internet

Indian Users Not Active Enough: Facebook’s Dilemma In India

by Paul Joseph February 7, 2012 Featured

Though Facebook is gaining rapid entry into Indians’ lives, it daily usage is  still  in lowly numbers. As the IPO filling before the US Securities and Exchange Commission continues to be scrutinized, new information will continue to trickle down. We had recently reported how Facebook  still considers  the ageing Orkut to be its adversary. In Orkut’s case Facebook had validated it saying the locally active Social Networking sites were eating into its User base. Without these, Facebook would have garnered some more users. Whereas in this case, Facebook is worried that owing to the 2G  scam  & 3G  fiasco,  mobile internet is still not wide-spread as it should have been. The lack of easily accessible high speed internet has resulted in people being tethered to a Physical Desktop to access internet & eventually FaceBook. Thus, it may boast of high number of Monthly Active Users, but its Daily Active Users  are very low. What’s the difference? Daily Active User or a DAU is defined as “ A registered user who logged in and visited Facebook through the website or a mobile device, or shared content with his or her Facebook friends or connections though a third-party website that is integrated with Facebook, on a given day ”. In simple terms, a user who logs on to Facebook at least once per day & creates / shares some content or merely interacts with friends and colleagues. On the other hand Monthly Active Users or MAU’s are those who log on at least  once per month . This number for Facebook is very high at 845 Million! However, when it comes to DAUs it drops to half at 483 million on average for December 2011. Though MAUs have increased 39 per cent over 12 months & DAUs 48 per cent, the huge gap between them is worrying Facebook. According to Facebook, this phenomenon is common in the developing countries like India, Brazil, Germany, India, Russia, Korea etc. & this is where it wants to focus reveals the filing, “ We continue to focus on growing our user base across all geographies, including relatively less-penetrated, large markets such as Brazil, Germany, India, Japan, Russia, and South Korea. We intend to grow our user base by continuing our marketing and user acquisition efforts and enhancing our products, including mobile apps, in order to make Facebook more accessible and useful ” Where is Facebook going wrong? Well, according to Facebook, it is not the one to blame. The poor access to internet especially on the move is the major reason. This becomes chronic in developing countries where  Mobile infrastructure is poor . Let’s consider India for example. With over 900 Million GSM users, how many have access to high-speed Internet? While companies are  focusing  on Value Added Services, they keep forgetting about the basic need of reliable connectivity through internet is also to be taken into serious consideration. Despite all this Facebook is growing. Further, it is still at the top  with Advertisers . However, if countries like India, do not support Indians with reliable high speed internet, Facebook could be an indirect sufferer!   Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency

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Google Could Score A Cool $ 5.8 Billion From Mobiles Alone. Time To Shift Focus?

by Paul Joseph January 23, 2012 Featured

Google’s Ad revenue from Mobiles alone could come close to US$ 6 Billion  reveals  a new research from Cowen. Jim Friedland, an analyst with Cowen speculates that Google generates about US$ 7 per Phone and Tablet per year through the search and display advertising last year. These advertisements are displayed in mobile apps on both Android and iOS (iPhones and iPads) & also  alongside search results . These analyses coincide with CEO Google Larry Page’s announcement last Thursday that “ Google’s mobile ad revenues program was standing at a $5 billion annualized run-rate ”. Joining the dots, we can see that Google hopes doubling of revenue from last year’s US$ 2.5 Billion to this year’s 5.8 Billion Dollars. Well, last year, the estimated total number of smart phones was pegged at 509 Million. This year the figure is expected to almost double at a whopping 914 Million by end of 2012. Since Google’s Search is universal across all OSes, apart from it Android, the ad-revenues too will see a proportionate increase. Further, with more & more smartphones on both the sides of economy gaining rapid entry into the economy, Google, just might surpass even this figure & manage to break the US$ 7 / device barrier. Is India a contributing factor to this? Yes of course. India’s mobile population is growing at a phenomenal rate. Though there are few blank spots , adoption of GSM technology is astounding. Further, many cheap & innovative devices that run on Google’s Android OS are being introduced & lapped up in the market. With Google search baked right into it , such devices can very well be the driving force behind Google’s revenue jump. Further, Google recently introduced free WiFi for its users in India. We guess, companies could do well, to opt for Google instead of its competition . Do you regularly use Google Search from your Mobile? Share with us your experience. Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts Media Ads Introduced In Search Results: Destroying Sanctity Of Search? How India Searched In 2011! Will Google+ Act As A Facebook Killer? Google Ramps Up Monetisation Strategy For Indian Market Google, Twitter Launch Speak2Tweet To Help The People Of Egypt; YouTube, Anonymous Join In

