December 2011
1 post
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The death of Taggle and a few others to follow
In August 2010 I’d written a post on this blog saying, ”The future of Group Buying sites is still dicey in India”
From August 2010 to August 2011, nearly 100+ new deal sites sprouted out of nowhere. CEO’s of prominent digital companies are still quitting to set up their e-commerce ventures!
But the bubble had to burst. At least the ‘Group Buying’ bubble.
...
August 2011
2 posts
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Common topics being discussed on Facebook
Just logged into Facebook and saw this… Tata Docomo, Cricinfo and Adidas Cricket all had something to say about the Indian National Cricket Team! i.e. something about the India - England test match but surprisingly none of them used the word ‘Cricket’ in their update!
Still Facebook via some new algorithm of theirs figured out that they were talking about the same thing and...
July 2011
2 posts
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Samsung Galaxy S2
Finally upgraded from my Nexus One to a Samsung Galaxy S2.
A little on the expensive side but will hopefully be worth it.
So why was this phone bought: Awesome screen. 1GB RAM 16GB internal memory + Micro SD card slot Awesome camera which shoots 1080p HD Dual Core 1.2 Ghz
Looks awesome, feels awesome!
A short review after spending a couple of days with it… The phone had a very plastic-cy...
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Some awesome MTV Idents →
Stuff which defines a channels identity!
Stuff which inspires you!
http://www.wabbaly.com/mtv-a-source-of-inspiration/
June 2011
2 posts
5 tags
How many songs do you Love?
Coke Studio (Pakistan) is in its 4th season now. I love Coke Studio and have always wanted it to come to India. I have every MP3 file downloaded across seasons…
But do I love them all? NO. There are a handful of 12-15 songs which I really love… And I have all these in a folder and usually listen to this particular folder.
There are a couple of songs which are fast-forwardable. Stuff...
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Brand Engagement on Facebook - MTV Roadies
After handling Facebook pages for brands for more than a year…I got pretty bored. You can’t tell guys on your page to buy your product each day. And you still need to come up with content to keep them engaged. There are more than 90 Million fan pages on Facebook. If you have a look at the Top 20 most engaged and active pages on Facebook, you’ll notice that not a single...
May 2011
1 post
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The next bubble - Exclusive Luxury eCommerce
I’d written a post on this blog last August… - The Digital Switch (eCommerce) and that post got the most no. of pageviews for this blog in the last year or so.
In the mean time a lot of eCommerce startups have been founded and more than a couple have gotten funded. FashionAndYou, 99labels, ThePrivateSales et al have all raised a hell lot of money in the last few months.
The problem?...
April 2011
1 post
5 tags
Indian Online Market
I would say a safe estimate of the Indian Online Market would be around Rs 1,000 Cr. While some may argue that its Rs 850 Cr and not really 1K yet, some might even say its more.
Now one thing all of us have noticed in the last year is that the market has seen considerable growth. Hence if you are a Sales exec in an Online / Digital company your targets would have definitely been increased with...
March 2011
1 post
9 tags
The advent and future of free msging apps on the...
Whatsapp has definitely reduced my mobile bill considerably. International msging is free now! The cross platform compatibility of Whatsapp across iOS, Android, RIM’s Blackberry and now even on Nokia’s Symbian platform has made it a must have on almost all phones.
The only problem with this is that soon the operators are going to realise this. As apps like Whatsapp figure out and...
February 2011
1 post
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Branding a Campaign
We were watching TV the other day and I saw the Tata Aria ad. I’ve always liked the Tata cars. We have a Safari in the family and even though my ex-Indica gave me a horrid time in its last year…It wasn’t that bad.
Since we all belong to the digital generation… I wondered if Tata Aria had done anything in the digital space and just couldn’t recall anything. And then...
January 2011
2 posts
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Cricket Jersey (Facebook Application)
Based on the learning’s shared in the previous blog post, @designerkamal and me have launched another application.
