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Thursday, October 23, 2008

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

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

3rd Party Apps Now Live On Rediff.. The First Step Towards building Rediff Social - Rediff’s App Driven Social Network??

We had blogged about Rediff developer platform which was announced earlier this year at Proto.in and later about Sociali.com. After 4 months of its announcement in July Rediff.com has finally launched third party applications. These apps went live on its video and music platform Rediff iShare.

Facebook Apps on Rediff?? Really?

With this move Rediff iShare as a platform is now compatible with the Facebook Markup Language which means any application that works on facebook will work on rediff platform. An alternative platform for Indian developers to publish their apps and earn revenue. This would also open opportunities for adnetworks which would like to monetize these applications.

What apps are live?

Currently the apps that are live are  Dedicate a Song -  an app that lets users to share the a song in audio or video format  that they find on Rediff iShare and  a quiz app based on shahrukh khan called  OMG! Its SRK that lets users answer questions, watch videos, listen to music, view photos of the Bollywood superstar, Shahrukh Khan .

Well thats all the press release says.. But could there be more than what meets the eye?

As mentioned earlier we had discovered Sociali.com which we felt was a full blown social network and had questioned Zaki Ansari and he had clearly denied that Sociali was a social network at play infact he stated that if they had to launch a social network they would do so on rediff.com and not build a new domain name brand in sociali.. Well well.. thats exactly what they have done..

rediff-social

Enter Rediff Social - social.rediff.com.

Its the same sociali platform but with the rediff brand name. Rediff Social is a full blown social network which is accessible to any rediff user with a rediff id. It also imports your details from your rediff mail.

How did I discover rediff social?

All the apps are by default hosted on rediff social so it seems Rediff is using the apps to drive signups/sign ins to rediff social so a user cannot add an app on rediff.com unless he activates his profile on rediff social. Its what I would call an apps driven social network i.e. the more apps are build the more users add apps the more the network grows!

What could be the impact of this?

Well just for one second consider that even 1% of rediff  tens of millions of email users were to use the apps that rediff plans to roll out across its services in due course of time then that would mean a full blown social network without any effort at all!  Also consider the fact that Rediff mail holds a lot of data about a user the same is being pulled in automatically in Rediff social which now viewable to the entire network of users who are on rediff social. Im not kidding! My data was automatically pulled in.

What does Rediff have to say about Rediff Social?

I got in touch with Head of Rediff Platforms Zaki Ansari whom we had interviewed on WATShow during the announcement of rediff app platforms and who had also denied sociali being a social network.

Here is what he had to say about Rediff Social:

What is rediff Social?

Zaki: “Rediff Social is an ecosystem for apps where apps developers can better their apps and users can use them”

It isn’t a social network?

Zaki: “We are not positioning Rediff Social as a Destination Social Network”

Will it be a social network in the future?

Zaki: “I cant comment on the future”

WATBlog Analysis: Well as far as I am concerned rediff social is an app driven social network which is at the crux of Rediff’s effort to convert Rediff into a Social Portal. Yes you read it right. I feel rediff’s announcement of app development would spread to its other content and services and the activities of the users on these services would be tracked as their social graph on rediff social (Sounds like facebooks mini feed doesnt it?). I think the big hurdle for Rediff is to have quality app developers excited about the rediff platform and have them churn out apps. Traditionally rediff has never been seen as a technology centric company and has been more of a content and media company and this shift of positioning wont be easy.

Related Posts

Also Check Out:

WATShow.com - Our Video Show

WATJob.com - Our Job Site

WATGame.com - Our Gaming Blog

WATSearch - Our Search Engine




Interview with Hitesh Oberoi Infoedge (Naukri.com) COO On FirstNaukri Launch & Business Model, Job Market Slowdown & Future Strategy For Brijj

Divyansh Sharma our guest WATBlogger in Delhi who is covering the TIE Con Delhi met up with Hitesh Oberoi and interviewed him on the future strategy on Firstnaukri, which was announced as a part of naukri recently, brijj.com and the slowdown and its impact on naukri.com.

Here is the interview:

Q1) When do you plan on launching Firstnaukri.com and what will be the business model?

A) We plan to launch firstnaukri.com in less than 3 months and the business model would be similar to naukri but as far as the employers is concerned it will be something different.

