Social networking site Facebook is growing rapidly in India according to a report by comScore. From 238,000 users in January 2007, Facebook has grown by 230 per cent to 785,000 users from India in June 2007. According to the report, Facebook's growth in India was remarkable between April and June 2007, when it added 323,000 users.
I created my Facebook profile in the same period and I find that Facebook is a much better product that Orkut.
But Orkut is still ten times larger than Facebook, with 7.2 million Indian users as of June 2007. It added nearly a million new users during April-June 2007.
Among social networking websites - Orkut, Facebook and Linkedin are very popular in India. While the world leader MySpace does not have much traction here, slugging with 399,000 Indian users.
Here are the Alexa rankings of popular social networking sites in India.
* Orkut = 2
* Facebook = 21
* Hi5 = 53
* Myspace = 65
* Linkedin = 75
About 40 per cent of Indian Facebook users are women, while they constitute 28 per cent in Orkut. Indian companies like NDTV, Info Edge, SBI and Indiatimes are already advertising on Facebook. (Source: Agencyfaqs)
Orkut's popularity is also landing the site in trouble with Indian authorities. It was involved in quite a few controversies, most of which are cases of obscene or defamatory fake profiles and hate communities.
Homegrown social networking sites like BigAdda, Rediff iShare, Fropper, Yaari and Minglebox are gearing up to challenge the international heavy weights. Their success will depend on whether they are able to leverage their local knowledge and understanding of Indian sensibilities to differentiate their offering. The global social networking giants start with a huge advantage - that of a large exisiting userbase - which helps in creating the network-effect and boosting viral growth.
Source:www.cnet.com
Showing posts with label Social community site. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Social community site. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Monday, August 13, 2007
Mobile operators see 10 times more potential in social networking
The success of social networking sites such as Facebook, Bebo and even YouTube could represent the next boom for the mobile phone operators.
Revenues from putting so-called user-generated content - meaning content such as videos and blogs created by consumers rather than media organisations - onto mobile phones is expected to rise more than tenfold over the next five years, according to estimates by Juniper Research published yesterday.
Allowing the legion of bloggers, Facebook posters and comedy clip makers to upload and view each other's every movement on their mobile phone could be worth $5.74bn (£2.87bn) by 2012, according to Juniper, from just $576m this year.
"One of the most attractive elements of social networking on a mobile phone is that it's universally accessible so people can look up their friends, update their status or whatever on the move, which for the young demographic is particularly appealing," according to the study's author, Dr Windsor Holden.
Social networking has become one of the fastest-growing internet trends of the past two years. According to internet metrics firm Comscore, Facebook saw users increase 270% from June last year to June this year. It now has more than 52 million users worldwide. MySpace registered lower growth of 72% but still leads the market with 114 million users. Bebo, with a majority of users in Europe, grew 172% to more than 18 million users. The mobile phone companies reckon the people who are using sites like Facebook are exactly the sort of people likely to be interested in using the internet on a mobile phone.
Further research by Comscore shows that people who are already experimenting with the internet on a mobile phone are younger than users who access the web only on a computer. In Britain, more than 25% of mobile internet users are aged 15 to 24, compared with 20% who go online using a computer; a further 41% of mobile internet users are 25 to 34 compared with less than 20% using a computer.
The concern for the mobile phone companies, however, has always been that offering the sort of flat-rate mobile internet access packages likely to lead to an explosion of usage would leave them as little more than big dumb pipes in the air. Their worry has been that once they offer fixed-rate packages, all they can compete on is price and over time they will end up as sidelined as internet service providers (ISPs) have become in the fixed-line internet world.
Some mobile phone companies have tried to retain their position in the value chain by setting up their own UGC services. For instance 3 has scored with its SeeMeTV portal, which lets users upload clips and share them with other 3 customers. SeeMeTV has also created its own social networking service called Moko (formerly Kink Kommunity) with users paying £2.50 a month to keep in touch.
