The Indian Startup

This article tries to track the shifting paradigm of consumer consumption of skill based games and derived entertainment and engagement. Why is it happening and how? It will also try to answer the question: “What’s the next step in social skill based games, entertainment and engagement?”

Skill Games, Entertainment and Engagement model in India?

India has showered love and affection for massively popular Game shows on Indian Television and recently audiences have also been hooked to the twisted humour, sensationalism and sometimes vulgarity in Reality TV in India.

Around the year 2000 games shows on TV started to pick up steam in India with the launch of Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) the Indian version of Who wants to be a Millionaire?. And then it kept the momentum going with more game shows like 10 ka dum, Sawaal Dus Crore Ka, Jeeto Chapad Paad Ke etc. followed suit by exploiting one or the other human behavioral instinct. The undying hope of humans to succeed with their skills was well leveraged. From a legal perspective these games shows leveraged the fact that any game of skill played for money is deemed legal and if you can involve masses to participate across India with TV as the popular medium, you can make huge profits not just with advertisements but also with user engagement through SMS or online voting systems.

India saw a shift in Entertainment from such pre-recorded games shows to the reality TV. Reality television frequently portrays a modified and highly influenced form of reality, utilizing sensationalism to attract viewers to generate advertising profits. For the Reality TV game shows it is about social connection eg: Leveraging Dating in young men and women in MTV Splits Villa or Channel V’s Dare to Date, or it can be about vengeance and physicality like MTV Roadies or channel V’s V the Player etc. which taps in to human psychology and delivers a value which not fulfilled well earlier.

What has changed now?

While these reality TV shows continue to exist and flourish along with soaps and other genres there has been a substantial paradigm shift in consumer mindset. The shift is more apparent in US and UK and other countries where internet penetration is high, however, it’s catching up in India pretty fast.

Let’s take a look at how communication technology changed consumer behavior and media interaction over years. In early years of television, TV shows used to interact with audiences through posts. I remember an interesting TV show “Surabhi” aired on Doordarshan used to ask people to send Postcards to a Mumbai address. Obviously that was an era when Email didn’t exist. We saw the emergence and rapid expansion of email technology in 1990s and how TV media started getting feedback or interaction from viewers through emails. The communication paradigm shifted a lot with the emergence and popularity of Internet and Mobiles. India became on of the fastest growing mobile consumer worldwide. TV content producers started to interact with audiences through mobile SMS voting etc and started to engage audiences in online voting systems.

However, the instantaneous response still lacks in the reality TV and the content is well edited to ensure certifications and abiding by censorship rules. This is the limitation in the TV as a medium.

A paradigm shift!

The paradigm shift is REAL TIME information access, participation and sharing for enhancement of one’s social status, social contact and instantaneous gratification.

Since early 2000, India saw growth in Internet penetration and a lot of dot com companies emerged. Majority of the companies had a revenue model based on advertisements. Some of the companies later in the decade started to offer e-commerce and allied services. Slowly with the increase of internet penetration the sources of finding entertainment also started to move online. In 2008 India’s internet population was almost similar to internet population in US and China few years back. So India was on a  brink of rapid internet growth and penetration across country. This is being leveraged by some skill game sites in India and some recent Online TV Shows like Jay Hind. May be real time SMS voting and Online voting to decide results may soon become the norm…or the REALTIME TV.

To answer the questions: “What’s the next step in social skill based entertainment and engagement?”

An apt answer would be: Emergence of Real Time Social Entertainment – RTSE.

Rapid expansion of Facebook and Twitter are clear indicators of this paradigm shift and the emergence of Real Time Social Entertainment. Even online games industry leveraged this paradigm shift eg: companies like Zynga and Playfish etc. tapped well into the growing online population. However, when it comes to monetization and producing sticky content especially for Indians which stays for years and people continue to pay for it, we need to go back to basics.

