social

Now You Can Play Bollywood Games: New Form Of Entertainment Or Marketing Gimmick?

by Paul Joseph December 22, 2011 Featured

Bollywood too seems to be bitten by the Gaming bug with Ra.One & now Don2 to have its own movie inspired game releasing before the movie. Shahrukh Khan’s latest movie Don2 will follow the game’s release of the same name. The game is being released on multiple platforms just like its earlier brethren, Ra.One. The games will work on PS2 & PC. Releasing Game versions or even comics of movies is not new, Dhoom2 , Ghajni , Drona, SRK’s Don etc have proved to be equal or greater success than some of the movies they were based on! One might not recall, but even Malika Arora [ Agni ]! & Priyanka Chopra [ Love Story 2050 ] starred in one! Why does one decide to go to such an extent to release a game before the movie? Lets explore some theories. 1. Hooked-on: We all agree Gaming is addictive , just like Social Networking! So why not serve the audience something that they stay engaged for , a much longer period of time than, say, for 3 hours (average movie duration)? Kids & adults alike may not recall a movie’s name after about a month from its release, but, if the game is good, it will not only be played for a longer duration, it will be talked about much more. Isn’t it good publicity of the movie through the game? It’s what marketing people term as “Top of the Mind Recall”. 2. Generate Buzz A good interactive game helps generate anticipation about the movie. People get engrossed & discuss it on Twitter, FaceBook etc. This sometimes becomes viral. A cleverly supported incentives campaign may even boost visitor participation! Top a level, get 10% off on your movie ticket etc. So, is there profit to be made? Earlier, it was just generation of hype for the movie, but now-a-days even the plots are woven around the games. Remember Lara Croft! In case of Max Payne & the Hitman movies, have been purely game-inspired or even borne due to the games. In case of Bollywood, cleverly placed Brand advertisements within the game help bring down the development costs & revenue sharing can actually make the efforts to design & launch a game a very profitable venture. Some insiders reveal, game publishers can monetize anywhere between Rs 10 lakh to Rs 40 lakh in a year!  Have you played such themed games? Share you experience with us. Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts Indians Hooked To Social Gaming Reveals MOL SafetyPay To Ease The Woe Of Facebook Credits Social Gaming: Is it the Future of Gaming? Disney Movies Re- Released On YouTube: Spreading The Holiday Cheer? Flipkart Acquires Bollywood Content From Chakpak.com: Pursuits Of A Different Kind?

Tagged as: bollywood, features, Gaming, news, shahrukh khan, social, web

0 comments Read the full article →

Indians Hooked To Social Gaming Reveals MOL

by Paul Joseph November 25, 2011 Featured

The preferred payment service provider for online games, virtual worlds and social networks, MOL AccessPortal Pvt. Ltd. (MOL India) has revealed an increasing quantum of Indian users getting hooked onto the Social Gaming phenomenon. Social gaming, a concept that promotes social networking via online games has steadily been increasing worldwide & as a “community” comprises over 500 Million people worldwide. A surprising revelation by Ashish Khoria, Country Manager of MOL India is that, “ 10 million or over 50% of India’s Facebook users play social games “. So what makes social gaming so engaging to the audience? It is the inclusion of local nuances or issues into the gaming environment that makes the games relevant & relatable. The realism in the games, represent the users’ daily endeavors. These games not only help to bring the communities closer, the real-time rewards further entice users’ participation, said a statement from the company. CEO of MOL Ganesh Kumar Bangah feels that user participations and revenue growth estimations are huge and this offers a great opportunity for marketers to promote their brands through social games. “ The user growth we are witnessing continues to increase beyond expectations. This is really a good time for companies to explore social gaming initiatives in India ” he says. MOL AccessPortal, a part of MOL Global Group handles over 60 million transactions annually & works through a network of more than 6,00,000 offline and online payment collection points spread across 80 countries . This company basically handles the micro-transactions that a user carries out when he buys something in the virtual world of gaming, commonly known as in-game purchases. A model of sustainable revenue generation being readily accepted by developers. While PayPal is busy coaxing customers to send money , Indians are playing games to earn virtual points & spend hard-earned money! Is Facebook listening? Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency

Tagged as: features, Gaming, ganesh kumar bangah, international, mol accessportal, news, revenue, social, web

