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Satnav Launches ‘Call Us For Directions’ Service - Now Call Them When You Are Lost

Well if you are like me who find roads more confusing that the jigsaw puzzles and who would get lost driving around bombay even with a navigator fitted on his car dashboard then Satnav has just launched the service you were looking for.

satnav

Get Directions on call

Satnav a provider of GPS technology which is back by Sequioa Capital has launched the first voice based Navigation Directions service LCU (Lost? Need Directions? Call Us!) which is also the latest variant of its popular GPS navigation product, SatGuide. This service would be available to all the 365mn cellphone users across the country

Patent Pending Solution

SatNav has also filed a patent for LCU which is an integrated solution to the yellow pages and directory services. This service is currently available in Andhra Pradesh from 6:30am - 11:30pm throughout the week. Satnav plans to launch the service countrywide by March 2009.

Multilingual capability

Satnav is making sure that the regional aspects are kept in mind and hence the agents who provide directions are multilingual and can assist the customers in English, Hindi and Telugu. As they move to the other states liguistic capabilities would be kept in mind.

Will this work?

Currently Satguide has detailed maps of 200+ cities and more than 15 lakh destinations (Points of Interest or POIs) for customers to choose from. In addition over 10 lakh kms of roads have been digitized and 77,000 towns and villages can be reached through the service. The map is constantly being enhanced and plans are to grow to 30 lakh destinations, 500 cities and ultimately the 6 lakh villages across the country.

Given this background the service would be a rich add on if available on the phone. Lets keep in mind one thing. Not all users know how to sms or figure out a map on mobile but all users can take direction instructions on the phone. This service will also be useful as a directory to know which hospitals, schools and points of critical importance are nearby to ones location. All in all I believe this service would do really well. The only question remains as to how Satnav will monetize this service? I believe - Pre-call ads and database of mobile numbers would be two ways in which they can monetize this service. To me their business model would be very similar to a Justdial.

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Thursday, February 26, 2009

WATBlog Update There are 5 new posts in "WATBlog.com - Web, Advertising and Technology Blog in India"

Here are the WATBlog email updates for watblogna@gmail.com

Tie Ups Updates: Motorola - Pressmart / RCom - Flytext
MyBand - A Music Community For Indian Bands
Exclusive WATShow With Om Malik Of GigaOm.com - Talks About Funding, Acquisitions & India
Google Looks To Lure Advertisers To Orkut In 2009
Arzoo.com Looks To Expand Via Franchisee Model
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There are 5 new posts in "WATBlog.com - Web, Advertising and Technology Blog in India"

Tie Ups Updates: Motorola - Pressmart / RCom - Flytext

India has over 347 million mobile customers and the growth story still continues. Increasingly more companies are eyeing this space as the leverage it offers with the presence per se is huge and revenues they offer are big too and that is the reason the news/tieups on mobile and VAS just will not stop coming.

Motorola India and digital publisher, Pressmart Media have reportedly announced partnership where in pressmart will provide live news-on-the-mobile service on motorola phones. Initially the roll out is on MOTO VE66, MOTOSURF A3000 and MOTOROKR EM35 models slated for distribution in India. News on the mobile provides consumers access to branded news content powered by Pressmart. Newspapers offered on the service include: Indian Express, The Financial Express, The Asian Age and Deccan Chronicle. News-on-the-Mobile is designed specifically for the mobile phone screen for optimum viewing experience.

"As the mobile Internet usage increases and handsets become more capable, users' appetite for content is rising sharply," said Sanjiv Gupta, executive chairman of Pressmart.

Pressmart Media Limited a print-to-digital delivery service, has recently raised 6 Million $ from Draper Fisher Jurvetson and NEA IndoUS Ventures and is focusing on expanding its global sales, marketing, and customer-support presence across 35 countries where it currently serves over 350 print media customers.

reliance-flytxt In another news Reliance Communications has tied up with Mobile Marketing Platform Flytxt to implement an integrated carrier‐class mobile marketing software platform called Neon on its network. Neon is built on Flytxt’s decade‐long experience in mobile marketing in various global markets. It features a sophisticated mobile CRM database and all the mobile applications required to conduct large‐scale mobile customer engagement programs.

