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What’s Cooking in the Social Networking Scene in India?
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Well with biggies like Naukri (Reliable source and also mentioned here) looking to enter and Reliance entering the Social Networking scene, we decided to check out on the latest happenings in the networks which are making their presence felt and some newer ones which have recently sprung up.
In the last count – it was around 18 Indian social networking websites and International ones becoming increasingly popular too, the total number of networks would be more than 2 doz.
Newest entrant would be SirfDosti.com
Registration fields are almost exactly as that of orkut (Click here to have a look)
Well the first thing I noticed once logged in to my account was:
As you can see, Orkut and MingleBox ads on SirfDosti via Google AdSense!
The rest of the features seemed similar to the offerings of all the other players in the market, the only thing which caught my eye was a ‘File Sharing’ feature.
Well, next would be DesiMartini, well we had recently blogged about them – and I’m yet to see them upgrade their site to the fresher look and logo.
During registrations, as you fill in fields – you are faced with prompt pop-ups which are a little irritating to the user. Also, it automatically slots you into groups (communities) according to the fields which you have filled.
Well the other interesting thing I noticed was:
DesiMartini - AdSense Program
(It will ask you to register to view the page – so click here for a screenshot instead)
Basically – you can display you own Ad Sense code on your profile page and thereby use DesiMartini to make some money.
Next we come to ApunDesi.
The most irritating feature at ApunDesi was that it does not let me register without uploading a photograph. I’m not sure how many people would be comfortable with loading their photographs without even seeing what the site is about.
They could have had some avatars to choose from as an alternate option.
And again one of the first things that I noticed at their site was:
1/4th of their main page says – Register at ORKUT and even during registrations there was a DesiMartini Ad on the page.
Well either competitors are getting smart in using AdSense or perhaps this is happening because of certain Ad Words specified. While Orkut is also ensuring that it doesn’t lose out to new local players.
Well must appreciate the viral marketing being done by ApunDesi using YouTube.
The following is a shot of a video of Say Na Say Na (Bluffmaster) on YouTube – which has the ApunDesi branding:
Well that brings me to Snehah.com – They have started a complete YouTube channel of their own.
MingleBox still continues to be the leader in the local scene – they are pushing the whole ‘Campus’ feature. Definitely makes sense, basically a Batchmates / Classmates revolving around a Social Network. They are even looking at hiring interns! (For orkut scrap marketing perhaps!)
Yaari is doing good work with their Yaari Mobile feature – even offering users Free SMS’s, but I wonder how many people have really gotten hooked to this feature.
Hikut which was clearly named and aimed to be a mix of Hi5 and Orkut has now even directly copied the earlier Orkut tagline of: ‘Who do you know?’
Well, what is the most important thing which is essential when starting a Social Networking Site? Most of the players believe it is Invitation. That could be true to some extent. Tagged.com in no time has become the 21st most popular site in India – due to their invitation based mass mailing.
Well almost all the guys now have a similar thing running. At a single click – all your friends from Orkut can be spammed…err…I mean invited to join the new Social Network you have just joined.
Have a look;
DesiMartini:
Minglebox:
With so many such sites, I wonder how long before a site similar to Loopster (Read more…) comes up in India. A single platform where you can mingle with all your yaar’s, with a desi touch to it 
WATConsult – Web 2.0 Strategy simplified
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I use Hi5 it's pretty international and has tons of variety plus now you can decorate just like myspace I found this new site webfetti.com it has sweet layouts it hasnt launched yet but it will soon use this log in in the meanwhile.
check it out with this login
LOGIN :FETTI PW: 1sc00l07
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