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eBay Releases The Findings Of Census 2011

by Paul Joseph September 29, 2011 Featured

One of the biggest revelation of the census this year unveiled the eBay Census Guide 2011 at Mumbai has regained its position as India’s second largest eCommerce hub. Mr. Kashyap Vadapalli, Director-Category Management, eBay India, unveiled the 4th edition of the annual eBay Census Guide which documents the key trends in online buying, importing, selling & exporting across Indians in the Top 20 eCommerce Hubs. eBay Census also revealed export trends to 189 countries as well as import trends from 120 countries. A very comprehensive search, the eBay Census 2011 shows that India’s Top 5 eCommerce Hubs are Delhi, closely followed by Mumbai, Bengaluru, Jaipur & Chennai. Some facts revealed by the census are – Online Shopping is mainstream & a nationwide phenomenon: India had over 3,311 eCommerce Hubs from all 28 States and 7 Union Territories. The Top 5 States with the most transactions were Maharashtra, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka & Andhra Pradesh. Consumers & Entrepreneurs from Rural India are increasingly plugged into eCommerce : Over 1,267 Rural Hubs are transacting online with 1 out of every 10 purchases from Rural India as well as 1 out of every 20 sales from Rural India. Metros (India) have a dominant share of purchases, with Tier 2 & 3 cities (Bharat) catching up fast: Metros (India) contributes 51% of all eCommerce Transactions while Tier 2&3 Cities (Bharat) contribute about 40% of transactions & Rural India contributing to 9% of transactions. Online Indians are brand savvy: eBay Census Top 5 Brand Rankings revealed Sony as the largest brand on eBay followed by Nokia, Samsung, Apple & Reebok. Women Shoppers are increasingly addicted to shopping online: Women shoppers are buying cosmetics, jewellery, watches, fashion & fitness equipment online. Over 45% of all purchases are in the Lifestyle category. Electronic gadgets continue to rule the online shopper’s wallet: Gadgets continue to be the most popular choice & contribute to 50% of all purchases. Indian Retail Exports accelerating rapidly & export to 189 countries worldwide: Indian entrepreneur export a variety of products to millions of eBayers in 189 countries around the globe. The Top 5 Countries Indians export to are United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada & Germany. eBay India have also introduced Group Buying space in India which was assumed one of the biggest news of this year. It also forayed into mCommerce , iPhone App for Indian consumers, and it also acquired one of the eCommerce giant called Magento. Just few months back, eBay took over Zong with USD of 240 Million connectiong with more than 250 mobile network operators worldwide eBay Census 2011 research findings were based on an analysis of all online buying and selling transactions by Indians on eBay between July 1, 2010 and June 30, 2011. eBay India analysed eBay transactions over a year within the individual Indian States & Union Territories as well as the key Indian cities to identify the top Buying and Selling Hubs based on the number of transactions that have happened on the eBay India site. In addition, retail export transactions & retail import transactions between global eBayers and Indian eBayers were analysed. Interesting fun facts, unique purchases, local, national and global trends all come to light in eBay India Census 2011. For your own free copy of the eBay Census Guide with more India facts, please log onto www.eBay.in/ census .

Tagged as: author, census, countries, ebay census guide 2011, ecommerc, lifestyle, united-states, web

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Twitter: The Web Equivalent Of Democracy, At Its Best