Q2) Will Firstnaukri.com integrate with shiksha.com?
As of now there is no such plan but theb integration if at all is more likely to happen with naukri.com

Q3) Q2 results show slower growth, whats ur prospective on next 6 - 10 regarding the slowdown?
A) The slow down will affect the growth but if the economy continues to grow at a good pace, averaging around 8% for next few years, naukri would expect a growth of around 30 - 40 %

Q4) What % of your revenue is coming from non naukri properties?

A) As of now Around 88% of revenue is generated from recruitment products so around 12% comes from non naukri sites i.e. Jeevansaathi, 99acres, shiksha.com, studyplaces and brijj.com. But as far as we are concerned high growth is expected from these (non naukri) products so the break up of revenue could be very different in the next few years.

Q 5) What is the future strategy for brijj.com?

We have a new feature lined up coming up in next few weeks which would differentiate us from linkedin.

Q 6) Is it a developer Api?
No.. No developer API is planned, as of now

Q 7) How many users you have in brijj.com and how many are active?
We have 1.2 million users and around 30-40% active within last 3 - 6 months.

Q 8) What kind of revenue model’s are planned for brijj.com?
There is a subscription based business model planned, as well as targetting some revenue from advertising as well.

WATBlog Analysis: The job market will definitely have a slowdown but the question is as a company will naukri be able to scale the revenue in its other properties? Maybe Firstnaukri is that bet given that jobs is a space that gives 88% of revenue to naukri. But we have discussed as to how challenging the freshers jobs space is in India.

The other intereting vertical is 99acres.com their property portal which I have used personally  for one of my properties in mumbai and found it to be pretty effective though im not sure how an impending housing depression will impact its fortunes.

All in all it could be possible that naukri (infoedge) as a company goes through some tough times.

Related Posts

Also Check Out:

WATShow.com - Our Video Show

WATJob.com - Our Job Site

WATGame.com - Our Gaming Blog

WATSearch - Our Search Engine




MapMyIndia launches iNav Mobile App, New Navigator & Sms Feature - Ties up with Motorola

Mapmyindia the map based navigation products company which was on a tie up spree lately and which expects to touch 1million + sales of in car navigation devices in 3 years has launched three new features.

mapmyindia

Mapmyindia has launched:

  1. An iNav mobile application which transmits your location to anyone so they know where you are
  2. New next-generation in car GPS Navigators with a more comprehensive map coverage
  3. SMS service which to get driving directions and local yellow page information

MapmyIndia iNav: This mobile application gives turn-by-turn voice navigation anywhere across India but its real use id for personal tracking i.e. if on your way back home from office you can send your location coordinates to your spouse’s mobile phone. But the key is that your spouse should also have iNav running at the same time. Also this is a permission-based service, so you can choose who you want to inform of your whereabouts, and can also choose to turn it on or off whenever you want. For iNav MapmyIndia has tied up with Wayfinder Systems.

iNav is subscription based service and its prices for iNav range from Rs 249 for a 1-month subscription, to Rs 3490 for a lifetime purchase. To me the prices seem a bit on the higher side also the fact that between two people both would need to subscribe inorder to update each other so essentially it becomes twice the cost. I haven’t used the app so am not sure how easy it is to use.

Mapmyindia is looking to promote its products via handset manufacturers, telecom operators and VAS players by tying up with them. One of the first tie ups is with Motorola's MOTOMING A1600 in India. MOTOMING A1600 is the first mobile phone to come pre-loaded with maps from MapmyIndia.

MapmyIndia Navigator:
MapmyIndia has also upgraded its incar navigator with street level detail in 202 cities and 1,30,000 towns and villages having over 4,50,000 points of interest.  But the navigator is still priced at a high Rs.22,900 per piece. It has earlier tied up with car manufacturers, such as General Motors and Ford India, to make GPS navigation available with as many cars and models across India and im sure given the price it would have to take this tie up approach as retail volumes is unlikely.

MapmyIndia SMS: MapmyIndia has moved beyond gprs to the least common denominator of sms and is now providing directions via sms. A user has to send as sms 'MMI FROM TO ' to 56263 and they will get the distance, estimated time and step-by-step directions on their phone via sms. To find a particular business like restaurant etc one needs to send 'MMI FIND NEAR ' to 56263 and as sms about those places, along with address and phone number details would be sent back.

Also check out our WATShow with Rohan Verma, Director of MapmyIndia.

Related Posts

Also Check Out:

WATShow.com - Our Video Show

WATJob.com - Our Job Site

WATGame.com - Our Gaming Blog

WATSearch - Our Search Engine




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