But Frédéric Huet, director at Greenwich Consulting, says that the mobile operators have a real opportunity to persuade more customers to use their mobiles to access the internet by "mobilising" sites such as Facebook.
"I would not be too dismissive of data revenues. If the mobile operators can start increasing take-up of data services they will increase revenues for quite a few years before commoditisation and price competition sees those revenues erode again," he said. "By then the operators will be in a position to offer other services such as mobile advertising.
"The trick is to start building an audience now and the mobile phone operators are starting to understand that."
Sensing this opportunity, several mobile phone companies - such as T-Mobile, 3 and Vodafone in Britain - have launched flat-rate mobile internet tariffs.
Facebook, in fact, is already available on mobile phones in the US through the AT&T, Verizon and Sprint/Nextel networks, with users able to update their profiles and check on their friends. Several of the UK's mobile phone networks are understood to be eagerly chasing deals to add Facebook to their mobile web offerings. In addition, Vodafone has signed an exclusive deal to put YouTube clips on its mobile internet service.
Juniper Research's Dr Windsor, meanwhile, points out that the transition from social networking on the fixed-line internet to the mobile internet could allow new entrants to muscle in.
One such new entrant is Itsmy.com, owned by German tech company Gofresh, which has already signed up more than half a million users.
But these new entrants are going to have a fight on their hands once people can easily update their Facebook status to "I'm on the train" using their mobile.
Source:www.guardianweekly.co.uk
Revenues from putting so-called user-generated content - meaning content such as videos and blogs created by consumers rather than media organisations - onto mobile phones is expected to rise more than tenfold over the next five years, according to estimates by Juniper Research published yesterday.
Allowing the legion of bloggers, Facebook posters and comedy clip makers to upload and view each other's every movement on their mobile phone could be worth $5.74bn (£2.87bn) by 2012, according to Juniper, from just $576m this year.
"One of the most attractive elements of social networking on a mobile phone is that it's universally accessible so people can look up their friends, update their status or whatever on the move, which for the young demographic is particularly appealing," according to the study's author, Dr Windsor Holden.
Social networking has become one of the fastest-growing internet trends of the past two years. According to internet metrics firm Comscore, Facebook saw users increase 270% from June last year to June this year. It now has more than 52 million users worldwide. MySpace registered lower growth of 72% but still leads the market with 114 million users. Bebo, with a majority of users in Europe, grew 172% to more than 18 million users. The mobile phone companies reckon the people who are using sites like Facebook are exactly the sort of people likely to be interested in using the internet on a mobile phone.
Further research by Comscore shows that people who are already experimenting with the internet on a mobile phone are younger than users who access the web only on a computer. In Britain, more than 25% of mobile internet users are aged 15 to 24, compared with 20% who go online using a computer; a further 41% of mobile internet users are 25 to 34 compared with less than 20% using a computer.
The concern for the mobile phone companies, however, has always been that offering the sort of flat-rate mobile internet access packages likely to lead to an explosion of usage would leave them as little more than big dumb pipes in the air. Their worry has been that once they offer fixed-rate packages, all they can compete on is price and over time they will end up as sidelined as internet service providers (ISPs) have become in the fixed-line internet world.
Some mobile phone companies have tried to retain their position in the value chain by setting up their own UGC services. For instance 3 has scored with its SeeMeTV portal, which lets users upload clips and share them with other 3 customers. SeeMeTV has also created its own social networking service called Moko (formerly Kink Kommunity) with users paying £2.50 a month to keep in touch.
But Frédéric Huet, director at Greenwich Consulting, says that the mobile operators have a real opportunity to persuade more customers to use their mobiles to access the internet by "mobilising" sites such as Facebook.
"I would not be too dismissive of data revenues. If the mobile operators can start increasing take-up of data services they will increase revenues for quite a few years before commoditisation and price competition sees those revenues erode again," he said. "By then the operators will be in a position to offer other services such as mobile advertising.