Cricket Jersey - World Cup 2011: http://apps.facebook.com/cricket-jersey/
No rocket science in this one either. The concept too is not new… A similar application for Football Jerseys became very popular last year during the FIFA World Cup. What’s important is the...
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Ingredients of a successful Facebook app -...
I saw Dabangg in its second week. This was well after it was already stamped as one of biggest hits of all time. Mid-way through the song ‘Tere mast mast do nain’…Salman’s aviators flashed hearts. At that very moment I got the idea of a facebook application.
48 hours later, Dabanggify was live. http://apps.facebook.com/dabangg/
What was the application about? Well you...
December 2010
2 posts
4 tags
1 tag
The Game Layer on Top of the World
Really great video. Must watch!
Link: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/seth_priebatsch_the_game_layer_on_top_of_the_world.html
Last decade was the decade of Social, this next decade is the decade of games. We use game dynamics to build on it, we build with mind share, we can influence behaviour…its very powerful, its very exciting!
October 2010
1 post
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Running fan pages on Facebook - Some Learnings
After being involved in running Facebook Fanpages for more than a year and after seeing a client’s page cross 500K, I thought I’d share some of the learnings….
Please don’t be obsessed by the number of fans on your page. At the end of the day, that won’t matter. It might get you as an individual a better job, but the brand will only benefit from the way the fans...
September 2010
1 post
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The future of Mobile Gaming
Just read that ‘Angry Birds’ Beta Lite has now hit 1 million downloads on Android! And I’m one of the guys whos is really waiting for the full version to hit the Google OS.
Anyways wrt to Angry Birds here is a line I came across in a review, this pretty much sums up why Mobile Gaming has massive potential.
Okay AAA developers. You might want to be watching the mobile gaming ...
August 2010
4 posts
3 tags
The future of 'Group Buying' sites is still dicey...
Was seeing a segment on ET Now earlier today and they were covering ‘Group Buying’ sites in India and how 100’s of them are sprouting up all over.
Sandeep Murthy (from Sherpalo Ventures) mentioned in the show how such companies are adding value to users + services.
Kunal Bahl from SnapDeal said something very interesting, it was on the lines of: A product purchase such as a...
4 tags
Micro Portals on Facebook
Before I dive into why I think micro-portals on Facebook will be huge, a little info about what FB is currently doing with Open Graph.
Users can now ‘Like’ pages across the web. Facebook and the publisher can both track the no. of likes happening on a particular website.
I’ll use the example of Zapak.com for this.
How does Zapak and Facebook use this?
Almost all our Game...
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The Digital Switch (eCommerce)
eCommerce is going to see a lot of new launches, funding, mergers and acquisitions in the next few months.
Gone are the days when almost everyone would shudder to swipe their credit card online scared of trojans and CC info theft, online frauds etc. A whole new generation of price conscious savvy net-shoppers are now going to drive this segment.
Why did I mention price conscious? Well this...
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Branded applications and games on Facebook
There’s one thing which you have to realise… A lot of Brand Managers work to impress their immediate bosses. At times its about perception management and times its genuine results. With ‘Social Media’ being used in almost every conversation… Brand Managers now have Facebook+Twitter as 20% of their KRA’s.
I’ve written about this before. All they care about...
July 2010
7 posts
3 tags
Life is going to become a giant Social Game
One of the most amazing videos I’ve seen!
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Google Pages for Brands
Having a Facebook page has almost become more important than having a microsite / brand site these days.
Brands are heavily advertising their Fan Pages across mediums and at the same time pumping money into facebook for Fan acquisition too. Things couldn’t be better for FB. Firstly the brand is spending money on outdoor, print, tv etc to get people on to Facebook and then they are spending...
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Inception
*Spoiler Alert*
Inception is a beautifully marketed movie. The main reasons being:
It makes you want to talk about it and discuss it.
