As the IPO filling before the US Securities and Exchange Commission continues to be scrutinized, new information will continue to trickle down. We had recently reported how Facebook still considers the ageing Orkut to be its adversary. In Orkut’s case Facebook had validated it saying the locally active Social Networking sites were eating into its User base. Without these, Facebook would have garnered some more users. Whereas in this case, Facebook is worried that owing to the 2G scam & 3G fiasco, mobile internet is still not wide-spread as it should have been. The lack of easily accessible high speed internet has resulted in people being tethered to a Physical Desktop to access internet & eventually FaceBook. Thus, it may boast of high number of Monthly Active Users, but its Daily Active Users are very low.

What’s the difference?

Daily Active User or a DAU is defined as “A registered user who logged in and visited Facebook through the website or a mobile device, or shared content with his or her Facebook friends or connections though a third-party website that is integrated with Facebook, on a given day”. In simple terms, a user who logs on to Facebook at least once per day & creates / shares some content or merely interacts with friends and colleagues.

On the other hand Monthly Active Users or MAU’s are those who log on at least once per month. This number for Facebook is very high at 845 Million! However, when it comes to DAUs it drops to half at 483 million on average for December 2011.

Though MAUs have increased 39 per cent over 12 months & DAUs 48 per cent, the huge gap between them is worrying Facebook.

According to Facebook, this phenomenon is common in the developing countries like India, Brazil, Germany, India, Russia, Korea etc. & this is where it wants to focus reveals the filing, “We continue to focus on growing our user base across all geographies, including relatively less-penetrated, large markets such as Brazil, Germany, India, Japan, Russia, and South Korea. We intend to grow our user base by continuing our marketing and user acquisition efforts and enhancing our products, including mobile apps, in order to make Facebook more accessible and useful”

Where is Facebook going wrong?

Well, according to Facebook, it is not the one to blame. The poor access to internet especially on the move is the major reason. This becomes chronic in developing countries where Mobile infrastructure is poor. Let’s consider India for example. With over 900 Million GSM users, how many have access to high-speed Internet? While companies are focusing on Value Added Services, they keep forgetting about the basic need of reliable connectivity through internet is also to be taken into serious consideration.

Despite all this Facebook is growing. Further, it is still at the top with Advertisers. However, if countries like India, do not support Indians with reliable high speed internet, Facebook could be an indirect sufferer!

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]]> http://www.watblog.com/2012/02/07/indian-users-not-active-enough-facebooks-dilemma-in-india/feed/ 0 http://www.watblog.com/2012/02/07/cellphone-an-integral-part-of-indian-consumers-life-says-nokia-vp-d-shivakumar/ http://www.watblog.com/2012/02/07/cellphone-an-integral-part-of-indian-consumers-life-says-nokia-vp-d-shivakumar/#comments Tue, 07 Feb 2012 06:11:01 +0000 Aatif Sumar http://www.watblog.com/?p=44105

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]]> In the mobile phone game, one brand immediately comes to mind: Nokia. They have been around for over a decade and their phones are sold in virtually every corner of the world. Having shipped over a billion mobile phones over the years, from the legendary 3310 to the latest Lumia range, Nokia are one of the oldest players in the market. One of their biggest markets is India. Nokia India is their Indian branch, and one of the most successful in terms of sales. Recently, Anirvan Ghosh of Forbes India interviewed former Managing Director and current Senior VP of Sales for Nokia India, Mr. D Shivakumar. Here are some interesting facts we picked up from the interview.

An IIT Madras and IIM Kolkata graduate, Shivakumar joined Nokia India 6 years ago, in 2006. Before that, he headed consumer electronics at Philips and also did a stint in Hindustan Levers.

Changing Handset Market Since Joining Nokia In 2006

The biggest change Shivakumar sees in the handset market today, as compared to 2006, is the subscriber base. Back then there were around 100 million subscribers. Now, there are over 600 million subscribers. The telecom ecosystem has achieved such massive growth and he commended the Government for facilitating that. Also, the proliferation of Dual SIM phones and phones by local manufacturers is something that was not around 6 years ago.