Changyou.com and Shanda Games are extremely successful chinese online games companies and they have successfully demonstrated that, with  local games like: Mahjong, Blade Online, MMOGs etc., content is the king and it stays with the people and clicks super fast with them.

Local content providers in India like Games24×7.com offering Online Rummy in India and more such real time turn by turn played games like: nomination, pool, carrom, chess etc. are all set to tap into this real time social entertainment paradigm shift.

The love affair between Indians and card games spans all demographics right from working men playing in subways and buses, housewives playing at social parties, middle aged and retired men playing in social clubs, to friends and families playing on weekends. With over 1 Lakh players registering on Games24×7.com in just 9 months primarily with word of mouth marketing, playing Rummy online is becoming the new face of entertainment in form of Real Time Social Indian Games.

New tools and technology helps people to answer simple questions like: Where are you now? What are you doing now? Where are your friends Now and What are they doing now? This gives that instantaneous gratification of social contact and if you can interact and enjoy with them while being miles away from them either through a mobile device or accessing internet on a laptop or PC, you get the social entertainment in Real Time. Eg: Foursquare.com engages friend circles in real time updates and engagement to explore cities etc through any mobile device like: iPhone, Google Android based phones, Blackberry etc. Similarly Gowalla.com also allows you to share real time experiences to discover new places anywhere and everywhere.

Most of the innovations in today’s time are being built on these psychological paradigm shifts in consumer mindset. Skill games and real time social entertainment derived out of them thus is a huge opportunity out there.

Engage, Participate & Enjoy in Real Time, seems to be the new mantra for 2010.

Share the funny and embarrassing incidents of your day-to-day life and get comments from other visitors who might have gone through same funny or embarrassing incidents.
Kolkata, West Bengal, January 15, 2010

How often you remember an incident happened with you and you did not shared it with anyone (unless it is very embarrassing for you J)? I am sure very less? Its human nature, most of the time we share incidents with your friends ones. Now this platform allows you to even share something that is very embarrassing because your identity is hidden as you can post a curve as anonymous

Sharing the past incidents of your life could not be easier than posting it on a friendly website and getting the comments from other visitors. TextCurve.com is place where you can share your day-to-day incidents (only funny and embarrassing. Other visitors read your posted incidents, rate it and post replies to it. Its very SIMPLE to use and will bring smile on your face and finally its free.

Why Should I Share an Incident?
Because when any incident happens in our day-to-day life, we like to share it with our friends or who cares about us and get their comments or reactions. We like to see the expression in their face. We like to see them laugh or sympathize with us. Isn’t it?

Why we started this site?
The idea came when one of our friends was discussing an embarrassing incident. He was not quite comfortable to share it, but somewhere in his mind he wanted to share it as and so finally he shared it. We all laughed on him and he was embarrassed and said he knew if he share this, we all would laugh on him. We got the idea and thought of putting a simple site where any one can come and post the funniest and embarrassing incidents without exposing their identity.

Who are behind TextCurve.com
Founded by two entrepreneurs with a simple idea of letting people share the funny and embarrassing incidents from their day-to-day life. Also others can come to the site, read them and relate with it and laugh. We are based at Kolkata and have a small team to manage the website.

Website: TextCurve.com
Email: textcurve@gmail.com

Bikes4sale.in today, announced a partnership to power the bikes section on www.NDTVAuto.com.

Bikes4Sale has been regarded as the number one site for buying and selling of used bikes in the online space. To further build on this popularity and expand its existing user base, Bikes4Sale has entered into a strategic partnership with NDTV Convergence to power the ‘Bikes’ section on NDTVAuto. This will provide a platform for biking enthusiasts to interact, download wallpapers, have access to resources, news and videos- all related to this space.  The site can be accessed at http://NDTVAuto.Bikes4Sale.in

Arun Thomas, KB, the founder and CEO of Bikes4Sale.in announces the alliance deal,
“We are very excited to power the bikes section on www.NDTVAuto with our content, and we believe users will benefit from our comprehensive database of used and new bikes. Partnering with NDTV will also help us further increase and accelerate our growth. We hope that the synergy between Bikes4Sale.in and NDTVAuto will enable us to bring more buyer/seller-centered strategies and help users take more informed decisions through quality content”