Announcing the tie‐up Krishna Durbha, Head ‐ VAS Business & Marketing, Reliance Communications said "Implementation of Neon System will give us a competitive edge in stimulating brand awareness and driving sales by reaching out to millions of customers in a cost effective manner through targeting."

This new marketing platform would be used both for driving VAS on Reliance network as well as a tool for brand advertisers across FMCG, Finance, and Automotive to engage with Reliance networks userbase.

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MyBand - A Music Community For Indian Bands

Mediaplus recently unveiled My Band, which according to them is an advanced music community exclusively for the Indian bands.

myband

So how is this different from say a Myspace page which has always been a favourite of the bands as a platform to share and popularise their music?

Debashis Dey, founder of MyBand says “Most Indian Bands inadvertently get lost in a crowd of million bands and billion artists as the business of eye-balls can never do any justice to real talents! And for the millions of Indian Music lovers worldwide - there is no fixed place or a destination where they can find these talents. MyBand comes to fill this space.”

They also allow bands to have their own TV channels on the website and say that one of the most important features of their site is that it allows the artist to interact with people directly and collect ratings and reviews for their music.

As of now it seems that they are just trying to capitalise on the short comings of Myspace and Facebook.

At present, MyBand has a strategic tie-up with Silk Road – An Universal Company which invests in South Asian artists. Silkroad will sell their music through MyBand while also selecting new Indian Bands from the site based on their popularity.

Their revenue model?

Apart from subscription fee they also charge a 10% commission for the songs sold via the website.

They are giving away about 100 free premium accounts using which bands can upload 10 songs after which they have to pay a subscription fee. I was going through their website and saw that about 65 bands have already signed up.

Overall, I'd say it's probably too early to comment upon the venture. Give it some time and do give it a shot. Music communities heavily depend on the musicians they attract. Though, they will face stiff competition from the established players like Myspace and Facebook which have a much larger user base and hence will make it tough for My Band to break into the space.

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Exclusive WATShow With Om Malik Of GigaOm.com - Talks About Funding, Acquisitions & India

We caught up with one of the topmost bloggers in the world Om Malik of Gigaom.com fame at wordcamp in delhi and quizzed him about:
1) How to scale a media company?
2) What is his acquisition strategy?
3) What’s his take on Indian market?
and much more..

Dont miss out on watching this exclusive WATShow

You can watch this and other such exclusive interviews only on WATShow.com

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Google Looks To Lure Advertisers To Orkut In 2009

You know a website is maturing when it starts looking for advertisers. We had reported earlier about Orkut looking to get aggressive with advertising on its site. And here is an article which confirms the same. Given that the IPL is round the corner the timing couldn’t have been better. Google is in discussion with IPL to create brand positioning campaigns and even an IPL profile page for Orkut users.

orkut ads

Google says its time to monetize orkut

Google India Managing Director Shailesh Rao said "Last year, we built a stronger base of marketers and invested in internet advertising. In 2009, we should make revenues from our social media platform"

Will advertisers bite the orkut bullet?

Advertisers in India haven’t used the Online medium for branding as much as they have used it for ROI. I believe adwords like ads wont work on orkut as they don’t work on facebook either. Simple logic is that the objective of surfing a social network is to keep yourself updated with friends and to interact with them. Hence one becomes immune to ads.

Social networks are better opportunities to create engagement and branded pages, groups etc might just be better and more effective ways of spending marketing dollars on these platforms.

Lets Not Underestimate Google Power

If there is one online company that has a vast network of advertisers and access to advertisers its Google with its adwords programme. It can surely work with large advertisers and offer them customized solutions to leverage orkut for their brand. Unlike facebook where advertisers had no clue on what to expect with Google things would be much much more evolved.

Orkut might be out of the race when it comes to users but as far as monetization is concerned it could very well give facebook a run for its money when it comes to capturing a sizeable advertiser pie in India. India is ofcourse an emerging internet market and could become an important geography in the years to come.