"The trick is to start building an audience now and the mobile phone operators are starting to understand that."
Sensing this opportunity, several mobile phone companies - such as T-Mobile, 3 and Vodafone in Britain - have launched flat-rate mobile internet tariffs.
Facebook, in fact, is already available on mobile phones in the US through the AT&T, Verizon and Sprint/Nextel networks, with users able to update their profiles and check on their friends. Several of the UK's mobile phone networks are understood to be eagerly chasing deals to add Facebook to their mobile web offerings. In addition, Vodafone has signed an exclusive deal to put YouTube clips on its mobile internet service.
Juniper Research's Dr Windsor, meanwhile, points out that the transition from social networking on the fixed-line internet to the mobile internet could allow new entrants to muscle in.
One such new entrant is Itsmy.com, owned by German tech company Gofresh, which has already signed up more than half a million users.
But these new entrants are going to have a fight on their hands once people can easily update their Facebook status to "I'm on the train" using their mobile.
Source:www.guardianweekly.co.uk
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Social Studies: It's the Interface, Stupid!
A report reveals numerous flaws in popular social networking sites' design for user experience--but also some good processes.
Social networking is a booming medium for online communication, especially among young adults, and therefore a potential gold mine for marketers who can connect to its users. But a new report from Forrester Research shows that even the most popular sites put obstacles in the way of people who wish to sign up and become part of the social networking community--specifically lack of privacy information, poor text legibility, and inefficient task flows.
In the report, "Social Networking Sites Need A Usability Boost," Forrester applied a modified version of its Web-site review methodology to evaluate five social networks--Facebook, Friendster, hi5, MySpace, and Tagged--in terms of how easy it was for a new user to create a profile. Ratings for each of 10 criteria range from -2 (severe failure) to +2 (best practices), leaving a final score between -20 and +20, with +10 considered a passing grade. None of the five sites achieved higher than +4 (Facebook), and the lowest was -5 (Friendster).
According to Forrester, the notable failure points included:
* Lack of privacy and security policies. Four out of the five sites failed to present links to privacy and security policies in context when asking users to provide personal information.
* Text that was difficult to read. Three out of the five sites failed to provide easily readable content and field labels.
* Inefficient task flows. Friendster and Tagged exhibited awkward sign-up processes, with Tagged achieving a severe failure score in this area. Tagged required the user to add contacts to the new profile from a personal email account, and pushed for additional personal information like home address and phone number.
* Poor error recovery. Tagged, Facebook, and MySpace all failed to present users with clear error messages that might have helped correct mistakes. Facebook and MySpace presented error messages on registration forms one at a time, forcing users through multiple attempts at submitting their information.
"Customer experience executives and site managers at social networks should take these scores to heart," writes report author Bruce Temkin, vice president and principal analyst for customer experience at Forrester. "While Gen Y consumers might enjoy fun experiences and seek out entertainment more than their elders, young adults want sites that are, first and foremost, easy to use."
Temkin says that there are two components to consider when discussing social networking sites' usability: the immersive experience and the directed experience. "The immersive experience is the reason people, especially kids, spend so much time on social networking sites," he says. In the Forrester paper, he writes, "For young adults, using social networking sites like Friendster and MySpace isn't just another activity to do online--for many, it is their life online. This is because their friends form the central point of their social networking activities, which revolve around communicating--and not media consumption."
The directed experience, on the other hand, is "using social networking for an explicit goal, like finding a friend who knows somebody in the Boston area who works for Microsoft and can get me a job," Temkin says. "A directed goal, like setting up a user profile, is basic to the function of social networking, and it's easier to apply standards and metrics to understand it."
Despite the overall negative evaluation Forrester levied on the social networking sites in its study, a handful of good scores emerged in individual criteria--at least for Facebook, which achieved the study's only four "+2" scores in the following categories:
* Are essential content and function given priority on the page?