Tagged as: advertisment, internet, mobile, mobile-devices, news, web

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E-marketing In India: An Insight From Octane Research

by Paul Joseph January 10, 2012 Featured

Marketing Research firm Octane Research has attempted to make sense of the many independent research conducted by independent firms, including its own & tried offer a simplified view of India’s road-map for the E-marketing hoard. While it is a simple & obvious fact that India has witnessed phenomenal growth in the digital sphere, the reasons have been analyzed by many. The firm has revealed some interesting & reassuring facts about marketing through the world of Internet. Retail & Distribution continues to take the top spot in functions that need to be handed to the information super-highway, followed by Entertainment, Consulting & Education. SMS has freshly emerged from its untimely death , but fearing TRAI , it continues to meekly or  crookedly follow Social Media interaction which has proven a rage. The report also suggest heightened awareness among top Execs about the dos & don’t in this game. What with Indian Businesses demanding stronger anti-Spam laws like CAN-SPAM to curtail the growing threats while surfing online, the conjuncture at this point of time is to offer quality material in the mail that will have the positive conversion effect from a mere email reader to a dedicated buyer. New-age marketers have realized that Internet offers the engaging opportunities for the young India that prefers Internet over traditional means of marketing channels. Meanwhile the new challenges that face the IT firms include landing the ad campaigns in the inbox instead of ending up as Spam , Building  reliable subscriber list & of course offering more Return on Investment (ROI) to the companies who have laid their trust in these new warriors of the Digital World. The report which covers myriad spheres of businesses ranging from Hospitality to Travel & Real Estate to Telecommunication seems to suggest only one thing. The (Internet) word is surely mightier than the Sword. What do you think? Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts Availability Of Low Cost High Speed Internet: Theme Of IAMAI Digital Summit How India Searched In 2011! India Will Have A Larger Base Of Internet Users Compared To USA India On Right Track Of Online Advertising Says Research & Markets Report BroadVision Plans To Ramp Up Its India Operations

Tagged as: india, internet, octane, reports, research & market, spam, web

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Vodafone Wants to Triple Data Services Revenue

by Paul Joseph January 10, 2012 Featured

Vodafone Group Plc hopes to triple the revenue share of its data services in its India operations over the next two years. Vodafone hopes to achieve this growth riding on increase in the use of smart-phones for accessing Internet as well as downloading music. Currently data services contribute 3% to Vodafone’s topline. This will go up to 10% in two years’ time, hopes Samaresh Parida, Mumbai-based director of strategy at Vodafone India Ltd. Banking and applications to increase farmers’ productivity are two other things which will contribute to this growth. “Right now the growth of data is pretty phenomenal, but it’s from a very small base so we’ll be pushing the throttle on growing the business in data as fast as possible,” Parida said. Telecom operators are facing a stiff challenge as Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) is on the decline. Though there is a record growth in subcriber numbers, it has not resulted in revenue growth. Voice accounts for a majority of telecom operators’ topline. But, India has one of the lowest call rates in the world. Hence, they are now looking at data services to improve their fortunes. Internet services have seen a considerable improvement in the last few years. Telcos have also cut the rates to make these services affordable. Other factors which have contributed to increase the use of mobile web is better handsets, rage of facebook, growing aspirations of people and increasing user base of rural population for whom mobile is mostly the only option to access Internet. But, this growth is mainly seen in 2G services. Auction for 3G spectrum was held a year ago. 3G was supposed to change the scenario of data services in India and hence telecom operators shelled a fortune to acquire this spectrum. But, it has been mostly a failure in India with minuscule subscriber numbers. There is a huge potential for data services to grow in India. Though the subscriber numbers have crossed the threshold of 850 million users, there are just around 35-40 million mobile Internet users. Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts Private Players Airtel & Vodafone Accused By The CBI In 2G Scam India Is Turning Out To Be An Expensive Affair For Vodafone; £2Bn Investment Still Not Paying Off To 3G Or Not 3G? Qualcomm Plans To Offer 3G USB Ports For Rs.3500 Bharti Airtel To Renew Network Maintenance Contract With NSN