by Paul Joseph September 5, 2011 Featured

‘Anna Hazare’ was a trending topic on Twitter for more than a week during the anti- corruption movement recently staged in India. Social media has seeped into the various folds of the Indian society and so a medium like ‘Twitter’ has become an important tool for journalist’s , activists , social commentators and politicians ! Recent, surveys have revealed that there are more than 65 million active internet users in India and almost half of them are part of one or the other social network. The numbers are big enough to ensure that politicians can no longer ignore this medium and its benefits. For most politicians that is the very reason to be a little wary about the service. But steadily a group of tech-savvy politicians are utilizing this platform to connect with India’s online population. In United States many politicians were seen utilizing Twitter as a part of their campaign during the run-up to the 2012 Presidential elections. Indian politicians need to learn from them and treat Twitter as another medium of interacting with the populace. Omar Abdullah’s tweet on the Afzal Guru issue sparked a controversy, but it also led to an excellent debate on NDTV 24×7’s popular show ‘We The People’ on Sunday. India has one of the youngest populations in the world and with time a significant number of voters are going to be online . This further makes it imperative for politicians across party-lines to imbibe social media into strategy. It presents an excellent opportunity to reach out and have a direct interaction with the people whom they will be representing. A politician can find out what is happening in his/her constituency and can spell out corrective or reformative measures through social media. We have all witnessed the power of Twitter during the Jasmine Revolution that swept across the Middle-east and Northern Africa. In Tunisia and Egypt more information was coming out through the microblogging site than traditional media. Just as it can be used for good it can also be a tool for political propaganda as is being increasingly the case in the Arab world. But yet it is the perfect place for a debate, which is instantaneous and where everyone has equal opportunity to express their view. At the moment a miniscule percentage of Indian politicians are active on Twitter or for that matter Facebook. It is true that on an impulse they might say something stupid and their faux pas could ensure a few extra press meetings for their respective party spokespersons. But this is a price worth paying, keeping in mind the other more worthy benefits of a medium like Twitter. BY: Riddhi Mukherjee

Tagged as: at-its-best, author, events, india, news, politicians, technology, twitter, united-states, web

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Native Facebook App for Every Phone; Free Data Usage For 90 Days

by Paul Joseph July 15, 2011 Featured

Feature phone users can finally enjoy a native Facebook experience on their phones using Facebook’s  newly launched Java based app . Till now a native Facebook app was a privilege only smartphone users enjoyed, but with this app, users of more than 2,500 java based phones would be able to update their status without visiting Facebook’s mobile site . Facebook has done a commendable job of including features like News Feed , Inbox and uploading photos in the app. The app, as shows in the screenshot , resembles the native apps for Android and iOS. This is great because it bridges the divide between smartphone and feature phones, at least with respect to Facebook. To encourage the use of the app, Facebook has partnered with service providers in countries where feature phones are still used, to offer users free data access for 90 days . Even after the 90 day period, the app is designed to used minimum amount of data so as to make the Facebook experience affordable. In India, Facebook has partnered with Aircel , Airtel , Idea and Reliance . Facebook’s disappointing growth in the United States has compelled them to look at other countries to grow which is why it has tied up with service providers in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Russia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Turkey, Indonesia and Brazil. Facebook clearly sees potential for growth in these countries, in terms of users as well as activity. The app comes after Facebook’s acquisition of Snaptu , a company which specialized in developing applications for feature phones. This was definitely a talent acquisition since even now Snaptu’s applications for different social networks are available on their site. Install the app by visiting  d.facebook.com/install  on your mobile phone browser or download it from GetJar ,  Appia , and Mobile Weaver. What’s your take on the app? Will you use 0.facebook.com or the app after the 90 day period? Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts BSNL App Store Coming Soon? Discovery And Apalya Partner To Launch 5 Mobile TV Channels GSM Shows A Marginal Dip In August Subscriptions Facebook On Mobile Without GPRS Connection, Yes Really! Aircel To Roll Out 3G Services Before Cricket World Cup

Tagged as: apalya-partner, cricket, facebook, facebook app, feature phones, india, low end mobile phones, malaysia, reliance, services-before, social, united-states, web

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Tata DOCOMO Advertises On Twitter

by Paul Joseph July 5, 2011 Featured

Twitter recently announced having 200 million accounts worldwide . Plus it was also reported that more than 70% traffic on Twitter is collected from outside United States, the social networking site also announced that it was adding 5, 00, 000 users per day . Interface Business Solution have announced that Tata DOCOMO is planning to start advertising on Twitter as @tatadocomo . We have  reported earlier that Twitter was planning to setup a brand promotion page which were expected to bring long-term revenue source. According to one of the source, @tatadocomo garnered 5,000 followers on Twitter in last week whereas it took two years to gain 16, 000 followers . Looking at the rapid growth of the brand many advertisers are looking forward to brand themselves on Twitter’s advertising platform. Not many brand promotion are witnessed on Twitter to that of Facebook like MTV India , Tata DOCOMO , etc. but it is believed that the phenomena is going to change. Brands thinking of promoting themselves on Twitter’s platform should keep in mind to follow certain guidelines to avoid getting handcuffed . Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts Reliance Communication Introduces Music Mania And Full2Music On Mobile Phones Personal Social Networking Sites Help People Avoid Privacy Issues ‘Endless Music’ Service Presented By Tata DOCOMO Google+ A Challenge To Facebook Networking Vodafone Anger The Masses: Social Media Backfiring On Them?

