Introducing – Chandan who works with a startup social network in Gurgaon and is the newest and youngest member to join the team of WATBloggers. Here’s hoping YOU our WATBlog readers welcome his first post with loads of comments. And hey chandan.. Welcome and All the best! 
Heres His 1st post…..
Orkut became the biggest website in India by dominating what has become, Indian web’s one of the biggest market segment – Social Networking. Orkut claims second position in India’s top 100 websites (Alexa) list just in short period of time, but that hasn’t stopped dozens (probably hundreds) of Indian companies from trying to grab a piece of the action. What Indian Social Networks must keep in mind is that this game is not about more features and better software – it is about creating a platform which harnesses network effects and gives out rich user experiences to Indian internet users.
This will be very much in line with what Tim O’Reilly had said in his recent "Web 2.0 Compact Definition-Trying Again" entry: "Being first or best, you will attract the most users, and if your application truly harnesses network effects to get better the more people use it, you will eventually build barriers to entry based purely on the difficulty of building another such database from the ground up when there’s already so much value somewhere else."
This is why no one has yet succeeded in displacing Orkut. Once someone is at critical mass, it’s really hard to get people to try something else, even if the software is better. So, the question that arises is – can Indian social networks really take on Orkut in India? Today, WATblog takes an in-depth look into 7 killer comparisons between Orkut and Indian Social Networks & gives you an answer.
Design played a major role in the success of Orkut. Three essential things that Google kept in mind while redesigning Orkut were:
1. Simplicity
2. User Friendliness/Easy Navigation
3. Less Page Load Time.
Well, Google really wanted Orkut to represent them and you will notice that all of these three designing aspects are somewhere very similar to Google design itself. Indian Social Networks needs to work on their design to provide visitors a rich user experience. Design can help a website by converting its visitors into registered users. Here is a design round up we did for Indian social networks.
Yaari – It adapts some amount of Simplicity. Its user friendliness/easy navigation is not worth any applaud while the simply put the page load time is pathetic.
Minglebox – There is some form of Simplicity, user friendliness/easy navigation is fine and page load time is fine, nothing great.
Desimartini – Does not have a speck of Simplicity, user friendliness/easy navigation ranges between miniscule to nonexistent and the page load time is very slow.
Humsubka –The remarks for this Social network are extremely similar to Desimartini, it is really pitiable.
Fropper – Simplicity = Not there, user friendliness/easy navigation is some thing which they don’t know, even if page load time is fine what the hell are the user going to do with it.
Our Take: Majority of people in India surf internet either from cyber café or from office. This is an important point that must be kept in mind while designing a website like Orkut where you want users to spend more time on the website especially for Indian internet users. They are paying both money and time and thus, they want most out of it (Indian mindset). As, all of these three designing aspects of Orkut let users do this, it ha helped orkut became popular in India.
Confusing users, not telling them where to go, what to do next and how to do – are some of the mistakes that Indian social networks are doing. These aspects can be only resolved trough making ones design more comfortable for users. Giving a user 20 different tabs to choose from on your first page itself is not a great idea. What Indian social networks needs to do is help their visitors to learn more about their website. Site tours and try without registering are some good solutions to this problem.
While Orkut’s public Scrapbook feature remains to be the key reason for a user to come back, the Gtalk (Google messenger) integration also added another communication tool to Orkut. Indians love chatting, chatting is one of the major activities performed on internet in India. Let’s see how Indian Social Networks are fulfilling this need of their users.
Yaari – every thing is similar to Orkut scraps, only difference is that they call it “shout-outs”. Must say, it’s a nice name.
Minglebox – call it “chit chat”, their pop-up box takes time which makes it problematic but hey on the brighter side they also allow you to send a song in it . I think that’s what users will be looking for, a compelling value offer which can make them use chit chat on minglebox over scraps on Orkut.
