http://www.watblog.com The Refreshing Blog on Web, Advertising and Technology in India! Mon, 22 Mar 2010 09:25:09 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en In a press statement released yesterday, Bharti Airtel said that it has successfully secured the complete amount it requires for the proposed acquisition of the Kuwait-based Zain Telecom's Africa unit (Zain Africa BV). In a related development, Bharti's stock prices surged 2.2% in the morning session on the BSE, in ... http://www.watblog.com/2010/03/22/bharti-secures-funds-for-zain-acquisition/ Looks like Airtel wants to lure all the customers from other Internet and mobile service providers with it's new schemes. After launching an App Store for mobile devices, Airtel now plans to generate a new wave and add more fuel to the broadband wars by doubling the bandwidth of it's ... http://www.watblog.com/2010/03/22/the-airtel-wow-factor-doubles-broadband-speeds-at-extra-cost-pact-with-apple-for-iphone-3g/ Last saturday I gave a presentation at the Social Media Club in Mumbai on 'Social Media Evolution in India 2005-2010'. I spoke about the growth of social media and also the future as we see it. A lot of the research and analysis has been courtesy WATConsult our sister concern ... http://www.watblog.com/2010/03/22/social-media-evolution-in-india-2005-2010/ Mobile users have always faced challenges in sharing files from their mobiles and had to limit their file sharing options to bluetooth or traditional uploading sites. Tranz - a product from Innoz wants to re-write the rules of File-sharing on mobiles as it allows a Social based approach to fulfill ... http://www.watblog.com/2010/03/22/tranz-a-social-network-based-on-file-sharing-for-mobiles/ Last week was filled with some big announcements and quite a few of them being innovative and risky as well. Aircel for one made two partnerships one with Peek and the other with INQ to launch two new devices in India. GoJiyo a virtual world from the Godrej stable was ... http://www.watblog.com/2010/03/22/www-wat-weekly-wrapup-15th-21st-march-2010/ Amid an audience filled with brightest minds in web and emerging technology , inquisitive for the twitter's  advertising platform, at SXSW interactive  twitter CEO Evan Williams announced a new platform called @anywhere. Apparently @anywhere is nothing but twitter's me too effort to counter Google and Facebook connect, the blog post for ... http://www.watblog.com/2010/03/19/twitter-announces-anywhere-attaches-location-to-tweets/ It seems like more and more social networking is moving from web to the mobile. If the recent launch of the INQ social phone was any indication here comes another announcement this time from the Google stable. Google's social network Orkut has announced that it is now available for Android phones. ... http://www.watblog.com/2010/03/19/orkut-now-available-for-your-android-phone/ In another example of Google's ever-increasing efforts to expand to all vistas of technology, reports are coming in that Google TV may well be on  its way. A collaboration between Google, IBM and Sony, the move is seen as Google and IBM's effort to extend their dominance in the Television ... http://www.watblog.com/2010/03/19/google-enters-the-living-room-google-tv-to-be-launched-soon/ Want to sell old furniture but don’t have an access to e-bay? Don’t worry. Airtel Bharti has a solution to the problem. Now buy and sell at your own comfort using your cell phone. Just an SMS. That’s all it takes. No internet connection required. Bharti Airtel is soon to ... http://www.watblog.com/2010/03/19/bharti-airtel-introduces-mobile-bazaar/ Its been just a month that Airtel launched its app store called the App central and it seems the 100 million plus subscriber strong has hit the sweet spot when it comes to downloads. The Airtel App central claims that it has done over 2.5 million downloads in just 30 ... http://www.watblog.com/2010/03/18/social-networking-app-downloads-top-airtel-app-central/ Intrasoft Technologies Limited (Intrasoft) the company behind 123greetings.com has decided to open its Initial Public Offering (IPO) for subscription on Tuesday March 23, 2010 at a price band of 137-145 and is looking to float 37 lac shares which will raise over 50 crores from the markets. 123greetings.com recieved over 15 ... http://www.watblog.com/2010/03/18/123greetings-goes-ipo-on-23rd-march-we-interview-arvind-kajaria-md-123greetings-com/ In another clear indication of Facebook's ever-increasing growth in the internet arena, Facebook surpassed Google last week as the most visited site in the United States. According to a report by Hitwise Intelligence, Facebook surpassed Google for the week ending 13th March. According to the report, Facebook last week accounted for 7.07% of ... http://www.watblog.com/2010/03/18/facebook-now-the-king-of-internet-tops-google-in-number-of-visits/ Paypal is looking for growth in Asia as the next level for their company states a new announcement by their CEO. Infact Asia is the fastest growing market for the online payment solution provider. PayPals buoyancy about the asian market got a thumbs up as it stated that it    will ... http://www.watblog.com/2010/03/18/paypal-to-grow-via-asia-route-india-a-part-of-the-plan/ Dow Jones has made one more alliance after the recent Jobs alliance with Naukri.com for Wall Street Journal India. This time The Wall Street Journal India has tied up with Bharti Airtel to launch a downloadable mobile application exclusively available to Airtel mobile customers during an initial launch period. The service ... http://www.watblog.com/2010/03/17/dow-jones-partners-with-airtel-to-launch-wsj-india-on-mobile/ Thomas Friedman once famously said – The world is flat! While I did not completely agree with him when I read it, I am beginning to see some truth to it. At least as far as Innovation is concerned. Yes, Patents have been around for a while now. So have ... http://www.watblog.com/2010/03/17/how-patents-may-stifle-innovation/ Aircel is on a tie up spree with new devices that want to be launched in India. Just recently they had tied up with Peek (an email only device) and now they have gone ahead and tied the knot with a new mobile entrant in INQ. INQ Mobile is launching ... http://www.watblog.com/2010/03/17/aircel-partners-inq-to-launch-device-in-india/ Its exit time in the digital space as two exits by investors in two jobsites in India were announced. Lets have a look at them and how they differ from each other. Kliener Exits Naukri - Makes a profit of 61 crore Naukri.com the poster child of the dotcom space in India ... http://www.watblog.com/2010/03/16/jobsite-exits-kliener-naukriinfoedge-web18-jobstreet/ IPL hysteria is going from one level to another with more and more companies looking to leverage it by providing one service or another. Here are two more such announcements that provide official IPL goodies to fans. Infibeam To Provide Official IPL Merchandise Infibeam the company which is offlate known more for ... http://www.watblog.com/2010/03/16/ipl-merchandise-and-apps-hit-the-web-ovi/ Last month we blogged about Peek an email only device that was to be launched for India after a launching in the US. Its seems peek has found a partner in the newbie telecom player Aircel. Aircel has partnered Peek to launch the same for the Indian markets. Pricing & Plan ... http://www.watblog.com/2010/03/15/peek-partners-with-aircel-to-launch-in-india/ Google's embroilment with Chinese authorities is finally coming to a close with it making up its mind to completely shut down its China operations. Google enraged a war against Chinese censorship when it made public its intention to no longer succumb to such online censorship demands of the government. Google has ... http://www.watblog.com/2010/03/15/google-finally-heading-for-a-shut-down-in-china-a-complete-low-down-on-its-china-strategy/