Tagged as: brand promotion page, endless music, india, mobile-phones, mtv, music, people, people-avoid, privacy-issues, social, source, tata docomo, traffic, twitter, united-states

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Wikipedia Launches Campus Ambassadors Program In Pune

by Paul Joseph June 7, 2011 Featured

Pune is all set to become the first city outside the United States to host the Wikipedia Campus Ambassadors Program. This program intends to take the help of teachers and students of various universities in Pune and integrate wikipedia into the university’s curriculum. The program has been brought to India since there aren’t a lot of Indian contributors on Wikipedia. As a part of this program students would be given assignments which would be written on wikipedia instead of writing it in traditional reports. Wikipedia has already selected 22 campus ambassadors to assist them in raising awareness about wikipedia, and how it is an educational tool where students can contribute and not just copy information for their projects. Hisham Mundol, who leads India Programmes, said “The campus ambassadors are essentially volunteers who would work with teachers to incorporate Wikipedia and train students on how to write articles on Wikipedia. They would support both students as well as teachers, during the course of the semester. During the course of the initiative, we will provide teaching material and example lesson plans, expecting the professors to assign their students Wikipedia articles to write or improve, as part of the class” Pune was chosen as the city to kick off this campaign in India because it has a large number of Educational Institutions and a multi lingual population. Wikipedia essentially being a collaboration platform would help students learn a lot more than simply writing reports on their own. It would immediately make students’ work available to people all over the world. The program’s US launch was very successful claims Mr. Frank Schulenburg, the Head of Public Outreach at the Wikimedia Foundation. He added that the quality of classwork improved a lot after students started adopting wikipedia. Wikimedia isn’t the only organisation that has been highlighting the importance of the internet in education.  Khan Academy , MIT OCW and India’s own NPTEL have established online portals and made available high quality educational content to everyone. Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts Wikipedia To Remain Free, As Indian Cities Gear Up For Its 10th Anniversary! Wikipedia to Open India Chapter? Mozilla’s School Of Webcraft – Another Step Towards ‘Open Source Education’? Are wiki’s the future? Google Transit Arrives in Pune!

Tagged as: campus ambassador, google-transit, india-chapter, Indian, indian-cities, khan academy, news, program, social, transit, united-states, university, wikipedia, wikipedia india

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Indian Consumers Using Social Media For Customer Service

by Paul Joseph June 6, 2011 Featured

Ovum, a research firm, has reported of the widespread use of social media for customer services by consumers. According to the report, in India, 40 percent consumers are getting customer support facilities through social networking channels while in the US and UK, only 12 percent customers use social media for a similar cause. Although the above stats give the impression that the Indian consumer is using social media more efficiently, this is not the truth. The reason behind such findings is the fact that Indian consumers are way behind the consumers from western countries when it comes to consumer satisfaction. Be it a product or a service, in most cases, it’s not up to the standard and the odds fall finally on the consumer’s court. There is a consumer forum to launch complains. But, in reality, the forum is nothing more than a dummy and on top of that, has reduced into a paper tiger to those businesses, who deprive consumers from their legitimate rights. The web has replaced many conventional communication channels, but in India, it has failed to make available an alternative communication network for restoring consumer’s protection and right. Ian Jacobs of Ovum correctly said, “In India, consumers do not have access to as many web-based alternative communication channels to the telephone as their counterparts in the West.” Even then, Indian consumers seem to prefer the traditional way of contacting with the customer service executive, i.e. through phone. But, in an overly populated country like India, getting through to the customer support in the very first try is just a wishful thinking. That is why, as the survey summed up, people who are tech-savvy, view social media as a workable replacement to the phone. The end beneficiary out of this is none other than social media itself. In countries like United States and United Kingdom, companies employ a number of web-based mediums to provide customer service. That’s why, consumers there find social media just as one of many options for customer service. Due to which, social media never appears to them as the most viable alternative. What’s your take on this finding by Ovum? Do you use social media to access customer service? Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts Yahoo! Overhauls Its Email Service; Shifts Attention To Social Media Social Media India Statistics – 45 Million Indians On Social Media By 2012 Social Media Advertising Revenue To Reach $8.3 Bn In 2015: BIA/Kelsey Social Media Allowing Recruiters To Find Candidates For Jobs Facebook To Reach Half Of The U.S. Population In 2013: eMarketer