Tagged as: data services, internet, mobile, mobile web, news, vodafone, web

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Availability Of Low Cost High Speed Internet: Theme Of IAMAI Digital Summit

by Paul Joseph January 5, 2012 Featured

Internet and Mobile Association of India [IAMAI] which is instrumental in offering insights about Indian’s  obsession  with Mobile &  Internet has just revealed the theme for their upcoming  India Digital Summit. Familiarity is more important, penetration will be a logical outcome feels Dr. Parthasarathi Shome – Director & CEO, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), “ Broadband aided education must be introduced as an integral part of course curriculum. ” India can easily have broadband in  40% or 100 Million households  provided the services are cheap. Presently, a decent speed broadband connection costs upwards of INR 1000 per month. If that is brought down to INR 200, India’s dream of making 300 Million households broadband equipped will become a reality sooner than later. The theme of this year’s summit is  “Preparing for 300 million users” . The summit is a two day event held annually. This year it will be held at The India Habitat Centre, New Delhi on 18-19 January. It seems to us, these days collide with the IAMAI’s  Indian Digital Awards  2012 about which we  reported recently . While India is surely a  hotbed  for companies to advertise , what about the users who do not have a decent Internet connection, despite  Govt’s carrot ? Many Indians still live without the  access to a proper GSM connection . Let alone a computer or a Internet connected device. This phenomenon is acute once we enter the Tier II & III towns. However, the situation is  improving there .  Villages  still do not have regular supply of electricity, so talking about broadband is futile, but IAMAI is  optimistic . Let’s hope the summit throws up new ideas that will propel India’s IT growth in this new decade. Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts I-Cube Report 2007: Cyber Cafes Remain Favorites! How India Searched In 2011! India Will Have A Larger Base Of Internet Users Compared To USA BroadVision Plans To Ramp Up Its India Operations Are Indian Youth Behind Their World Counterparts In Mobile Internet Use?

Tagged as: iamai, india, internet, news, parthasarathi shome, web

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Females Spend More Time On Social Networking Sites Reveals Report

by Paul Joseph January 5, 2012 Featured

Paying close attention to gender behavior comScore has  revealed  in a report that females ranging from the age of 15 and above spend more amount of time on social networking sites. Though the relative importance of social networking varied across regions, women were found to be consistently more social on the Web than their regional male counterparts. The variation could be attributed to overall cultural differences, but the fact remained consistent. Social Networking’s reach among women was highest in Latin America, where it reached 94% of females online. The case wasn’t that dissimilar in North America & Europe saw their female populations visit a social networking site & stay active for approx. 2 hours. Meanwhile in Asia Pacific, where many regions still face  low broadband penetration  and  site restrictions , the number of women active was a surprising 55%. On reading this, many of our users must have checked their friend list, like I did.  Honestly speaking, I had more men listed as friends than women. But, the keyword here is “Active”.  ComScore  reports, women are spending more than 30% more time than men interacting through the Social channels. We had earlier reported this to be true even in case of professional interaction where women were  fast catching on . However, we further analyzed the results & came up with some interesting facts: Women maybe more active on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, but were nowhere to be seen anywhere near the men in case of News Sites like Digg, Reddit and Slashdot. Interestingly, a report from  The Royal Pingdom  survey, offered statistics that revealed that though 84% of the Social networking sites reported Women were more active, the News Sites exactly reversed that number! Looks like our   predictions   are   coming true . What do you think?   Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts Will Women Drive The Future Of The Internet? Funding Update: MIH, investment arm of Naspers, has invested $10 million in BuzzCity Shops Now Open At A Mobile Screen Near You: Exciting Enough To Purchase More? Special Feature: What is SOPA? And Why Are So Many Internet Companies Against It? How India Searched In 2011!