Desimartini – call it simply the “messages” (talk about lack of creativity) and rest is same as Orkut scraps. One can add some html into it but No instructions or tips are given for user to know how to use it.
Fropper – call it “scraps” and the rest is you can easily guess, and if your thinking what different in Fropper scarps from orkut well – NOTHING
Our Take: Communication is one of the most important aspect in a social network. Orkut has done justice with its scrap feature but still there is place for lot more interactivity to be added to this which we know Orkut will do as time progresses. What Indian social networks need to do is focus on creating a communication tool that can give a compelling value offer to an existing Orkut users, one has to really understand changing user needs as this generation grows up. I think Kevin Rose’s latest start-up pownce has a perfect future of Orkut’s scrap feature where one can send events, files and links easily to their friends.
Communities/groups is that feature in a social network which plays important role of revenue generation, as relevant ads can be provided into these. It has also played key role in Orkut success. As idol worship is huge in India Orkut got the benefit and thousands of communities took birth within short period of time. Also, it provided a platform to people for expressing love for their idols. Some added features like events, forums and polls introduced by Orkut have given more freedom to users to express themselves and share their views with others. Indian Social Networks are not giving attention to this feature at all, they have just named events and forums differently and polls are not provided to users.
Yaari – named forums as “message board” and events as “group calendar”. In addition they have just added a media and a SMS section to it.
Minglebox – forums are called “group buzz – discussion” and events are “notice board”. Jukebox is the thing which you can find everywhere on website. One thing that can’t be unnoticed is campus based communities on minglebox which is a good added feature but still if they want it really work well like facebook, verification is the thing they need to work on.
Desimartini – You can’t discuss and plan events here this is what Desimartini calls as “groups”.
Fropper – Same as Orkut communities.
Our Take: – These communities/groups can allow users to use the connections they have established within the social network to achieve a broader objectives like job search, making a real estate decision, planning a trip etc., . There are potentially hundreds of other niches that may work in the Indian context. That’s why Indian social networks should focus on these features and create a platform for users which can find them solutions.
Orkut integration of youtube helped a lot in spreading a word in India about video sharing. Though Still it is found that most of the users on Orkut are not using this feature. The average count of videos on Orkut is 0.2, which is not very impressive. Some of the Indian social networks have entered into this territory, but video sharing has to still to pick pace in India.
Yaari – only social networks that allow user to really upload a video. Time taken and quality is a aspect they need to work on so that user can easily and quickly upload videos. (keeping in mind many user surf the internet through cybercafés)
Minglebox – you can add videos from youtube only and time taken to do this is comparatively less than other Indian social networks.
Desimartini – add videos from youtube. Time taken to add a video from youtube is also a time consuming process.
Fropper – they say video feature is in beta and user cannot upload and share videos. Then why the hell its there I don’t know. To watch videos users can go to youtube.
Our Take: Video Sharing in India will take some more time to get noticed by Indian users. The two major reasons which we see are coming in the way of video sharing are –
1. Lack of resources to shoot a video.
2. Broadband penetration is pretty low. People need a good connection speed to enjoy and share videos. Again time factor comes into play.
Indian Social Networks have to work on video upload features which are fast and maintains the quality of video in order to compete with youtube and Google videos.
With such a huge penetration of mobile in India, there is a huge opportunity for Indian social networks who serve the long tail of mobile users (100 million!) by creating a mobile centric social network that "also" has a web interface but Indian Social Networks need to go beyond SMS notifications. While Orkut has to still enter this domain, some Indian social networks has already entered – let’s see how they are doing.
Yaari – allow users to send and receive SMS notifications.
Minglebox – Still to launch their mobile version called “minglemobile”.
Desimartini – similar with what Yaari is doing, It helps send and receive SMS notifications.
Fropper – Still to enter this space.
