogTheTalk 2 panel discussion on social networks in India with Amit Ranjan, Alok Mittal and Prerna Gupta.
@Danesh: Yes, I agree, great marketing will get people to sign-up for a service, but only a unique content or sevice offering will get people to stay and re-visit on a regular basis.
@Nitin: That may be true for twenty-something Indians like us living in a metro, because our social dynamics have more or less converged with the West. However, I’m talking about a bigger opportunity — to tap into the older, non-metro, non-English-speaking, non-broadband, maybe non-Internet user — that the present Indian social networking sites are missing out on.
Indian social networks can differentiate themselves along three different dimensions — social dynamics, language or access — and I haven’t seen much initiative along any of these.
U can’t call bigadda and ibibo indian sites with a global appeal
@Eklavya: In fact, I haven’t called BigAdda and Ibibo “Indian sites with a global appeal”. I have classified them as clones of international social networks, in Quadrant 3 (global social dynamics and Indian user appeal).
Gaurav,
I don’t think I will categorize matrimonial sites as social networks.
“you create a profile, you browse or search for other people with similar interests and you connect with them online or offline”
This is true, but one looks for a particular type of user (generally opposite sex), which means the user base is divided into 2 segments.
Although you can create a free profile with most of the sites (you can’t do much with it though), but the site’s aim is to funnel you into buying the *premium* membership. So, I think the revenue models are different than a regular SN.
There is no community aspect in matrimonial sites, which is the main focus of a SN. The relationships are based on one-to-one than being a group.
People visit Matrimony sites and Dating sites for a particular goal - get married or find a date. Once the goal is achieved, the user does not return back. Whereas SN are used for general communication and not to achieve a goal.
A lot of relatives/friends use matrimonial sites on behalf of the ‘user’, which beats the whole purpose of user interacting with other users.
Sorry for the long comment. I’ll write another comment on my take on Indian focused SNs.
I think that Indian social networks can differentiate themselves along three different dimensions. These are the social dynamics, language and access. But these dimensions are help to the Indian society become stronger.
I really dont think that matrimonial sites are anywhere close to networking right now… the purpose is classifieds on the net… and not building a network there…
Trackbacks/Pingbacks (4)
[…] has written an excellent post on the problem with Indian social networking sites. I agree with Gaurav as most of the Indian SNS ventures are just mimics of the successful […]
[…] Gaurav ventures a guess at what’s going wrong with the Indian networking scene. Most of the Indian social networking sites are basically India-focused Facebook/ MySpace/ Orkut/ […]
[…] Gauravonomics Blog Gaurav Mishra’s Weblog on Marketing, Technology & Social Media < What’s Wrong With Indian 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 […]