Another big change was the market moving from a feature phone market with a few smartphones, to a market full of smartphones. After Nokia’s N Series started in 2007, smartphones became more talked about and nowadays smartphones and apps are used by almost everyone having a mid to high end phone.

In his words, “The consumer fascination with the mobile phone hasn’t changed. The looks of the phone and the desire for the next innovation continue to be strong. A cellphone is an integral part of the Indian consumer’s life and will be so for many years.”

Downward Spiralling Tariffs And Where He Sees The Market Heading In Coming Years

According to Shivakumar, the main reason for the popularity of Dual SIM handsets was that the consumer saw the difference in tariffs of various service providers for various functions like SMS, Callling and Mobile Internet. He admitted that Nokia was late to enter the Dual SIM market, but now have it standard across its low end phones. The Telecom Industry has gone from a 5 Operator Industry to a 17 Operator Industry. This has greatly hurt profitability.

He believes the industry must work collaboratively to get back pricing premium and create value. In the future, more and more feature phones will be replaced by smartphones. Services like 3G and Internet will play a significant role in purchase of handsets. Also, Mobile related banking, education, health and entertainment services will become more mainstream.

What do you think of D. Shivakumar’s vision of Indian’s future of the mobile handset? Do let us know in the comments below.

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]]> http://www.watblog.com/2012/02/07/cellphone-an-integral-part-of-indian-consumers-life-says-nokia-vp-d-shivakumar/feed/ 0 http://www.watblog.com/2012/02/06/indian-telecom-bodies-slowly-getting-ready-to-auction-700-mhz-soon/ http://www.watblog.com/2012/02/06/indian-telecom-bodies-slowly-getting-ready-to-auction-700-mhz-soon/#comments Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:19:53 +0000 Denzil http://www.watblog.com/?p=44094

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]]> After years of lamentable broadband speeds and assorted other challenges in setting up a data transmission infrastructure in India, relief may just be around the corner for us! The Government may soon initiate the process of auctioning the 700 Mhz spectrum band for broadband use. Yes, you heard that right! We may have 4G very soon (The auction may start by May or later, so it depends)

The Department of Telecom (DoT) has asked various internal units like the Policy Group and the Wireless Planning and Coordination (WPC) wing to help and evaluate the proposal for sale of the spectrum band. TRAI will also be involved as an advisory on the new policy and will recommend the auction parameters. DoT will also be looking at some additional spectrum which will be vacated by the Defence Department and Department of Space. Everything looks good to go except for a small problem. The Information & Broadcasting Ministry is opposed to this. They are saying that the band is currently required for Doordarshan as it has managed to initiate digitization of its terrestrial network. Doordarshan currently operates 40 Mhz bandwidth between 745 Mhz to 795 Mhz in four metros in the country. The 700 Mhz band runs from 698 to 806 Mhz as identified by the International Telecommunication Union. The problem here is that I&B Ministry wants 96 Mhz in this frequency band reserved for its Doordarshan mobile TV services. The 700 Mhz was generally used for analog television broadcast before they were digitized.

Well, we don’t think that Doordarshan should have it all. The auction of the spectrum is the only logical thing ahead. Mobile broadband would improve greatly and bring us at par with International standards.

It has just been a year since 3G launched in India and there is still a problem of widespread adoption. Also there is a ridiculous amount of bureaucratic problems such as the 3G Roaming fiasco.

Will 4G face the same issues?