About Bikes4Sale.in
Bikes4Sale.in was established in 2007 with the main aim of making it the number one marketplace when it comes to selling or buying used bikes. The site is now the number one bike portal in India dealing with used bikes.
Bikes4Sale.in is further focusing on presenting news and reviews about new bike launches, tips for riders and everything else that is buzzing in the bike market which should help readers. For more information, visit www.Bikes4Sale.in

Contacts: Bikes4Sale.in
arunthomaskb@bikes4sale.in

13th November 2009, Bengaluru: Indiakhelo.com, India’s premier sporting site, announced Bengaluru’s first ever Indian Regional League for Basketball and Volleyball for teams from schools, colleges and apartment complexes. Commonfloor.com, India’s biggest online apartment community will be co-organising the tournament for apartment complexes. The tournament will host more than 150 teams across 35 colleges, 35 schools and 20 apartment complexes. Some of the apartments who have confirmed their participation are IDEB Springfields, Ferns Rainbow Drive, Sobha Jasmine, Purva Fountainsquare, Suncity Corporate Leisure, L&T Southcity Apartments, etc. The teams will play their matches on Dec 5th and Dec 12th at Jayanagar stadium to announce the final winners across various categories.

The Indian Regional League (IRL) aims to propagate Basketball and Volleyball and encourage players to scale new heights in sports. This event will help rank and rate players and give them a competitive perspective across the top players in Bengaluru. Each participant will also get a certificate of participation along with a post event sports analysis report. The plan is to replicate the IRL across over 20 cities in India and create a sports ranking system for serious school and college level players. Prashant Pitti, CEO and co-Founder, Indiakhelo.com said, “We want to give serious players a platform to take their sport to the next logical level by sharing our sporting knowledge and network and giving them access to our resources through the IRL event and make it a continuous process post the event through Indiakhelo.com”

While the tournament will be a very important addition to the school and college level sporting competitions, it will provide apartment level players a first ever chance to move ahead from local level matches and compete with the best players across the city. Sumit Jain, co-Founder, Commonfloor.com said, ”Our association with the IRL is a win-win situation for apartment teams to move on from gully-sports and play in the highest competitive form and the most authentic professional setting. Moreover, it is yet another opportunity to reaffirm the community spirit that we stand for.”
In case your team still hasn’t registered, kindly contact:
For Schools & Colleges: Aman Prakash, Indiakhelo.com (aman@indiakhelo.com    , Mobile: 080-50973479)
For Apartment Complexes: Vikas Malpani, Commonfloor.com (vikas@commonfloor.com; Mobile: 9886063375)
About Indiakhelo.com:
IndiaKhelo, a firm started by a group of IITians, was founded in 2008 with the aim to change the way India perceives sports. The founders believe that it’s not that there is a lack of talent in our country when it comes to sport; it’s just that talented people are not getting the necessary recognition and motivation. A large number of talented youngsters are being over looked because of the absence of a system to uncover talent. Organizing a structured & regular sports event to highlight talented players is foremost on the mind of organizers.

About Commonfloor.com:

CommonFloor provides online private portals to apartment complexes/residential societies for their Communication, Information and Management needs. It serves as a single destination for all requirements of residents. Commonfloor is currently empowering more than 15,000 communities across 40 cities in India.

Media Contacts:
Indiakhelo.com: Aman Prakash (aman@indiakhelo.com    , Mobile: 080-50973479)
Commonfloor.com: Vikas Malpani (vikas@commonfloor.com; Mobile: 9886063375)

Useful Links:
http://www.commonfloor.com/irl
http://www.indiakhelo.com/irl09_bangalore.html

Bangalore,11 Nov 2009

ApartmentAdda.com, India’s leading web-based software for Apartment complexes is excited to announce the re-launch of its website. The makeover of the website coincides with a host of enhancements in the tools and services.