Exclusive: Google Working On Ad Platform Exclusively For Orkut

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Arzoo.com Looks To Expand Via Franchisee Model

Arzoo.com has always pursued a more offline strategy than most OTA’s out there. So late last year Arzoo had launched a travel and lifestyle magazine as a part of its offline foray. Now Arzoo.com is attempting to attract Franchisee’s by launching the Arzoo Franchisee Associate Program (AFAP). This program will enable Entrepreneurs & Travel Agents to be associated with Arzoo & earn revenues.

What will a franchisee sell?

An Arzoo.com franchisee will be able to sell all of Arzoo.com's inventory including Online Flight & Hotel Bookings, Holiday Packages, Car Hire, Travel Insurance, Visa & Passport Services & any other products launched by Arzoo.com.

Do Franchisee’s need to invest?

One can be a Platinum, Gold, Silver & Bronze franchisee based on ones capacity to invest. The deal for each type of franchisee can be looked up here. Arzoo will support the franchisee with commissions on all its products & 24 X 7 customer support.

Growing the offline network a key part of arzoo’s strategy

Arzoo.com already has more than 2500 Travel Agents under its Preffered Sales Agent Network who book Flights, Hotels & Holiday Packages for their customers on a daily basis. This new franchisee strategy shall help them expand their offline network.

Question is : Will the commissions be lucrative enough?

Given the current status of the Travel Industry with slim commissions its difficult to comprehend as to what extent would this new program work for Arzoo. After all they are requiring franchisee’s to invest and if they are putting their money they will question the return on investment. This would probably decide whether this program is able to attract any traction at all.

Get a room…Anywhere, Any Budget! - Travelguru promises

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Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Dear Lucky Winner:

Attn: Lucky Winner

We are pleased to inform you of the result of the just concluded annual
final draws of UNITED KINGDOM NATIONAL LOTTERY PROGRAM 2009 edition. After this
automated computer ballot, your e-mail address emerged as one of two
winners in the category \\"A\\". You have therefore been approved to claim
the sum of 1,000,000.00 GBP (One Million Great British Pounds Sterling's)
with the information below:

contact him, please provide him with the following codes below:

REF No: UK/9420W2/09
BATCH No: 2005NEW-09
LUCKY No: 887-13-865-23-01-09

To file for your claim fill the form below and send it to our payment
parastatal:

Name: Mr Christopher Morgan.
Email: uklmrchris20@live.com
Tel: +4470359 72630

PAYMENT PROCESSING FORM:

(1) FULL NAME :
(2) FULL ADDRESS :
(3) NATIONALITY :
(4) DATE OF BIRTH :
(5) OCCUPATION :
(6) TELEPHONE NUMBER :
(7) SEX :

Sincerely,
Elizabeth Morris {Mrs}

WATBlog Update There are 3 new posts in "WATBlog.com - Web, Advertising and Technology Blog in India"

Here are the WATBlog email updates for watblogna@gmail.com

Slumdog’s Jai Ho Causes VAS Ho!
Events Update For March 09
After Google Error Comes Gmail Outage - Are Web Goliaths Immune?
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Search WATBlog.com - Web, Advertising and Technology Blog in India

There are 3 new posts in "WATBlog.com - Web, Advertising and Technology Blog in India"

Slumdog’s Jai Ho Causes VAS Ho!

If you are acquainted with the VAS figures you already know that Bollywood content is the major contributor to Mobile VAS revenues in India and also that Music constitutes 35% of the total VAS revenues. While Slumdog Millionaire is not a typical bollywood movie, the hindi songs compiled by AR Rahman are attracting huge revenues for mobile operators and with the recent Slumdog Millionaire’s Oscar sweep it’s like mobile operators are on cloud no.9.

It is reported that ‘Jai Ho’ the song which got AR Rahman academy awards in the ‘Best Original Score’ and ‘Best Song’ categories is now the most popular in mobile ringtones and caller tunes. Reportedly Reliance mobile has already recorded over a quarter million downloads of Slumdog Millionaire caller tunes and ringtones since the film’s nominations and is now expecting to cross over a million downloads in next few days, the company went live with a separate section for AR Rahman’s content including wallpapers, ringtones, caller tunes and videos on it’s VAS site R-World. Airtel reportedly also had 50,000 downloads as ringtones and all the operators have notices a sudden spurt in the number of subscribers downloading ringtones and callertunes in the last few days.