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]]> http://www.watblog.com/2012/02/06/indian-telecom-bodies-slowly-getting-ready-to-auction-700-mhz-soon/feed/ 1 http://www.watblog.com/2012/02/03/google-hires-bouncer-for-android-market-party/ http://www.watblog.com/2012/02/03/google-hires-bouncer-for-android-market-party/#comments Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:54:16 +0000 Denzil http://www.watblog.com/?p=44048

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]]>

Google’s Android ecosystem has been getting a lot of flak since malicious apps were discovered in the Android Market last year. Google had to remotely swipe off these entire app from every user’s phone. Besides the fact that kind of access into my personal phone is a little creepy, this ‘remote swiping’ did not actually offer a solution since Google would find out about these apps only after they had infected user’s phone. Now, Google has announced that they may have finally have the solution to this problem it’s called the ‘Bouncer’. The Bouncer is a server side application which scours the apps that have been submitted to the Market to find out about any malicious activity. This service will not only check for new applications but will also scan pre-existing apps. “Device activations grew 250% year-on-year, and the total number of app downloads from Android Market topped 11 billion,” Hiroshi Lockheimer, VP of engineering, posted on the Google Mobile Blog. “As the platform continues to grow, we’re focused on bringing you the best new features and innovations — including in security.”

“Here’s how it works: once an application is uploaded, the service immediately starts analyzing it for known malware, spyware and trojans. It also looks for behaviors that indicate an application might be misbehaving, and compares it against previously analyzed apps to detect possible red flags. We also analyze new developer accounts to help prevent malicious and repeat-offending developers from coming back.”

Google is basically simulating all the new and old apps on its Cloud infrastructure and seeing if the app is malicious or does anything out of the ordinary. Google is best known for automating things and processes. They have always placed a heavy emphasis on  machine learning and this is quite evident in their search engine. Android also features something called as ‘sandboxing’ which does not allow one instance of a running app to interact with other other apps or components on your phone. This same technology is present in their Chrome OS.

Here’s a excerpt from the blog which talks about Android’s security features:

In addition to using new services to help prevent malware, we designed Android from the beginning to make mobile malware less disruptive. In the PC model, malware has more potential to misuse your information. We learned from this approach, designing Android for Internet-connected devices. Some of Android’s core security features are:

• Sandboxing: The Android platform uses a technique called “sandboxing” to put virtual walls between applications and other software on the device. So, if you download a malicious application, it can’t access data on other parts of your phone and its potential harm is drastically limited.
• Permissions: Android provides a permission system to help you understand the capabilities of the apps you install, and manage your own preferences. That way, if you see a game unnecessarily requests permission to send SMS, for example, you don’t need to install it.
• Malware removal: Android is designed to prevent malware from modifying the platform or hiding from you, so it can be easily removed if your device is affected. Android Market also has the capability of remotely removing malware from your phone or tablet, if required.

No security approach is foolproof, and added scrutiny can often lead to important improvements. Our systems are getting better at detecting and eliminating malware every day, and we continue to invite the community to work with us to keep Android safe.

Android, as a mobile operating system was considered less safe when compared to Apple’s stringent process of App approval. With Bouncer, Google seems to have killed that fear.  This has been hailed by many as a welcome move for Android and the community of users especially with the Android usage and app consumption rising high in India. Let us see how hackers and malicious coders get around this new security measure.

Tell us why in the comments box.

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]]> http://www.watblog.com/2012/02/03/google-hires-bouncer-for-android-market-party/feed/ 0 http://www.watblog.com/2012/02/03/you-can-now-buy-tickets-from-redbus-in-using-your-mobile/ http://www.watblog.com/2012/02/03/you-can-now-buy-tickets-from-redbus-in-using-your-mobile/#comments Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:44:12 +0000 debleena http://www.watblog.com/?p=44014

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]]>  Redbus.in now goes mobile. Backed by Pilani SOft Labs, Redbus.in now is available to its fan-base on mobile as well.