Tagged as: gender, internet, men, news, social networking sites, web, women

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Digital Music Will Be Big In India This Year

by Paul Joseph January 3, 2012 Featured

Every year we have one hit song that takes the nation by storm and last year was no different. We had that hit song but something was different. The song went viral through online channels with zero marketing on the artist’s part. Yes, we are talking about ‘Kolaveri Di’. The video was seeded on Youtube and many other popular social networking channels and it went viral like nobody’s business. Such was its reach that I heard it being played by a rickshaw driver who probably didn’t even have access to the Internet. This is how the Internet and Digital music are growing in India. Kolaveri Di now has around 30,594,976 views on Youtube as of now. It is the most popular song on Airtel’s 2011 top seller charts and was downloaded 210,000 times within 18 days of its launch. In addition, in a survey of 170 million Airtel customers, it was seen that they had completed around 150 million downloads. Not bad at all. This is only Airtel we are talking about. Imagine how many people download songs from their carriers . Once again this is still a small spectrum when compared to people downloading songs on the Internet.Music which is sold on physical formats like CDs are facing steady decline. The whole revenue model of the Indian Music industry is currently undergoing a huge paradigm shift tending towards Digital distribution of content. The music industry is projected to grow to Rs. 18 billion by 2015 and Digital music will be the driving force behind this growth. There are already many players in the Digital Music space in India. Services like Dhingana , iMusti , Saavn and Hungama are already very popular among the Indian audiences. Slowly these services are using Social media to leverage it to gain a viral aspect. Snehal Shinde, CEO of Dhingana.com says,  ”If you use Dhingana, then with one click you can start listening to music your friends have been listening to, create a music playlist, share it with an online community and get their feedback. Overall, a very engaging social experience topped with a personalised music recommendation service.” Hungama has also launched an application called MyPlay which integrates into Facebook and streams content to the masses. Siddharta Ray, COO of Hungama says,  ” This social music app has allowed us to funnel a lot of young music lovers to our site, which in turn helps us in creating paid users from the free consumers ,” Mobile users are known to spend much more times on these services. If it is an application which streams music in the background, then a user can be made to stay much longer. This is possible only on the advanced Android and iOS platforms. Smart phone sales are growing well and soon everyone will have music within our reach wherever we go. Music that can be streamed to us via our 3G connections. Gone are the days when people used to download songs and organize them in a folder and play list. We do not have that much time. A service which automates this for us is always welcome. What about you? Given a good 3G connection would you stream or download music? Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts 9XM Will Offer Bollywood Tracks Through Hungama: Will You Pay For Music Though? Share Music With Tunebirds On Twitter Delhi Belly Makes A Splash On Youtube Via Karaoke Jukebox Flipkart Raises $20 Million From Tiger Global Hungama Wants You Hooked To Huuked – Brings Finnish App To India

Tagged as: brings-finnish, dhingana, digital music, hungama, india, indian-music, internet, karaoke, music, tiger-global

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Shops Now Open At A Mobile Screen Near You: Exciting Enough To Purchase More?