Our Take: We expect to see Google entering into partnerships with mobile carriers in India, late 2007 or early 2008. If it gets the DodgeBall/Orkut integration right in India, it would bring more and more of the users to use Orkut. Indian Social Networks must not take Google and Orkut for granted. DodgeBall integration could be the tipping point for Orkut and the last nail on the coffin.
Indian Social Networks really need to go beyond SMS notifications.
Photo sharing was very popular in the starting but is now picking up speed that’s why Orkut recently added the Picasa and flickr photo importing options so that users can have more photos on Orkut. Indian social networks also need to give user a better way to share and organize his/her photos online.
Yaari – No photos
Minglebox – good upload option of 10 pics a time. Less time consuming task and quality is also fine.
Desimartini –The upload options are Pathetic. Sometimes the photos are not uploaded and quality of photos are also very bad, As they optimize them.
Fropper – Not simple at all to use, but better than Desimartini
Our Take: Only problem that social networks in India can face in order to provide users with photo sharing options is Privacy. As we all know many cases of misusing photos have been witnessed on Orkut. Indian Social Networks need to take care of user’s personal photos. They have to build a safer and trustable environment to make users upload their pics on the website, especially for females.
Orkut recently started feed adding feature which is awesome. User can get his/her blog hosted on different websites like wordpress, live journal and blogger easily shared on Orkut know. This can also lead to emergence of feed reading in India. While Indian Social Networks are doing totally opposite to this, they force user to create a blog on their website itself.
Yaari – No Blogs
Minglebox – good blogging tool as it also provides html option which means, customization can be done to ones blog.
Desimartini – only text entries can be made. Not at all impressive.
Fropper – user has to go through 7 different pages for just posting a single entry. This is extremely tiring and time consuming.
Our Take: People in India still don’t know what the term blog means and why a blogger would like to start his blog again on a new service. That’s why Orkut integrated feed reading option which helps user to know more about blogging and blogger’s to share & promote their blogs on Orkut. When it comes to understanding user needs and market, Google (Orkut) really knows how to do that.
There are three things which social networks in India would look forward to in the near future. They are:
1. Privacy – As social networking increases in India, Privacy option is something that will come out as huge problem in social networking space. As Orkut has not given attention to this, there is a chance that might be in near future facebook can take over social networking in India as well, but we can’t take Google for granted in this segment.
2. Widgets – Let me explain you first what a web widget is – A web widget is a portable chunk of code that can be installed and executed within any separate HTML-based web page by an end user without requiring additional compilation. Google’s personalized home page now known as “igoogle” has millions of widgets hosted for users to play with. Now that can be a killer thing as it can make users stay whole day on a website or come back regularly. If Google integrates this service with Orkut, the average time spent by user on Orkut can increase tremendously. Also, recently Nelson Netratings and Comscore have decided to choose Average user stay over page views to measure website’s Rank, Usage and Popularity. Now, this can be really helpful if widgets are introduced in Orkut.
3. API (application programming interface) – Indian Social Networks are far away from this, but Orkut is not. Releasing an API can work wonders to Orkut growth just like it did for Facebook.
Seeing Orkut’s popularity in India, an API can create lot of business in Indian online market.
As the most watched, scrutinized, and reported-on company in the Indian web space, Orkut’s every move is analyzed by competitors big and small. However, we should be reminded that not everything Google touches turns to gold; for example, the demise of Google Answers and the demotion of Froogle. So, Google affiliation has given some benefit to Orkut but it’s not necessary that that the benefit would be life long for Orkut.
For Indian Social Networks: Social networking for the sake of social networking is not sustainable. The key is to create the value layer on top of the connections you enable in the network.Remember that this game is not about better software and more features – It is about creating a platform where there is a happy marriage between network effects and rich user experiences for the Indian consumer.
Let me repeat - the game is not about more features, it is about network effects and Google understands that really well.
Google is holding an ORKUT – User feedback session of sorts in Pune today (4PM Sun and Sand). If any of you happen to attend, please do share with us about what Google chaps had to day.