The more you talk about it - the more you want to watch it the 2nd time.
Once you watch it the 2nd time - the more clearer yet murky things become!
Its a movie - which is cool to like. Mainly because not liking it makes labels you as someone who didn’t...
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Coverage of ZapakGames on InsideSocialGames →
Merging social and casual gaming. The product I’ve worked on.
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What's fucking Social Media Marketing in our...
When it comes to Digital Marketing, India of all countries is the most obsessed about ROI!
The single most important thing which is fucking up the state of Social Media Marketing in India is the - FAN Count - on Facebook.
Unfortunately this all that Brand Managers care about now.
Here are some reasons why?
- Brand Managers are not entrepreneurs. They are employees of the brand. With the...
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AXE Angels Club (India)
Have restrained from writing about AXE for nearly 8 months now!
Well sometime back in December 2009 I got the chance to lead AXE’s social media presence in India.
So what did we do? Set up Axe Angels Club across 4 social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Orkut and BigAdda).
This club is/was run by angels. Currently we have 5 moderately active angels and 2 super active angels.
Over the course...
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What is hedging? →
For those like me who always wanted to know what ‘hedging’ was and always nodded in affirmation when ‘hedge funds’ were mentioned in conversations but secretly didn’t really know how one worked.
June 2010
8 posts
4 tags
Basics of running a successful Social Game
Since I’ve finally gotten into the whole Social Gaming scheme of things…here is a basic learning.
Build a Social Game on economics. Think through how you are going to monetize a particular element (maybe now, maybe in the future) before you add it into the game.
But something even more important that that is: Make sure you build something which makes the user want to pay. This is THE...
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Product vs Services
Today a couple of friends (entrepreneurs I should say) decided to shut their agency (services) business and have taken a decision to move towards a more product based business line.
An agency business is unbelievably difficult to scale and grow and eventually exit. Meanwhile a product based business makes far more sense. Of course people need to be using your product.
Was reading this post about...
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“You agree that you were too young to invest at 25 years old, yet you invest in...”
– Says Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures in this interview »
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Never Read Another Resume →
Nice article. Has some nice lines in it :-)
Who you work with is even more important than who you hang out with, because you spend a lot more time with your workmates than your friends.
So, what do we do? First, we hire late. We hire after it hurts. We hire to alleviate pain, not for pleasure.
I’ve run into a lot of companies that invent positions for great people just so they...
4 tags
Offline Meetups for IPL Teams
A ppt I submitted and showcased at the first RCB Fan Summit in Bangalore on June 12, 2010.
Royal Challengers Bangalore - Offline Meetups (RCB Summit)
View more presentations from Ekalavya Bhattacharya.
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Facebook Internet Education Program
I hadn’t heard of the ‘Facebook Internet Education Program’ in India till I met a facebook employee yesterday who heads user acquisition in India along with a few countries.
She mentioned that they currently have an ‘Internet Education Program’ live in 30,000 cafe’s across India! Woah! I doubly asked for a confirmation on this.
So what’s this program?...
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May 2010
11 posts
1 tag
“Customers buy on emotion and justify with logic.”
– Read this line in a ppt yesterday and it just kept playing in my head all day. This is what Apple has managed to achieve. This is where direct marketing on mediums like the internet (facebook, twitter, customised networks) help.
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Red Eye? Why not Open Eye?
There are lot of tools on cameras and photo editing s/w’s which automatically correct ‘Red Eye’…
Was wondering if someone has built an ‘Open Eye’ correction tool.
Millions of photographs taken each day are ruined cos of the flash resulting in someone having his/her eyes closed in an image. Someone should build something into cameras or at least have an...
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Kites - Twitter Trending
‘Kites’ was trending on twitter on the 21st and 23rd of May, 2010.
3rd time I’m seeing a bollywood film trending on Twitter. Have there been more?