In harmony with the company’s rapidly advancing development in terms of its product and customer base, the new website will ensure that the usability and fun factor is enhanced which caters to a wider audience. The current website will not only please the eyes aesthetically but also act as an informed media for Apartment living.

ApartmentAdda is present across major cities in India like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Noida, Gurgaon, Chennai and Mumbai with more than 100 Apartment complexes registered. The new website with its enhanced product offerings will cater to the growing demand for a secure web based software to make the operations of Apartment Complex transparent and accessible from anywhere in the world.

ApartmentAdda offers a complete solution for Communication, Management and Accounting in Apartment complexes. The spectacular growth of Apartment complexes in India and the increasing Internet penetration has created a need for a secure portal to manage and connect with one’s community. ApartmentAdda was envisioned to cater to the online needs of this populace who are always on the move and still want to stay in touch with the community.

Mr. Ravi Goyal, an ApartmentAdda user of Redstone Akshaya Villa Community defines it as “a product that makes a thankless job of managing home owners associations a wee bit fun and easy.”

The new website is fun to navigate and easy to use. It comes loaded with whole lot of improvisations on the product menu like apartment accounting, state-of-the art Forum+Email+SMS communication and highly efficient Management tools for the Apartment Owners Association Committee Members. All this is backed by strong post sales support. Managing an Apartment community at the cost of personal time is a daunting task for the Managing committee. ApartmentAdda with the origin rooted to bridge this gap has now taken a new leap in meeting this demand. The new website is a continuation in the journey of ApartmentAdda towards providing a robust and secure web based software specific to Apartment living.

ApartmentAdda is the flagship product of 3Five8 Technologies Pvt Ltd. It adopts the best practices of technical and business processes and works on subscription based business model. “The company plans to expand its operations across geographies and product lines in the next few months” says Venkat, co-founder of ApartmentAdda.

Visit www.apartmentadda.com and build your secure community – Refreshed, renewed and reloaded way!

This article is a contribution by Snowkiwi Labs.

The Nasscom Product Conclave made its call in Bangalore on Tuesday 27th Oct. The event was a power house including a key note by the inimitable Guy Kawasaki.

The Hotel Lalit Ashok was buzzing with what could only be entrepreneurial passion with a wiliness to connect to other rock stars as networking ! Added to this there was palpable excitement at the prospect of hearing not just Som Mittal , president of Nasscom declare the conclave open but the also the opportunity to be audience to Guy Kawasaki who was giving the Key Note address on , “Art of the Start”, guidelines to a start up in today’s market.

Key Highlights:

• New opportunities for Indian Product companies.
• The heterogeneous nature of the Indian market and what that means for product creation.
• Turning India’s competitive advantage in IT into successful global product building.
• Experiences and lessons from Indian product companies.
• The debate on Indian markets and the “Chasm” theory.
• Five steps to increase the success rate of Indian product start-ups.
• Strategies to position products as winners
• Business model innovations for software product companies

Key Speakers:

A host of reputed speakers from India and overseas – Silicon Valley, Europe and Israel – were present to share their insights on issues concerning the software product industry, including:

• Guy Kawasaki, IT evangelist and renowned author of nine books and “Art of the Start”
• Kiran Karnik , IT visionary and former President of NASSCOM
• Orna Berry, Chief Scientist, Israel
• Rajesh Hukku , Co-founder, i-Flex
• Haeen Zafar : Haas University and CEO

I think it was good that the conclave was more startup focused because there is still a lot to be done and a long way to go before we can start claiming that the Indian software industry is churning out world class products. We do have some good products that have come out of here, but there is still a lot to be done in this space.

I particularly enjoyed the Keynote sessions with Guy Kawasaki, and Rajesh Hukku. Guy K has the ability to keep the audience involved and interested. The best part being, he never misses out on an opportunity to sell his Alltop brand. Some of his key lines were “Don’t let the bozos grind you down”, says Guy Kawasaki, MD, Garage Technology Ventures.