* Does text formatting and layout support easy scanning?
* Are form fields and interactive elements placed logically on the page?
* Does site functionality provide clear feedback in response to user actions?
These lessons--both good and bad--can and should be taken to heart for professional communications as well. "According to TechCrunch, it's only a matter of time before Facebook meets the market need and improves its 'relationship' features and becomes more of a business platform," writes Paul Greenberg, author of the book CRM at the Speed of Light, on his blog, "PGreenblog." "What I find interesting is the anecdotal evidence supporting this. I find myself communicating with my business contacts more frequently with Facebook and, more importantly, they answer me a lot faster than either via email or via LinkedIn."
Greenberg also writes that he has "almost [four times] as many contacts on LinkedIn as I do on Facebook, but Facebook seems to do the most important 'business thing' for relationships better--break down the barriers so that the conversations are human. And that is a priceless business benefit."
Source:www.destinationcrm.com
Social networking is a booming medium for online communication, especially among young adults, and therefore a potential gold mine for marketers who can connect to its users. But a new report from Forrester Research shows that even the most popular sites put obstacles in the way of people who wish to sign up and become part of the social networking community--specifically lack of privacy information, poor text legibility, and inefficient task flows.
In the report, "Social Networking Sites Need A Usability Boost," Forrester applied a modified version of its Web-site review methodology to evaluate five social networks--Facebook, Friendster, hi5, MySpace, and Tagged--in terms of how easy it was for a new user to create a profile. Ratings for each of 10 criteria range from -2 (severe failure) to +2 (best practices), leaving a final score between -20 and +20, with +10 considered a passing grade. None of the five sites achieved higher than +4 (Facebook), and the lowest was -5 (Friendster).
According to Forrester, the notable failure points included:
* Lack of privacy and security policies. Four out of the five sites failed to present links to privacy and security policies in context when asking users to provide personal information.
* Text that was difficult to read. Three out of the five sites failed to provide easily readable content and field labels.
* Inefficient task flows. Friendster and Tagged exhibited awkward sign-up processes, with Tagged achieving a severe failure score in this area. Tagged required the user to add contacts to the new profile from a personal email account, and pushed for additional personal information like home address and phone number.
* Poor error recovery. Tagged, Facebook, and MySpace all failed to present users with clear error messages that might have helped correct mistakes. Facebook and MySpace presented error messages on registration forms one at a time, forcing users through multiple attempts at submitting their information.
"Customer experience executives and site managers at social networks should take these scores to heart," writes report author Bruce Temkin, vice president and principal analyst for customer experience at Forrester. "While Gen Y consumers might enjoy fun experiences and seek out entertainment more than their elders, young adults want sites that are, first and foremost, easy to use."
Temkin says that there are two components to consider when discussing social networking sites' usability: the immersive experience and the directed experience. "The immersive experience is the reason people, especially kids, spend so much time on social networking sites," he says. In the Forrester paper, he writes, "For young adults, using social networking sites like Friendster and MySpace isn't just another activity to do online--for many, it is their life online. This is because their friends form the central point of their social networking activities, which revolve around communicating--and not media consumption."
The directed experience, on the other hand, is "using social networking for an explicit goal, like finding a friend who knows somebody in the Boston area who works for Microsoft and can get me a job," Temkin says. "A directed goal, like setting up a user profile, is basic to the function of social networking, and it's easier to apply standards and metrics to understand it."
Despite the overall negative evaluation Forrester levied on the social networking sites in its study, a handful of good scores emerged in individual criteria--at least for Facebook, which achieved the study's only four "+2" scores in the following categories:
* Are essential content and function given priority on the page?
* Does text formatting and layout support easy scanning?
* Are form fields and interactive elements placed logically on the page?
* Does site functionality provide clear feedback in response to user actions?