by Paul Joseph December 29, 2011 Featured

Reasoning Global eApplications will soon launch location-aware mobile applications to offer a convenient shopping experience. This Hyderabad based multi-channel solutions provider for the retailing industry, will roll out application version of its MartJack Exchange engine for the BlackBerry, iPhone and Android-based platforms by the end of this financial year. These applications will have GPS synchronization & will offer search and navigation capabilities after judging the needs of the shoppers. The apps will further allow to make an instant purchase too. We recently witnessed a similar app for realty. How does it work? Mobile Shopping by Reasoning relies on their proprietary platform MartJack Exchange. According to the company, the exchange is an ‘ e-commerce platform that enables a single-click creation of a digital commerce channel with automatic communication between consumers, publishers, retailers, logistic partners and customer service teams ’. It is built on the .NET technology & is neatly integrated with Cloud services . On the consumer-side, the shopping app will have two avatars. Apps that will reside on the platforms mentioned earlier, while there’s even a generic web-based app built on HTML5 technology that can easily accessed from any internet-connected device. Thus both ends of the app will interface through MartJack says, Jeetendra Joshi, vice-president (marketing), Reasoning Global eApplication, “ While the retailer will be using the same MartJack system, the end consumer will be accessing the online store from his mobile phone by downloading the app from the retailers’ app stores ” MartJack is apparently an established platform being utilized by over 700 retailers like Videocon, Gitanjali, Next & that too across various categories like fashion, electronics, mobile phones, jewelry etc. Hence further adoption should be easy feels Jeetendra. He further revealed company also has plans to integrate Social Networking driven e-commerce within the MartJack platform soon. “ Our idea is to take online purchasing to the next level, offering a ‘search-plus-purchase’ kind of experience to the end-customer ” says a confident Mr. Joshi as he already has close to 50 Million indirect customers & is aiming for 100 Million with the Mobile applications. While in some apps this is considered a threat , in others its an untapped opportunity. What do you think? Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts Mobile Internet, E-commerce To Lead The Race In The Country Says Google India Can SMS Ever Be Dead? Can You Survive Without Them? China & The Internet. India Has a Lot of Catching Up to Do! Do you know that e-commerce transactions in India are to reach $100 bn in 2008? Toll Free Number Launched to Combat Cyber Crime!

Tagged as: internet, jeetendra joshi, mobile, mobile-internet, news, web

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Special Feature: What is SOPA? And Why Are So Many Internet Companies Against It?