0 comments Read the full article →

SafetyPay To Ease The Woe Of Facebook Credits

by Paul Joseph November 24, 2011 Featured

Another online payment service provider has been roped in by Facebook to address in payment woes it faced recently. Facebook had been facing a lot of problems with it credits lately. Applications were transferring credits between each other without prior authorization. A problem commonly known as Pay-Flow , is expected to be addressed  by SafetyPay , a secure payment provider serving online shoppers, merchants and banks worldwide. SafetyPay will be a payment option for Facebook Credits in Mexico , Costa Rica , & others starting on December 9th, 2011. The methods are: ELV (Germany) MyCard Mobile (HongKong, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan) Visa Electron (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Finland, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand) WebBilling Online Bank Transfer (Austria, Germany, Spain, Switzerland) The entire list is HERE . Technically, the new methods adopted, will disallow applications to facilitate illegal gambling and prevent game developers from using one type of premium currency across more than one game running on different app IDs. But, we feel, if asked nicely, Facebook might just allow it. Facebook Credits is a virtual currency, which recently made its entry in India. Facebook gives its users in lieu of your real money can be used to purchase valuable elements in virtual games , downloads, movies, music or anything non-tangible. FaceBook credits offers players seamless experience where they can instantly buy something (sword, shield, extra life) in a game & continue playing undisturbed by banking transactions. By clicking the Payments Tab within users’ Facebook account settings, Facebook Credits can be purchased easily and safely with SafetyPay. FaceBook is just a beginning says Manuel Montero, CEO of SafetyPay, “ Along with Facebook, the largest and most influential social network on the Internet, we will provide a secure payment experience for the social online gaming world ”. With so many payment options no wonder employees are “ Busy ”. Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency

Tagged as: credits, facebook, Gaming, international, internet, manuel montero, networking, safetypay, social, web

0 comments Read the full article →

Facebook, Twitter Overshadow Blogs: But Can Blogs Be Replaced Altogether?

by Paul Joseph November 17, 2011 Featured

Trends in the online world have a tendency to radically change over time. What was once thought to be a much needed form of expressing yourself online, has been replaced by an even more innate desire to connect with people but through liking something or tweeting about it. Indeed, blogging is now passé as Twitter and Facebook have taken over, suggesting a humongous shift in online communication. Blog searches around the world have halved, while Twitter & Facebook have grown tremendously.  According to statistics , the number of blogs on the internet rose 21% from 126 million in 2009 to 152 million in 2010 . At the same time, the number of tweets went up by 160% . Facebook showed a 74% rise in users. In addition, Google insights, which tracks search terms, shows a 50% decline for blogs in 2010.   Blogging gained popularity in the early 2000s when people put forth their thoughts and other useful content on the web for everyone to read and share. A blog post is often long and takes time to write, edit and format. Bunching of ideas into coherent paragraphs is required for blogging. This is radically different from the kind of interaction seen on Twitter and Facebook these days. Twitter restricts a message to 140 characters , forcing users to dramatically change the way they converse. Sharing content on Facebook is just a click away .  One of the main reasons for this shift is due to the engagement promised by Twitter and Facebook. Earlier, people might have read your blogs, but they were averse to commenting on it or liking it. But nowadays, content shared on both the platforms are liked, commented, re-shared and re-tweeted in minutes. There is a radical shift from blogging to micro-blogging. Even companies are investing more in social media than in maintaining blogs.  The nature of blogging has evolved though. It has become more network driven as blog links are shared on Twitter, Facebook and Google +, in contrast to traditional independent blogs on independent domains. The prominent blogs nowadays are the ones by news agencies and companies, while personal blogging has taken a dip.  The trend can also be attributed to the ease of use of social networks. Social networking through mobiles has catapulted the number of users and the content being shared. Online ad campaigns now focus entirely on social media and have forced bloggers to switch to the micro format. Facebook’s revenues have overshadowed Google’s AdSense, according to some people. Even for people who blog frequently, their presence on Twitter is a must for the popularity of their blogs. That said, blogs cannot be completely replaced as the amount of useful and coherent content cannot be found elsewhere. Long rants, useful tips, reviews, criticizing people, open letters, etc. cannot be replaced by tweets. So what do you think of the future of blogging compared to Twitter & Facebook? Do let us know. Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency

Tagged as: facebook, international, mobile, news, social, twitter, web

0 comments Read the full article →

Facebook Responds To New Allegations Of Privacy Violation. Did They Do It?