Tagged as: consumer, customer, customer service, customer support, Indian, indian social media, media, million-indians, phone, social, social-media, social-networking, united-kingdom, united-states, web

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15.5 Percent Phishing Emails Originates From India: IBM

by Paul Joseph May 31, 2011 Featured

IBM recently released the ‘ X-Force Trend and Risk Report ’ of 2010, which speaks of the threats that the IT world faced. Here IT world doesn’t necessarily mean privately held companies. According to the report, both public and private companies went through a time when online security threats were at high. The findings of the report were set up on the basis of insight that came from after a thorough research on public vulnerability disclosures , along with observing and analyzing over 150,000 security events in every second during each single day in 2010. The report highlights the fact that in India , phishing email origination was highest in 2010 at 15.5 percent . Russia was next in the line with 10.4 percent phishing email origination. The trend of sending spam emails has surged in India from the spring of 2009 and it continued till autumn in 2010. The report also lists other countries from where most spam emails are sent. These countries are, United States, Vietnam and Brazil. The joint percentage of spam emails, sent from these countries make one third of worldwide spam emails . The danger, which the report has surfaced, is that vulnerabilities are on the high. 8000 new vulnerabilities , implying 27 percent increase from 2009, has been documented in the report. The report also sheds light on how phishing techniques are evolving over time. 2010 saw a new phishing strategy called ‘spear phishing’ . This technique is way different than the common ones. If the conventional phishing techniques are mobs of the street, then ‘ spear phishing ’ carries the blood of Sicilian kingpins. Its task is to infiltrate the confidential data of targeted organizations. The technique helps the spoof emails to appear like they have been sent from authentic sources, causing maximum damage. With all these threats listed, it’s important for Indian cyber authorities to take proper actions so that the amount of cyber-attack originating from the country pacifies. The same is applicable to the other countries as well, who were identified as top spam email sending nations. Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts Facebook And Twitter Were The Most Unsafe Social Networking Sites In 2010 Google Announces Email Continuity Solution For Microsoft Exchange Servers India To Have Encrypted SIM Cards? Social Media Beats Email On Mobile Devices

Tagged as: cards, country, microsoft, mobile-devices, networking, report, reports, social, spear phishing, spring, united-states, unsafe-social, vietnam, web

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Google Summer Of Code – India Ranks 2nd Among Accepted Applications

by Paul Joseph May 23, 2011 Featured

Google summer of code , a Google initiative under which university students contribute (write code) to open source projects receives huge participation from all over the globe every year. In the 2011 edition of GSoC, Google received more than five and a half thousand applications out of which 1115 applications were accepted from 68 countries. India had 182 students whose applications were accepted under this program. The only country with higher number of successful applications was the United States with 191 students . GSoC is an annual program in which Google partners with organizations from the FOSS (free and open source software) community and offers projects to students. After reviewing all these applications it selects students and offers them a generous stipend ( $5000 this year ) upon completion of this project. It was started in 2005 and the idea for GSoC came directly from Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Mayank Singh, a student who will be doing a project this summer with the python software foundation (the organization behind the programming language python) under the GSoC program spoke to WATBlog . His project aims to add a Wii remote and an Android smartphone as alternate inputs to a cloud based game engine. It will bring motion sensing capabilities to this game engine. He had to learn python, genie, have knowledge of the REST API and the XMPP protocol (used in Googletalk, Facebook chat). When asked what will he be doing with his stipend he said “ I used my stipend to get me a wii remote and will use some more of it to get an Android phone. Also, I will use it to pay my ever increasing college fees for 1 year atleast and if some of it is still left, I’ll pool for future .” The huge number of selections in GSoC reaffirm the fact that India produces lots of engineers each year with some of them being exceptionally talented. Foursquare, Google and a lot of other companies in Silicon Valley and elsewhere have Indians working for them. Facebook, Zynga have opened up offices in India. Initiatives like GSoC will only help raise the skill level of students and bring more companies to Indian shores or even start new ones. For more information about the Google Summer of Code visit the official site . Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts Google Rolling Out Social Search Globally Microsoft-Facebook Partnership Brings More Social Results To Bing Apple, Google, Amazon Locked In Digital Content War The Social Battle Takes An Ugly Turn; Facebook Playing Foul Google Rejects Internet Rules Set By India; Government Clarifies