These lessons--both good and bad--can and should be taken to heart for professional communications as well. "According to TechCrunch, it's only a matter of time before Facebook meets the market need and improves its 'relationship' features and becomes more of a business platform," writes Paul Greenberg, author of the book CRM at the Speed of Light, on his blog, "PGreenblog." "What I find interesting is the anecdotal evidence supporting this. I find myself communicating with my business contacts more frequently with Facebook and, more importantly, they answer me a lot faster than either via email or via LinkedIn."
Greenberg also writes that he has "almost [four times] as many contacts on LinkedIn as I do on Facebook, but Facebook seems to do the most important 'business thing' for relationships better--break down the barriers so that the conversations are human. And that is a priceless business benefit."
Source:www.destinationcrm.com
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Wired: A Social Network Primer
Here's a good quick read from Wired for the social networking uninitiated and newbies alike. Natalie Del Conte takes a thumbnail look at Wired News' top social network picks: MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, Hi5, Craigslist, LinkedIn, and Friendster.
• MySpace gets props for its 2008 presidential candidates page and news page, though "it's doubtful that its users will ever take MySpace that seriously."
• Since half of Facebook's users are out of college, it will remain useful for connecting with friends long after college is over.
• Nearly half of LinkedIn's members are over 34, so they are in a position to hire you when you need a job. Once you make contact with them, Del Conte recommends that you "invite your new contacts to Facebook—it'll make them feel young and hip."
• Bebo is for music lovers, Friendster still has 47 million users in 75 countries despite its rep as a has-been social network, and Hi5 is the number-one social network in Mexico, South America, and Central America.
Source:www.yahoo.com
• MySpace gets props for its 2008 presidential candidates page and news page, though "it's doubtful that its users will ever take MySpace that seriously."
• Since half of Facebook's users are out of college, it will remain useful for connecting with friends long after college is over.
• Nearly half of LinkedIn's members are over 34, so they are in a position to hire you when you need a job. Once you make contact with them, Del Conte recommends that you "invite your new contacts to Facebook—it'll make them feel young and hip."
• Bebo is for music lovers, Friendster still has 47 million users in 75 countries despite its rep as a has-been social network, and Hi5 is the number-one social network in Mexico, South America, and Central America.
Source:www.yahoo.com
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Zamano in strategic link-up with Bebo
Irish consumer-focused mobile software company Zamano has developed a new mobile video messaging widget for Bebo users and has confirmed that it is investigating strategic deals with other social networking players, including MySpace and Facebook. “Our angle on it is that we think there’s a great need now to build on the confluence between mobile and fixed line,” explained John O’Shea, chief executive of the AIM-listed company.
“Most people spend time online but would like to stay in contact with their social networks when they’re away from the desk, and the mobile phone is the way to do that. We are investing in creating linkages with social networking sites.
“We’ve developed a widget you can download on to a Bebo profile and you can send and receive video, voice and text messages. It’s beginning to be as popular as text messaging.
“It’s the next step forward and people are leaving video messages all the time. It’s a free upgrade to a widget that more than 20,000 people are using. They can leave a video or voice mail on your Bebo page. The future development will see them be able to leave these messages on your mobile,” O’Shea explained.
O’Shea said the ability to leave Bebo voice and video messages on mobiles is currently being held up by high data costs among mobile operators. “But from what we’re seeing Irish mobile operators are following the lead of UK operators and are reducing the costs of mobile data. Soon people won’t have to think too much about their WAP usage on handsets.
“They will soon be spending lots of time browsing on their handsets without fretting about costs.”
O’Shea described Zamano’s relationship with Bebo as a commercial relationship whereby Zamano’s activity helps to drive advertising to its site. “The widgets we develop cost only €2 to buy as well as revenue from premium SMS traffic that is generated.”
O’Shea concluded by confirming that Zamano is investigating similar arrangements with social networking sites MySpace, YouTube and Facebook.