Once Tom Watson, IBM founder (1943) has said, “I think the world but needs only five computers.”

And Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) founder Ken Olsen noted way back in 1977, “There is no reason why anyone would need a computer in their home.”

However, if these words were to be believed then the world would have never seen the emergence of the genre called personal computers or PCs, explains Kawasaki.

Some of the other sessions that I found really interesting were:

Business Plan session by Prof. Naeem Zafar. Naeem kept the audience engaged and interested in the two hour long session and gave very interesting insights on writing a Business Plan. He brought out the importance of doing proper market research and also suggested some very nice ways of using Google tools to go about it. The importance of having a right team and the composition of the team was also well covered in his talk. Had an opportunity to sit with him and understand the basics of setting up a startup. His has authored a book called 7 Steps to Successful Startup. Anyone interested can contact me, and I should be able to send you the free eBook which he shared.

Another interesting panel discussion came in for Saas Product and services. Panelists at the session discussed in detail about the future of SaaS and the challenges that come in way of adoption. Data Security, reliability, lack of customization, resistance to change, buying pattern, bandwidth problems etc were amongst these challenges.

“I don’t believe that IT as a service business model is a technology innovation at this point of time, but we can see a lot of businesses that can leverage SaaS”, said Venguswamy Rangaswamy, head of SMB business, Tata Consultancy Services.

The panelists at the session opined that creating and adopting innovative business models is the need of the hour. “Lots of aggregation with SMB associations, private equity firms would have great influence on reaching them,” said Rangaswamy.

According to Shekar Kirani, VP, India, Verisign Inc, another way of making SaaS happening is by creating a scenario where there is no choice but to use as well as make it a demanded option for gaining information in real time. Some of the other measures discussed was making mobile as an access device.

Adding to what Mandyam mentioned, Kirani said that within five years there will be a titanic shift where all the business would be on cloud, giving huge opportunity for SaaS.

Some more interesting thoughts came in from many starts which stated :

The most powerful marketing tool i.e. twitter available today was defined in a different way “the green button is the most powerful button where the product reaches masses fast and you get instant feedback. Twitter is an amazing mechanism for networking. It pushes out information and promotes what you do.”

Also a concept of “rupees 0 for people”, encouraging startups to use interns and smart people who are looking for the experience and will work for free. And all this free talk and easy startup solutions could then just be put into a cloud for a minimal cost and bang!, you are in business! Needless to say there were no unsmiling faces in the audience.

The informative sessions that went on till 6:00pm on Day 1 was then celebrated with cocktails by the poolside followed by dinner. There was also a stellar performance by Amit Heri group “Centric World Music”, with Madhavi on vocals. The band had the audience cheering with the powerful renditions on Flute and the Matka with songs from the movie “Morning Raaga” as well as the groups latest album, “Jhoola”.

On a lighter note was lucky to catch hold of Rajesh Hukku, founder of Iflex, at the airport and spend an hour with him understanding his idea on startup and the way I should move ahead.

“Its India which has given birth to service and BPO and now is the time to show the world we can make products better that anyone.”

Snowkiwi Labs which is undergoing a different approach and defining new definition of Study 2.0.

Snowkiwi Labs product marks a beginning by an online social academic network available to students at both high schools and colleges. With integration to tools that allow the community to become part of a class-based, online, academic network and helping them share and learn from each other through collaboration.

This core blog’s idea came as a suggestion by Venkat, a member of our community.  The goal of this blog is to help provide greater exposure to our startup members’ company press releases and news including milestones, acquisitions, product launches and any other information that they would like to announce to the community, media and the public.

While the posts on this blog will be added by our startup members, the content will be moderated to ensure accuracy and quality.

Media partners looking for startup news and stories will be directed to this blog and it’s posts will be featured prominently across the front page and the rest of the community, so our members can make the most out of available promotion opportunities by submitting their press releases here.

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