Do specifically try to get some info out of them about SocialStream and it possibly replacing Orkut in the near future.
http://www.watblog.com/?content=detail&id=886
Only Net Enthusiastic can use API of Orkut if google releases them to create smart cool apps and Some startups for their product. API's for indian market is still far away.
Thats why Google didn't made hasty to release API for orkut after FaceBook did, Because they know indian people are still on the way to Web 2.0 mix.
Hope if WATBlog do a campaign to all engineering colleges then it would better to disseminate what web 2.0+ is all about.
hey Mahesh
it's true that Indian market is still far away from API's but we must keep in mind that orkut is an international website and a "GOOGLE" product.
Trust me the word "google" still have that much power that it can make developers working on facebook to work on orkut.
And who knows if orkut API can be INDIA's first step towards Web 2.0 as we can't neglect orkut growth in india.
Great article.. What a entry Mr. Chandan. Thanks a lot.
Would like to say something from my side too..
1. Orkut still don't have activity Log (how many friends you added on what day, what did you do on some particular day, etc). Is this feature key for Indian Social Networking Sites? Guys think over this …
2. Multi-player Games in social networking site will boost time spend on time like anything .. Imagine if BigAdda and Zapak comes togehter (and they will).
Does anyone really know the reason for Google's exit from 'Google Answers'. Coz, i'm seeing this domain is next BIG thing.. Rediff's entry as 'Rediff QnA' and Ibibo launching 'Sawaal' is hint of this. Even Ammas.com is doing good and can create wonders in Indian online industry. They already have Widgets running on few sites and have great system to block unwanted content.
Hey sameer thanks for the comment.now i have some more things to say:
Number of average friends per indian social networking user is still below 100 and most of the friends are real(whom they really know).
while outside india no of friends per user is about 200 or more(means more virtual friends).
So things like what i did on a particular day or whom i added on what day doesn't matter for indian users.
Also i said in this post too that time is an important factor which must be kept in mind while catering indian userbase.
I think key feature for indian users is the COMMUNICATION(scraps on orkut)and will be.
Good post chandan
But where is the value add of any social networking website ?? Helps me find my schoolmates n old friends, ok will find all of them then what??
What facebook did perfectly is to give option to do much more than communicating with friends..read news,buy tickets,share photos,see video, get feedback on products and lot more without a penny investment in R&D
api thing will not work in india,bcoz internet penetration is very low. And who know about widget in india, even users from technical background don't know.
Hey Suresh.
Everybody waits for someone else to start and then go for it.I think that is what the problem Indians are facing on thier way to WEB 2.0
Don't tell me that things like API and widgets were popular on the day 1 itself. Things like these need time to get noisy.
Innovation, risk, networking and paitence are things you must have on your journey towards WEB 2.0
Interesting point you have there. Yes i agree there is lack of knowledge where API and widgets are concerned, but as you rightly pointed out one needs to atleast start
)
One more important element of a social networking site, way beyond its userfriendliness, is Trust. Orkut expanded purely on an Invitation basis and very gradually hence it got an edge over hi5 which used unethical means to expand.
there are sites like Gazzag, hi5 which poach into your address book and send spam to all the users without even you knowing that an invite has gone out in your name. (By the way are there any sites to report these?? if so mail me at piedpaiper@gmail.com)
the latest on the list of spammers is Yaari.com, where there is a babe named Neha (pseudo profile on orkut and networks, of course) sending indiscriminate spam begging people to join the site.
Many users including me, inspite of these sites having the best features, wil never ever join them because of the unethical means they use to expand their base.
Personally, till now i trust only orkut.
Desimartini looks like a close copy of facebook, doesnt it?
big adda has lots of killer features and we can upload videos too (evil)
Hey Mr/miss Desispl
Can You tell me about one UNIQUE feature of Bigadda and You said that we can upload videos too.I checked out the Video section on bigadda and founded this –
Accepted formats: *.flv only.