by Paul Joseph September 27, 2011 Featured

Facebook has always taken flak for their implementation of privacy as a concept. Earlier, there were issues with the privacy settings of a person’s profile and the social network had received sharp criticism after which it got its act together . Allegations have surfaced again of wrongful privacy violations on Facebook’s part. Security consultant and hacker Nic Cubrilovic ran tests on the behavior of Facebook’s cookies. Cookies are small files that can acquire information about a user as they browse the Internet. Information from cookies can be transmitted to remote servers for research and analysis. He found out that Facebook only alters its tracking cookies rather than deleting them . These altered cookies contain account information and some unique identifiers. This means that the social network can track a person’s visits to any web-page that has a Facebook ‘Like’ button or a widget. If true, then this means that it is serious violation of a person’s privacy rights. Hence, when Nic Cubrilovic posted this on his blog , the news went viral and Facebook was forced to issue this statement: “Facebook does not track users across the web. Instead, we use cookies on social plugins to personalize content (e.g. Show you what your friends liked), to help maintain and improve what we do (e.g. Measure click-through rate), or for safety and security (e.g. Keeping underage kids from trying to signup with a different age).  No information we receive when you see a social plugins is used to target ads, we delete or anonymize this information within 90 days, and we never sell your information”. Specific to logged out cookies which are used for safety and protection, including identifying spammers, detecting when somebody unauthorized is trying to access your account, helping you get back into your account if you get hacked, disabling registration for a under-age users who try to re-register with a different birth-date, powering account security features such as 2nd factor login approvals and notification, and identifying shared computers to discourage the use of  ‘ keep me logged in’ .  After this announcement Facebook immediately fixed the privacy bug within 24 hours. Facebook will still have cookies but they won’t be collect identifiable account information anymore. Facebook announced a series of changes last week during the f8 developer conference. Their new  OpenGraph feature certainly looks interesting but it is vulnerable to privacy violation. Smart Lists, a new feature based on a single identifying detail (like location, school, employer) that are automatically collected by Facebook puts up a lot of information online for anyone to see. Same is the case with Timeline. It gives a detailed story of your past and current life to just about anyone. These are major concerns in the world today as spam and dubious activities like scams and phishing are threatening us at every point. Facebook should do something about this gaping privacy holes in its architecture or people will move to other social networks which have a firm hold on privacy as a concept. Trust us, the Timeline is one of the best features we have seen on any social network so far. Proper curation and management of the timeline can one day yield something akin to a visual autobiography of a person’s life but without proper privacy fixes and implementations it may end up being a liability.

Tagged as: author, cookies, cricket, Indian, news, social, technology, yahoo

0 comments Read the full article →

MTV Canvasses Habit Of Digital Socialites

by Paul Joseph July 29, 2011 Featured

Recently, MTV- a pioneer of Music Television in India carried out a survey to analyse the social media behavior of teenagers aka Digital Socialites . The survey reveals some interesting facts about the usage of social network by youths. According to the survey, most of the youngsters love social networking sites because the platform offers  them visibility, freedom of expression without any suppression. Social media platform offers opportunity,  anonymity and hangout which makes it illustrious worldwide. The survey also displays that one of the frequent activity carried on by youngsters is Hanging out followed by email, videos and surfing the internet. The Insights of the survey shows that for 80% of Digital Socialites prefer to stay in touch with old friends whereas only 33% of them are keen in making new ones on the platform. Whereas only 23% use social network platform for professional reason. You can check out the details on www.mtvplay.in The Music Television also wanted to know which platform does the youth prefer to check out latest news? Traditional or technological? 93% believed social media makes them more aware of the current news in and around the world whereas, 89% turn to social media for news and trends. To collect more information on the social media behaviour of the Digital Socialites pages & apps are created. For example: a new handle called “Digitalsocialites” created on Twitter, Facebook Page called “Young Socialite” , Chat room discussions like “Chatzy” and a foursquare application which was installed in the respondents mobile device. With more than 2 million Facebook fans and 250,000 Twitter followers, MTV have sampled ways to merge with the online world for example it promoted the jam session of Coke Studio in India, launching online reality show, etc. With such popularity & utilization of technology and web, Digital Socialites is by far one of the worthy names given to this  generation. 

Tagged as: digital, digital-socialites, facebook-page, india, internet, mobile, online, platform, social, web, youth

0 comments Read the full article →

MTV Canvasses Habit Of Digital Socialites

by Paul Joseph July 29, 2011 Featured

Recently, MTV- a pioneer of Music Television in India carried out a survey to analyse the social media behavior of teenagers aka Digital Socialites . The survey reveals some interesting facts about the usage of social network by youths. According to the survey, most of the youngsters love social networking sites because the platform offers  them visibility, freedom of expression without any suppression. Social media platform offers opportunity,  anonymity and hangout which makes it illustrious worldwide. The survey also displays that one of the frequent activity carried on by youngsters is Hanging out followed by email, videos and surfing the internet. The Insights of the survey shows that for 80% of Digital Socialites prefer to stay in touch with old friends whereas only 33% of them are keen in making new ones on the platform. Whereas only 23% use social network platform for professional reason. You can check out the details on www.mtvplay.in The Music Television also wanted to know which platform does the youth prefer to check out latest news? Traditional or technological? 93% believed social media makes them more aware of the current news in and around the world whereas, 89% turn to social media for news and trends. To collect more information on the social media behaviour of the Digital Socialites pages & apps are created. For example: a new handle called “Digitalsocialites” created on Twitter, Facebook Page called “Young Socialite” , Chat room discussions like “Chatzy” and a foursquare application which was installed in the respondents mobile device. With more than 2 million Facebook fans and 250,000 Twitter followers, MTV have sampled ways to merge with the online world for example it promoted the jam session of Coke Studio in India, launching online reality show, etc. With such popularity & utilization of technology and web, Digital Socialites is by far one of the worthy names given to this  generation. 