Tagged as: amazon, companies, digital content, facebook, gsoc, media, open-source, programming, project, social, students, summer, summer of code, united-states

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Visa Announces The Digital Wallet

by Paul Joseph May 14, 2011 Featured

It is reported that Visa moves towards another new step to make payments easy as it introduces the concept of digital wallet. This Wednesday Visa announced its plan to kick-start a one click payment system. This is done with the aim of allowing the Visa customers across the globe that will let them pay online for items which is just a click away! This next generation payment has again made Visa Inc . the global leader in the electronic payments arena. More easy ways and reliability is reforming the e-commerce system. This news is beneficial to customers, merchants as well as financial institutions. “Our new solutions deliver greater consumer choice, convenience and control while helping our clients grow their businesses. By helping to reduce abandoned online shopping carts and bringing new account holders into the Visa network, we create a win-win-win for merchants, consumers and financial institutions,” noted Joseph W. Saunders , Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Visa Inc. Now we can all buy at various online portals such as Amazon.com where a single log-in will be required whether it is Visa, check card or PayPal or some other account. The information will be stored in the Visa servers so it is a onetime payment or customers. This will initiate in United States and Canada at the holiday shopping season. The features that are high end are: Click to buy Cross-channel payments solutions Preference management Merchant offers “The widespread adoption of Internet and mobile technology is changing the way people connect and transact across the globe, so we’re focused on delivering locally-tailored payments products and services. We are introducing new solutions for eCommerce and mobile devices that provide the same ‘Visa-quality’ experience–convenience, reliability and security–people enjoy when using their Visa cards at a retail location. In doing so, we are accelerating the global shift to digital payments by harnessing our brand, products, network and 50-plus years of payments experience” exclaimed Saunders. In the beginning probably the most of this technology will be used by online gamers as this will be extended to the social and online gaming arena so that customers can purchase virtual goods. This emerged out of two acquisitions made by the company as reported by them. They were PlaySpan and CyberSource . What Visa is looking at is to create flexible solutions that would make it easy to connect and purchase. Looking For A Social Media Agency?? – Contact WATConsult – India’s Leading Social Media Agency Related Posts Average Indian Spends Less Than 1 lakh A Year Via E-Commerce – Visa Study Megastores Vijay Sales and Viveks to give E-Commerce another shot Globus Forays Into Online Shopping, Launches E-commerce Portal Dealaram.Com to Bridge Gap Between Online Market And Offline Market Babyoye.com Receives Funding from Accel, Tiger Global

Tagged as: clients, credit card, india, Indian, international, media, offline-market, online, online payment, online shopping, social, study, technology, united-states, web

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Inmobi Launches SmartPay – Global Mobile Payment Solutions

by Paul Joseph May 10, 2011 Featured

InMobi have announced the launch of InMobi SmartPay, global mobile payment solution. InMobi SmartPay™ will enable app developers, game companies, and content providers in the  $200bn mobile content and virtual goods space to expand their business and monetize their users quickly and easily into new markets by providing a one-time, no setup cost, single point of integration across multiple countries. InMobi SmartPay™ technology automatically recognizes the country, handset, operator and OS of the consumer and dynamically serves the buying path most likely to convert. The solution will be available in seven countries including United States, United Kingdom, India, Indonesia, South Africa and Malaysia. InMobi also plans to grow 3 billion consumer in 30 countries by the end of this year. This puts Inmobi in direct competition with mobile payments solution providers like Obopay and Paymate though the focus in Inmobi’s case is purely mobile developers looking to charge for their apps. Check the Winners Of WATAwards Here Related Posts Asia-Pacific Consumers Shop Via Mobile Devices – InMobi InMobi Lures Developers With Higher Rev Share – Announces World Developer Fund Quikr.com Gets 8 Million $ In Funding From Nokia Growth Partners Online Newsroom FirstPost.com Launched By Web18 In India – Another News Source? Now Make Use Of Mobile Payments To Pay Amount Upto Rs.50,000 – Reports RBI

Tagged as: announces-world, business, consumer, developer-fund, features, inmobi, mobile, mobile-devices, nokia, united-kingdom, united-states

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