This mobile ticketing service was bouncing in its beta service in 2011. But given the fact Redbus had innumerable bus ticket bookings through credit/debit cards, COD as well as net-banking, it is now time for them to be omnipresent. To this the CEO of Redbus.in, Phanindra Sama says, “Mobile shows signs of becoming a dominant channel and we want to enable bus travellers to be able to plan and book their tickets easily on the device. We have created a very easy-to-use and intuitive mobile site with all available payment options.“

The mobile site is not only intriguing but also helps users to book tickets, browse bus schedules, choose seat layouts, fares and also make payments using credit/debit cards, COD or net banking. It did bring out the mobile version at a time when the mobile internet users in India are growing constantly. The craze of smartphones has already engulfed the nation. Now the web is moving to mobile as a next step to a smart future-scope.

Startups in India are making a mark and this is visible from the humongous investments flowing into the web based product domain. Last year Redbus.in raised $6.5 million from Helion Venture Partners, Inventus Capital Partners and Seedfund in its series-C funding. This had started long back in 2008 and 2009 when they started raising funds to bolster their growth and set an example of how simple services can be baked into a product mold.

 

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]]> http://www.watblog.com/2012/02/03/you-can-now-buy-tickets-from-redbus-in-using-your-mobile/feed/ 0 http://www.watblog.com/2012/02/03/naukri-introduces-custom-job-search-on-your-smartphone-via-app/ http://www.watblog.com/2012/02/03/naukri-introduces-custom-job-search-on-your-smartphone-via-app/#comments Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:41:48 +0000 Aatif Sumar http://www.watblog.com/?p=44007

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]]> In today’s scenario of job-hopping, the average urban employee is always on the lookout for that higher paying job. Also, with more and more college graduates pouring out of the system each year, job sites like Naukri.com have an evergreen demand. People use Naukri’s vast database of job openings to find the perfect job for them.

Now, Naukri.com has recognized that a vast number of internet connected Indians are connecting to the web via their smartphones. They have launched Smarthphone Apps for various major platforms, namely Android, iOS and Blackberry devices.

Says Vibhore Sharma from Naukri.com, “Mobile devices are bringing about a revolution in the way people use Internet and consume content from the web. Smartphones are the new basic phones that will eventually engage users more than a PC. With the launch of our apps and the repurposed website for mobile devices, we aim to offer our users the ability to continue their job search on the go and never miss out on a career opportunity.” In the year 2010, Naukri had introduced premium job section on their website where total traffic gathered by the website was 10%. Recently, competitor Monster.com initiated into India’s campus placement market as Monster College which is aimed at seamlessly connecting colleges, students and companies.

As any job hunter knows, timing it crucial. One does not want to miss an opportunity just because they were away from a PC. Keeping that in mind, the new Naukri.com smartphone app ensures you never miss anything. There is even a provision for Job Alerts. One can filter job openings by location, keywords, functional area, experience bracket, and minimum expected salary. Up-to five job alerts can be set up. These alerts will also be sent to the user’s inbox thrice a week.

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]]> http://www.watblog.com/2012/02/03/naukri-introduces-custom-job-search-on-your-smartphone-via-app/feed/ 0 http://www.watblog.com/2012/02/02/govt-issues-show-cause-notices-to-telcos-for-under-reporting-revenue-demanding-its-slice-of-the-pie/ http://www.watblog.com/2012/02/02/govt-issues-show-cause-notices-to-telcos-for-under-reporting-revenue-demanding-its-slice-of-the-pie/#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2012 05:37:53 +0000 Alap Naik Desai http://www.watblog.com/?p=43913

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]]> India’s Department of Telecom (DoT) has issued Show Cause Notices to India’s five private operators, including Bharti Airtel , Vodafone and Reliance Communications, for under reporting revenues.

As per a special audit report conducted for the period between 2006 to 2008, gross discrepancies about the actual revenue generated & the one reported, were found. This was allegedly done in order to pay much lower license fees. This has resulted in a loss of over Rs. 1600 Crores (US$ 330 Million) that is now being sought from the TelCos. Communications Minister Mr. Sibal confirmed the same yesterday & his department has put forth a condition to deposit about 1000 Crores immediately & only after that the companies will get to meet the Minister face-to-face to explain their side of the story. Though this feels kind of a dictatorial attitude, the news, if true will have serious bearing for the Telcos who are already reeling under the pressure of the 2G Scam & 3G fiasco.