by Paul Joseph December 26, 2011 Featured

In the past few days we have all heard and read about SOPA. We have read how some big-name tech companies are either for SOPA or against it. So, let us first break it down and explain in layman terms what SOPA exactly is. SOPA = Stop Online Piracy Act This is the official name but has also been referred as the PROTECT IP ACT . The US House of Representatives will be debating on SOPA next month and if the bill gets passed it will basically mean that ISP’s will have the right to block any domain/s if the content hosted under that domain violates copyright. Let me explain it in a little more details. Site A has infringed a copyright law. Going by what SOPA proposes, “services connected or tangential” to Site A will be the ones to face the music first and not Site A. So any advertiser or payment processor (like a PayPal ) will have to remove Site A from its services within five days or be considered to be violating the law. This is not all. A search engine (like Google ), which has indexed Site A, will have to remove it from its listings and the DNS registry, which directs queries regarding Site A to the correct IP, will have to remove the same from its registry. Both the search engine and the DNS registry have to do so within five days or they shall be considered to be violating the law. SOPA fails to comprehend the basic difference between physical theft and ‘content theft’. Content theft is making a copy and the original is still intact. It is still a serious offense and requires adequate measures to tackle it, but blocking off domains is not one of them. Creating a ‘blacklist’ for domains is unacceptable in free society. Plus, we need to keep in mind the internationally accepted internet infrastructure standards worldwide. Tweaking a small cog in this wheel can eventually lead to the breakdown of the system. Censorship is not the remedy for content theft. It is not the remedy for anything. Just because dirt has been brushed under the carpet does not mean that the dirt does not exist. The most disconcerting fact is that if SOPA is made a law it will mean (if not exactly that) that UScopyright law can be imposed anywhere in the world. Any site, even if it is not registered or hosted in US or even if the content (in question) is not stored in the US, can be blocked. SOPA also puts service providers (like a Google or PayPal) on the same level as Site A, which is absurd to say the least. A few days back 120 internet/tech companies supported SOPA and there is a list of illustrious counterparts who are opposed to it . In India we have already seen similar intentions on part of the government. Minister of IT & Communications, Mr. Kapil Sibal, recently called for censorship of social media sites. The reasons varied from hurting religious sentiments to preventing riots??!! Censorship has been a problem in India for quite sometime now (this is the first time it is entering the internet domain), with regards to the film censor board or the banning of books and art works of eminent artists. India is fast becoming a major market for a number of internet companies. Be it Facebook or Google they all understand the potential of the Indian market and in such a situation they will be ready to comply with censorship rules set by the Indian government. If SOPA does become a law it will provide someone like Kapil Sibal with more ammunition to ask for social media censorship. No doubt that copyright infringement and inflammatory content on social media are serious issues, but blocking or censoring is not the solution. You block one domain, a hundred other can spurt. You censor Facebook and Twitter , people move on to Tumblr. Till date no serious crimes have occurred due to social media. On the other hand the power of social media was on display during Arab Spring earlier this year. Draconian laws like SOPA or censoring social media sites, as Kapil Sibal has proposed, will only provide certain authorities the power to control the flow of information. This is not acceptable in free society. A complex situation can often requires a simple solution, but not necessarily a simplistic solution. SOPA is a simplistic solution. Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts GoDaddy.com Faces Huge Protests For Its SOPA Support. Drops Support For SOPA How India Searched In 2011! SOPA – The Act That May Ruin Internet Forever Exclusive Feature: Interview With Mr. Jai Maroo, Director of Shemaroo Entertainment Ltd SafetyPay To Ease The Woe Of Facebook Credits

Tagged as: Featured, international, internet, news, rules of sopa, sopa

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How India Searched In 2011!

by Paul Joseph December 21, 2011 Featured

The year is drawing to an end. It sure has been an eventful one with all the revolutions, the natural calamities, political situations, the advancement of technology , deaths of many prominent people and many other things. Google has recently compiled all the data and presented it in a clean manner at Google Zeitgeist. This site is made in HTML5 and shows us the potential of this HTML standard. Oh yeah, and they have made a pretty nice video about the year 2011. Focusing specially on India, we find that the top 10 trending searches were: Facebook Youtube Gmail Yahoomail Google Yahoo Irctc Rediffmail Indian Railways Way2sms As you can see that the top ten searches this year in India were for other social websites like Facebook, Youtube etc. People use Google to search for Google. Quite a recursion! The top 6 searches were for other websites. The fastest rising people on the web were Anna Hazare, Steve Jobs and others. In News, IPL topped other topics like World Cup 2011, Diwali and Lokpal. Airtel has also released its year end review titled ‘ Mobitude 2011 ’ which shows how almost 170 million subscribers did with their mobile Internet. The results are tabulated below. 150 Million music tracks downloaded. 19 Million movie wallpapers downloaded. Google, Gmail and Facebook were the most visited mobile websites Popular social networks in order of use were Facebook, Orkut and Twitter. So, Twitter lags behind Orkut! Facebook maintained the lead for the most visited Social Network. This shows the paradigm shift that is happening in terms of accessing social networks. People are increasingly using their phones to access these sites and hence Facebook and other services are focusing more on mobile apps. Head on over to Google Zeitgeist and you can scrutinize all this in detail. Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts Yahoo! India’s Year In Review – Search Trends For 2010 Bing to replace Google on the iPhone? Facebook Overtakes Orkut in India! Google Caffeine – Google Search Improved How Google Always Gets it Right

Tagged as: events, india, internet, search, social-media, technology, videos, web, zeitgeist

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