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There are 3 new posts in "WATBlog.com - Web, Advertising and Technology Blog in India" AOL Launches Bebo For India - A little too late?AOL has officially launched Bebo the social networking site for India today. Bebo launches with a content tie up with newly launched Turner Broadcasting-owned Hindi entertainment channel Real. The Real TV Show Sarkaar ki duniya is currently be showcased via the Bebo Platform. Part of Global Expansion Strategy AOL acquired Bebo last year for a hefty 850 million dollars and this expansion into the Indian market is part of the expansion plan for Bebo to go global. Over the last week Bebo has launched in seven new geographies including France, Germany, Italy, Spain and The Netherlands. How popular is Bebo?
AOL late yet again? AOL was itself late in entering the Indian market and now with bebo as well it isn’t the first international social network that has entered India. As far as social networking is concerned Bebo is trailing international entrants like Myspace which already has an India specific site and has attempted similar TV tie ups as well and there are Orkut and Facebook which have never needed to be India specific as they already have a sizeable Indian audience. Ofcourse not to discount Indian networks like Bigadda, Ibibo and others that have been garners audiences via promotions as well. All in all bebo enters a cluttered market with very little to differentiate itself from others. In Europe bebo caters to a very yound audience which could be classified in the category of tweens and it remains to be seen which age group it targets in India. From the looks of the current tie up with Real it doesn’t look like they would be looking at tweens in India and its more a broader entertainment consuming audience. If Bebo does go after Tv and bollywood entertainment as a USP then it would be directly competing with the likes of Myspace, Bigadda and Ibibo as all of them are entertainment oriented social networks. Related Posts Also Check Out: UTVi Launches Investment Comparision Tool and Also in Hunt for Strategic Investors ItselfAssess yourself before investing - use UTVi Money, says the the Headline in red on Afaqs about UTVi’s new money management tool. Ironically, the business portal arm of UTV also finds itself in a position where others might have to assess it before investing. UTVi.com has launched UTVi Money, a tool that allows a user to compare his investments within and across asset classes, and also within and across indices. The tool can be accessed from http://www.utvi.com/utvi-money/compare-investments.html. According to the report UTVi Money is the first tool in India to allow for a simultaneous performance comparison of up to eight assets – from various combinations of stocks, mutual funds and commodities over a period of five years. Business rivals ET had launched a portfolio management tool last year, while CNBC’s moneycontrol.com the largest finance and business portal already had tool similar to ET’s. A comparision tool nevertheless is definitely innovative and the pitch is to make it seem handier than a portfolio management tool. Given the current market scenario such a tool certainly seems appropriate. However, is it enough to drive the hordes of traffic it is certainly intended to push? Moreover, a portal like moneycontrol was built on the premise of being a forum and hence has its loyal users who have built their profiles on the site over the years and in general MC has a higher recall among investors compred to UTVi. In such a situation even a handy tool might not be enough to pull people from one website and make them active on the other. The success of this and perhaps any other feature they introduce is very important for UTVi if some other news is to be beleived. According to another report, they are in hunt for a strategic partner (investor) to push up the funds in the business. Apparently, the company is looking at raising between Rs 100 crore and Rs 125 crore from the strategic partner on a valuation of about Rs 200 crore. Currently the existing promoters have invested around Rs 170 crore through equity and debt. The stake sale is to raise funds for UTVi the business channel whose revenues have been hit enough to make it take losses of nearly 5 crores every month. Finance being one of the more lucrative and web friendly niches with regards to content and traffic UTVi has its holdings right. However, the competition it faces from web18 and Bennet & Coleman both in terms of web as well as TV ratings is huge, perhaps signalling the need to up the ante. Currently Ronnie Screwalla owns around 80% of the company and perhaps is looking to offload a significant bit of it with this initiative. It might also seem to be an exit strategy for a business that has become a cost centre and clearly not working to the tune they expected it to play. Is this the first big fall of media in India caused by the recession? Related PostsAlso Check Out: Wireless CDMA & 3G Data Cards May Be The Answer For Internet Penetration in IndiaThe issue of Internet penetration in India have always been a cause for concern among anyone who is associated with the internet industry. Though broadband penetration still grows at snail pace there is hope that wireless services provided by CDMA players like Reliance and Tata could help improve the internet penetration numbers. So both Tata and Reliance have launched their respective broadband CDMA data cards which provide broadband downlink speed of up to 3.1 mbps and a separate uplink speed of up to 1.8 mbps. The tata card is known as Photon+ while Reliance is called Netconnect Broadband Plus. Currently the pricing for these data cards is on the higher side with Reliance charging Rs.3500 as an introductory offer for the first two months. Tata on the other end has no visible pricing disclosed on their website though they seem to be offering a high speed router as well which provides Upto 2.4 Mbps Downlink speed. There is also confusion on what technology is used in the backend for these datacards and some GSM operators have sought the Department of Telecommunications' (DoT) intervention to stop these services, which it claims are 3G EVDO services though the technology looks much like CDMA2000 EV-DV. Besides for the above options there will soon be the option of 3G Data Cards as state owned BSNL has gone ahead and tied up with Micromax for sale and distribution of 3G data cards. According to this report this datacard promises speeds of up to 7.2 mbps for Download and up to 2 mbps for upload applications which is twice the speed of the CDMA data cards above. Datacards the future of Internet connectivity in India? With netbooks being in vogue both for their potability and their pricing (Asus/Acer netbooks are priced Rs.14,000 odd only) and data cards with high speeds being churned out by telecom players its only natural to think that these two trends would drive internet connectivity in India. The portability of netbooks and mobility of data cards combined can take internet to the last mile (till the network is available). Would love to know real feedback on the speeds of these data cards so if anyone gets a chance to test them out do let us know. 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