Tagged as: digital-socialites, facebook-page, internet, music, online, platform, social, social media behaviour, survey, teenager, youth

0 comments Read the full article →

Vodafone Launches Facebook ‘Smartphone’ Two Years Too Late

by Paul Joseph July 29, 2011 Featured

Vodafone UK has launched the Vodafone 555 Blue, touted as the Facebook Smartphone for the masses. Manufactured by Alcatel Lucent and aimed at the masses, Vodafone UK is hoping to tap into budget prepaid users in UK and get them to use data. However, we cannot help but laugh at their offering. It has been termed a ‘smartphone’ , but does not run any smartphone OS. The supposed Facebook phone has some terribly poor specs  for a mid 2011 phone, which are: A measly 2 inch screen in a world where even the cheapest Android devices have 2.8 – 3.2 inch screens. Poor Display Resolution of 320

Tagged as: application, customer, even-the-first, facebook phone, internet, masses, mobile, phone, runs-on-every, social, social-network, vodafone, vodafone facebook phone.

0 comments Read the full article →

Vodafone Launches Facebook ‘Smartphone’ Two Years Too Late

by Paul Joseph July 29, 2011 Featured

Vodafone UK has launched the Vodafone 555 Blue, touted as the Facebook Smartphone for the masses. Manufactured by Alcatel Lucent and aimed at the masses, Vodafone UK is hoping to tap into budget prepaid users in UK and get them to use data. However, we cannot help but laugh at their offering. It has been termed a ‘smartphone’ , but does not run any smartphone OS. The supposed Facebook phone has some terribly poor specs  for a mid 2011 phone, which are: A measly 2 inch screen in a world where even the cheapest Android devices have 2.8 – 3.2 inch screens. Poor Display Resolution of 320

Tagged as: application, customer, even-the-first, facebook, facebook phone, india, internet, mobile, social, social-network, vodafone, vodafone facebook phone.

0 comments Read the full article →

Samsung Launches The Its New Galaxy Tablet – A Challenge For Apple iPad

by Paul Joseph July 22, 2011 Featured

Last year, we blogged about Samsung GalaxyTab coming to India.  Now, another new version of thinner and lighter Galaxy tablet was launched by Samsung Electronic Co trying to hit the much hyped sales of Apple ‘s iPad. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 inch has been upgraded from the 7-inch version. It has been carefully priced at $500 in the US and is throwing greater challenges to all such similar tabs with Google Android OS . Today Samsung as well as Galaxy tabs are attracting the fancies of businesses from airlines to wedding planners. The tab market has crossed the portal of only being deemed as an entertainment gadget. Other players in this arena are Research In Motion’s Playbook and Motorola’s Xoom who have received accolades galore. Hewlett Packard’s TouchPad and Amazon.com Inc have also decided to join this bandwagon of gizmo revolution. Apple has been reported with a total selling quotient of 14 million iPads in the year’s first half and Galaxy tab stands with a statistics of 7.5 million over 2011 as put by the analysts. In the stock market scenario, Samsung hares closed at 3.5 percent enhancing Asian market capitalization and standing out as the most valuable company in the continent. Recently , Apple’s new S1 and S2 was introduced in India. Though Samsung is below Apple but it is ushering with hits cutting edge launches and is the closest rival in the picture. Samsung is slowly reducing the gap in the smartphone market with its access to chips and other tablet components. Others like HP , Microsoft , Acer , Amazon have also joined the tablet unit recently. Today Samsung is much beyond a hardware firm and has become abreast of the trends in technology fanfare as we see that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is bigger , brighter as compared to iPad2. One can have an access to more than 200,000 applications on the go. Another marketing strategy in this regard by Samsung was allowing the Korean version of the device an access to television as well as radio media. Samsung makes an anticipation with the hope of increasing the sales by five times this year. It is a tough race for Samsung to survive and prove its wit! What’s your take on this? Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Most Commented Posts Paypal India Block Leaves IT Guys High & Dry – Need For An Indian Paypal? Wish Us Happy Birthday And WIN Free Customized TShirts from Myntra.com – Domain & Hosting from LimeDomains Be a BIG part of the next BIG thing! Join WAT! Now Women Meow On FM Radio! WATBlog Wins The Best Indian Blog Award 2009! Thanks To Our Readers, Bloggers & Staff!

Tagged as: apple, happy-birthday, marketing, media, mobile, picture, research, samsung, social, trends

0 comments Read the full article →