How does the Under-Reporting work?

Telecom Companies have multiple Licenses depending on the service they provide. Unified Access Service License (UASL), National Long Distance (NLD), International Long Distance (ILD) and Internet Service Provider (ISP). Now, the UASL (basic and mobile) telephony has a license fee in the range of 6 – 10 per cent whereas NLD, ILD, ISP and Internet Protocol has only 6%. Guess, Govt. wants to promote Internet Penetration & this serves as an incentive for the companies. However, all the accused service providers were showing more revenue in segment that carried lower license fee. This operators’ scope to arbitrage of shifting revenue from higher license fee to the lower side has caused a huge los to the exchequer claims DoT.

Surprisingly, this complaint was reported way back in 2009. Is our government waking up too soon?

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]]> http://www.watblog.com/2012/02/02/govt-issues-show-cause-notices-to-telcos-for-under-reporting-revenue-demanding-its-slice-of-the-pie/feed/ 0 http://www.watblog.com/2012/01/31/twitter-ceo-justifies-twitters-new-policies-helping-freedom-of-speech/ http://www.watblog.com/2012/01/31/twitter-ceo-justifies-twitters-new-policies-helping-freedom-of-speech/#comments Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:16:43 +0000 Denzil http://www.watblog.com/?p=43855

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]]>

We wrote earlier how Twitter censoring some tweets based on requests by Governments is detrimental to social communication as a medium. This caused an outrage on the social network and Tweeps protested this announcement with #TwitterBlackout. Twitter CEO, Dick Costolo has argued that Twitter is still transparent and the current policies are for the good for the communications platform.

Costolo argued that Twitter’s new policy is in fact helping freedom of speech. He said that earlier if a Government demanded that Twitter remove a tweet or block a user, they had to comply. Now with the new policies the content will be censored but only in the country that has demanded it. Twitter will try its best that they do not go ahead with this but if the demands are rigid then they will only censor the content in that country. This is actually a very good thing. If you tweet something considered to be against the law, your tweet will still be visible to the world even though it may be blocked in your own country. This may actually give rise to better journalism and reporting. Behind the closed walls of a country, we could still get a glimpse of the situation or breaking news in that country.

“There’s been no change in our stance or attitude or policy with respect to content on Twitter,” Costolo said. “What we announced is a greater capability we now have. Now, when we are issued a valid legal order in a country in which we operate, such as a DMCA takedown notice, we are able to leave the content up for as many people around the world as possible, while still operating within the local law. You can’t operate in these countries and choose the laws you want to abide by.”

In my previous blog post, I was very harsh on this new policy because Censorship of any kind is absolutely intolerable, but considering the various nuances of this policy has made me believe that this may indeed be one of the best loop-holes discovered to aid Freedom of Speech. There however remains the aspect of people in the blocked country not being able to view any content. Well, Proxy Servers and anonymous routers might be able to do the trick for them.

What do you think about Twitter’s new policy? Do let us know.

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]]> http://www.watblog.com/2012/01/31/twitter-ceo-justifies-twitters-new-policies-helping-freedom-of-speech/feed/ 0 http://www.watblog.com/2012/01/31/ms-office-in-the-cloud-as-blackberry-teams-up-with-microsoft-boost-in-productivity/ http://www.watblog.com/2012/01/31/ms-office-in-the-cloud-as-blackberry-teams-up-with-microsoft-boost-in-productivity/#comments Tue, 31 Jan 2012 06:19:03 +0000 Alap Naik Desai http://www.watblog.com/?p=43833

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]]> BlackBerry Makers Research In Motion (RIM) has collaborated with Microsoft to launch a Cloud based Office Productivity Suite.