On Friday Zamano reported strong trading and expects to report approximately 15pc EBITDA growth for H1 2007 versus the same period last year. EBITDA in H2 2007 will benefit from a full six months’ contribution from the successful integration of mobile firm Eirborne, which is performing ahead of expectations.
Source:www.siliconrepublic.com
“Most people spend time online but would like to stay in contact with their social networks when they’re away from the desk, and the mobile phone is the way to do that. We are investing in creating linkages with social networking sites.
“We’ve developed a widget you can download on to a Bebo profile and you can send and receive video, voice and text messages. It’s beginning to be as popular as text messaging.
“It’s the next step forward and people are leaving video messages all the time. It’s a free upgrade to a widget that more than 20,000 people are using. They can leave a video or voice mail on your Bebo page. The future development will see them be able to leave these messages on your mobile,” O’Shea explained.
O’Shea said the ability to leave Bebo voice and video messages on mobiles is currently being held up by high data costs among mobile operators. “But from what we’re seeing Irish mobile operators are following the lead of UK operators and are reducing the costs of mobile data. Soon people won’t have to think too much about their WAP usage on handsets.
“They will soon be spending lots of time browsing on their handsets without fretting about costs.”
O’Shea described Zamano’s relationship with Bebo as a commercial relationship whereby Zamano’s activity helps to drive advertising to its site. “The widgets we develop cost only €2 to buy as well as revenue from premium SMS traffic that is generated.”
O’Shea concluded by confirming that Zamano is investigating similar arrangements with social networking sites MySpace, YouTube and Facebook.
On Friday Zamano reported strong trading and expects to report approximately 15pc EBITDA growth for H1 2007 versus the same period last year. EBITDA in H2 2007 will benefit from a full six months’ contribution from the successful integration of mobile firm Eirborne, which is performing ahead of expectations.
Source:www.siliconrepublic.com
Friday, August 3, 2007
Social Media Optimization is latest catchphrase in web business
We are all familiar with various techniques like search engine optimization, internet marketing that are widely used for website promotion. These are popular methods of web promotion and you can easily adopt it for promoting your site on the web. Today, the latest exhortation in the e-business world is social media optimization. This is a method to optimize a website in the same manner as other methods do. In comparison to other methods of website promotion, this method is executed in a different style. Social media optimization is a procedure that is undertaken by web business to make a website popular among the search engines. For the purpose of site recognizable among the online users, it is essential for the business owners to make significant strategy.
Social media optimization is a method to optimize a website to make it acknowledged in a social community site. Internet is accessed by a majority of people due to its wide scope in giving information, services and many more. And obviously, it has become one of most sought after methods for the booming of online business. For increasing the traffic on your website, it is important to consider significant strategy that can easily identify the site among the web visitors. One method that you can use is write maximum blogs to make website eye-catching to visitors. The site owner has to optimize the site in such manner that visitors find all the information that they are looking for. Every site owner wants his site to rank at the top of all search engine results.
Social media optimization is a boon for the web businesses as it has made sites popular along with earning huge revenues for them. This promotion method undertakes various processes to increase the linkability of a site. The first priority of any online business owner is to spread the linkability of his site on the web. Linkability has proved to be a successful strategy for online business owners to make their business a brand name. Another strategy that can be implemented for social media optimization is to keep the site fresh for visitors.
Till the time visitors get something new, why would they come to your site? Nobody wants to see and read same things over and again. Change in content and other information will pull more people towards the site. All the information and content put up on the site has to be meaningful, relevant, new and incredible too, to satisfy the visitors. If the customer is pleased with the services or products, the business gets good response and acceptance in all the major search engines. This is what social media optimization strives to do for an online business.
Social media optimization is synonymous with website promotion. The information that you put about your business through blogs and articles for promotion needs to be highly resourceful. You need to adopt innovative methods to make your content in a portable form so that it is easily accessed by a large number of people in a short time. The main endeavor is to reach maximum number of people on the web and also to provide the best services and information to customers.
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