1st which I noticed was #LSDknockoffs (Hilarious takes on the title of the movie ‘Love Sex aur Dhoka’. Note this was started by some users and not the movie chaps), #MNIK. Don’t think 3 idiots trended but...
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Screwing the App guys & Marketers #Facebook
Facebook made a small change a couple of days back which seems to have gone unnoticed by many.
What did they do? Go to you ‘Home’ and see the RHS panel. Events / Birthdays are now on the top and ‘Requests’ have been pushed down below ‘Suggestions’ and ‘Sponsored’.
So how has this changed things? Was talking to a leading developer of FB apps and he...
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“That’s the difference between a Los Angeles company and a Silicon Valley...”
– In January 2006, then News Corp digital boss Ross Levinsohn flew Mark Zuckerberg and one of his top advisors, Matt Cohler, to Los Angeles. Ross wanted to buy TheFacebook, but he worried it might not keep up its growth. “That’s the difference between a Los Angeles company and a Silicon...
4 tags
Bola! Soccer Social Game
Bola on Facebook « Check the app out
Well I won’t waste time in putting up a detailed review of this fabulous game - check the review out here instead. I’ll just share some points which I like about the game.
After the review too they have gone forth and launched a lot of newer features.
Why is it so fantastic? I must have played almost every popular social game out there...
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Profit vs Revenues
Just a learning gained from working in 4 fairly different companies…
Companies which are run as start-ups and are not looking at raising money but just at surviving and scaling up on their own, care far more about profits than just revenues. Every deal goes under the microscope.
Start-ups looking at getting funded / raising money… Will care a lot for revenues and at the same time try...
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10K Fans on Facebook
Fans on Facebook. They come in different shapes, sizes and costs. Hell…they are not even called fans anymore!
Over the last 6 months, I’ve handled quite a few groups of fans. For lifestyle brands which invested a lot in engagement to others who just invested in advertising to achieve numbers. From fan pages of Filmstars who didn’t have to do much to garner 1L+ fans to movie...
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A Facebook Ad Network
I actually wanted to post this the day the F8 changes were announced. Somehow just didn’t find time and then took a week off the digital world.
Well I’m sure many of you might have had this same thought… Its pretty obvious.
The social graph i.e. the ‘like’ project across sites is actually the first step towards building a very powerful ad-network which will rival...
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Likers vs Fans (Facebook)
I don’t like the whole ‘Like’ revolution going on Facebook. I mean the social graph and all is cool but FB should have let ‘Fans’ be fans and shouldn’t have changed them to Likers.
1,234,334 are FANS of Chelsea FC vs 1,234,334 users LIKE Chelsea FC Well the above example is mainly for teams and celebs.
Whats worse is that now - your ‘Fans’ who...
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5 Seconds of Connectivity!
Ever wondered what would you do if you had net connectivity for just 5-10 seconds?
A quick short update on FB? A small tweet? Try to check mail and fail at that?
Why do I ask? I was abroad last week on a small little vacation. Didn’t activate international roaming and Thailand didn’t really have free wifi everywhere as I’d hoped!
So while driving down a road in a cab, I caught...
April 2010
10 posts
6 tags
Cross application Currency (Zynga, Facebook)
Credits: Right now in the ecosystem a lot of developers are building up stores of credit cards of users. Our goal with credits is that people can use single currency in every app. Will be a lot better for applications; lower friction. We have almost 100 different apps in our credits program so far (we’re still in closed beta).
The credits being spoken about are the Facebook Credits which...
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The art of Viral Marketing - Apple iPhone 4G
Want to see the art of Viral Marketing in motion?
Apple conveniently lost a prototype of the next iPhone! And of course it conveniently landed at the doorstep of the most popular gadget blog’s doorstep. And they of course conveniently wrote about it and as if planned…
It’s triggered of hundreds of blogs posts…which will become thousands in 24 hours and thousands of tweets...
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Narratives over Numbers →
Nice Post - Narratives over Numbers