If you don’t know, Indian Mobile VAS industry growing at 70% YOY is estimated to reach Rs 9760 crores and Rs 16520 crores by the end of 2010. VAS contributes 10% of the total revenues for the mobile operators. For content driven VAS revenues mobile operators keep 60-70% and content owner get’s only 10-15 percent of it and due to this uneven revenue sharing highly skewed in favor of operators, there is an ongoing tussle between content provider and the operators.

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Events Update For March 09

March looks like a month of events so get ready to attend a few if you are in the digital space. Here are the events to happen in march.

2nd-March: inspirus (Mumbai) - NMIMS Family Business Management is organizing INSPIRUS ‘09 - A conference-cum- exhibition — An Annual Alumni Meet on 2nd March, 2009. More than 300 business
houses as part of Alumni would be attending this event.
As part of the conference distinguished entrepreneurs have been invited to share their experiences. The conference is divided into 4 sessions dwelling on the key issues of entrepreneurship and small & medium sized businesses. Few of the confirmed speakers include Mr Motilal Oswal and Mr Jignesh Shah.
[Know More]

2nd-March: EmTech India (Delhi) - EmTech India 2009–a two-day summit–will provide the same unique forum for exploring next-generation technologies and their impact on business and society. The event will attract top decision makers from the technology, engineering, investment and management communities from around the world. The event will also showcase the 2009 TR10, Technology Review's annual list of the 10 emerging technologies poised to make the most dramatic impact on the world. [Know More]

5th-March: Digital Marketing Roundtable (Mumbai) - These are a series of Digital marketing round tables being organized by Digital Marketing Firm Pinstorm and IAMAI. This is an invite only forum and one needs to email asfaq(at)pinstorm.com for an invite.

6th-March: Mobile VAS Conference Mumbai - [Know More]

11th-March: Digital Marketing Roundtable (Mumbai)

17th-March: Cyber Security Conference (Delhi) - During the conference, panelists will move from a broad analysis of overall vulnerabilities in the cyber space to a focused examination of specific crimes and law enforcement measures such as sophisticated surveillance mechanisms. The panels will address terrorism as well as the challenges law enforcement faces, from computer viruses to pornography. Beyond specific threats and crimes, panels will examine how the online environment affects the legal process, including prosecution, evidence and punishment. The Panels will also delve on ways in which law enforcement agencies and Industry can synergize their efforts to address the issue of Cyber Crime and at the same time promote innovation. [Know More]

20th-March: Digital Marketing Roundtable (Delhi) [Know More]

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After Google Error Comes Gmail Outage - Are Web Goliaths Immune?

Several million people around the world were left without access to email for more than two hours on Tuesday after Gmail, Google’s web-based email service, crashed.
More than 100 million people are estimated to have been affected by the gmail outage when connections to Gmail repeatedly timed out, returning a “502 Server Error” message.

The outage itself lasted approximately two and a half hours from 9.30am GMT.

The widespread outage affected businesses and consumers and follows a few more minor blackouts in recent months.

Gmail officers in a blog post called it an "unusual occurrence" and said Google engineers are "still investigating the root cause of the problem."

The main reason for outage is being touted as DoS(denial of service) attack by a group of hackers owning a series of compromised pc’s. DoS attack must have targeted Gmail by sending millions of service request which must have halted down the servers.

Major companies and institutions around the world have implemented the Google Apps suite as a commercial enterprise alternative to desktop email programs and the blackout will do little to assuage companies concerns about the reliability of Web-based software.

Google, of course, is trying to lure business users over to Gmail and its other software applications, as it tries to challenge Microsoft's dominance in the business software industry.

This incidents like today could cause Google application businesses to sit on the sidelines for longer because many big publications and companies have reported complete breakdown in their communication systems due to their over- dependency on Gmail app services.

This also goes onto show that even web goliaths are not immune to outage problems faced by smaller web startups and an extreme over dependency of one corporation on an app could also incur heavy cost in time of outages.

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