Simply titled Microsoft Office 365, the service will help Users & Admins alike to better manage the corporate data on the Smartphones & Servers. Blackberry who recently recovered from the blackout is in no mood to upset its present customers & is offering this service free of cost! Of course the customers include only who have subscribed to the stand-alone Office 365 suite or the standalone Exchange Online offering. However, the good news is that no matter what the data plan one uses, Consumer (EDGE) or Business (BlackBerry Internet Services [BIS] or BlackBerry Enterprise Services [BES]), one can still purchase this service which is presently not priced.

The new cloud-based service will do what iPhone owners have been doing for quite some time. Synching Emails, Documents, Calendar & Organizer data. However, RIM has an ace up it sleeve with BlackBerry Balance. This tool will assist Corporate IT Administrators to effectively manage Corporate data on the device which many enterprises fear might land into wrong hands. Furthermore, BlackBerry users can heave a sigh of relief because there is a choice to objectively separate Personal Data & Corporate Data! This cloud-based service will also bring remote lock and remote wipe functions with it.

With the recent stepping down of BlackBerry head honchos & other events &  incidents, we wonder is there something more than what catches the eye? . With the probable acquisition of Yahoo, not yet materialized, is Microsoft eying RIM? The companies are already collaborating heavily behind closed doors to enhance customer experience. Furthermore, Microsoft & RIM primarily cater to the same end of the Customer pyramid, i.e. the Enterprise Market. There were even rumors of a possible take-over, but they remained just that, rumors.

We believe there is still a lot of life let in RIM, but it has to up its game, if it wishes to remain a considerable force in the business circles.

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]]> http://www.watblog.com/2012/01/31/ms-office-in-the-cloud-as-blackberry-teams-up-with-microsoft-boost-in-productivity/feed/ 0 http://www.watblog.com/2012/01/31/twitter-moves-towards-content-curation/ http://www.watblog.com/2012/01/31/twitter-moves-towards-content-curation/#comments Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:35:18 +0000 Denzil http://www.watblog.com/?p=43811

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]]> Why is Twitter insanely popular? That is because it is the perfect tool to send out byte sized opinions and news. It’s micro-blogging nature, the presence of Celebrities and even Politicians are the biggest things going for it as a social communications platform.

As last year came to a close it was the star when it came to generating buzz, but the real question is, ‘Is Twitter looking at a new direction?’The first indication of this comes from the Twitter 3.0 design that they pushed out last year. The design was awesome and was consistent even on its mobile apps. They added ‘Home, ‘Connect’ and ‘Discover’ tabs to the interface and let go of the old ones like ‘re-tweets and mentions’. Twitter doesn’t want people using third-party clients either. Here, the ‘Discover tab’ is of some significance. When you click on it it you are treated to a very visual kind of summary of the days trending topics. Here’s an example:

Now look at the latest startup that Twitter has acquired recently.

Looking at the way things are organized, it looks like Twitter acquired it just for the sole purpose of integrating their technology into the Discover tab. Twitter is now addressing the fundamental problem with Social Networks, ‘Information Overload’! With Facebook and its Open Graph protocol letting loose  hundreds of social apps on the service, there is a real problem of content curation and aggregation. We have written about this before and how it will ultimately damage Social media. Summify is Twitter’s key. The service accesses the most relevant content and arranges it in a clean and neat manner. Basically, it cancels out the noise that is generated by large scale sharing of multiple content. Summify will stop its service and will be  directly integrated into Twitter. Expect something awesome to show up on Twitter in a few months!

Content and Curation on Social Media and the Internet have always been kind of a challenge. The floodgates of information are already collapsing and it is a problem right now when you  want to look at the best and relevant articles and content. Google+ and Facebook have some sort of noise controls but Twitter, sadly lacks this. There are whole new wave of startups which are founded on the basis of ‘clearing the crap’ and discovering awesome content e.g Pinterest, Flipboard, Summify, Google Currents.

What are your views on Content Curation in today’s world? Share them with us.

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