Max file size: 30 MB / Length: 10 mins.
Now tell me, who the hell in india knows about video formats like flv.
Most common video formats are MPEG, avi, dat & none of these formats are allowed to upload on BIGADDA.
Also no info or help is there to know more about video formats for users.
last thing is – "sirf 30 MB"
Sorry to say – "You are having it but its missing"
Orkut doesn't technically allow 'Uploading Videos'. It's rather painful uploading a video on Google Videos and YouTube and then loading it up on Orkut.
Another thing about Facebook opening up their API was that, there have not been any huge security flaws at their end. Orkut has come under a tremendous amount of Security Issues, with Google having to face the brunt of a lot of users. Their were id hijack issues, virus issues, community hacks etc
In fact Orkut was added to the official list of Google services pretty late. Its almost as if Google is ashamed of their social networking site. Go to google.co.in and you click on 'More', you won't find Orkut anywhere. Not highlighting Orkut in a country where its so popular is rather absurd?!
Orkut got lucky with 'Simplicity' working in their favour in India and having the 'scraps' facility.
Another thing about opening up your API is that – you have to be willing to lose a large amount of advertising money. There was a very interesting post on TechCrunch about FaceBook being anti-MySpace. While MySpace was looking at charging services (Issues with photobucket, prior to acquisition), Facebook decided to be a little different. Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook definitely has some balls. He's repeatedly refused Yahoo's $1 Billion offer and he keeps insisting that he's in IT for the longer run. I doubt some other SNS opening up their API are going to get as much interest as Facebook did. And if Orkut or MySpace follows suit it will actually be like accepting defeat to FaceBook and the Social Media is definitely going to label them as 2nd movers and Copiers.
The whole thing about opening up your API is easier said than done.
Linux is pretty popular and 'open'? But still 90%+ of the world is on Micrsoft run OS's.
Basically there's a lot of scope in this social networking sector sector (especially LOCAL SN) and though controversial – it was nice to see Minglebox getting funded. I wonder when BigAdda will start spending their million advertising dollars!
First Of all let me tell you while writting this post i kept INDIAN social Networking phase in my mind.
Now let me go through this comment with you "buddy" which is nowhere related to indian social networking –
1. Orkut (video)
Facebook anounced its video upload feature on may 24 with the launch of its F8 platform and My space on may 15 this year may be we can see a video upload feature on orkut this year soon too.
Also we can't forget that youtube – "the world's largest video sharing site" is also a product owned by google. So,how can google think of launching another video sharing product in order to beat their own and leader product existing in the market.
2. Orkut is open and public community while facebook is closed and private.Orkut don't a need privacy feature, the public environment is their feature.
But yes that can give them problem in future.
3. Facebook (API) – In a race, being the first (at present) and better dosen't mean you have won the race.The race is still going on.
When its comes to get an answer for the question –
how open is Facebook, really is? it Turns out, not that much.
this will be very much inline with what Richard MacManus of Read/Write Web has said in his latest post – HOW OPEN IS FACEBOOK, REALLY?
check it out here –
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_open_is_facebook_really.php
Its only first API of Facebook while google has opened 30 different api's in last 2 years.Facebook is just a newly born baby in this world.
When Google would be launchin API For orkut, trust me that will be much much better and more open API.
4. Losing large amount of Advertising money –
Everybody knows when it comes to money google is way ahead of facebook.
Also One of web's biggest advertising medium is Google adsense which can help google in not losing this money as its widely used and popular.
ALSO I WOULD LIKE TO SAY – JUST KEEP THE WORD "GOOGLE" IN MIND WHEN YOU TALK ABOUT ORKUT.
That was a neutral perspective of mine. Anyways welcome to WATblog and i'd suggest you reading some other Orkut coverage of mine on WATblog (H)
And hope the SNS you are working with keeps all this in mind too!