By now, you and I have sort of realized that most of the social network startup in India are losing out to Orkut.
While reasons could vary from one startup to the other, it’s really important to understand why Indians use social networks.
As per Nielsen’s research,
- 82 % want to keep in touch with people they know,
- 58 % join a social networking site to reconnect with old acquaintances they have lost touch with,
- 53 % sign up to make friends
- 43 % cite professional networking as a reason.
The 53% who want to make friends are obviously part of the desperate-for-dating gang members, but the rest of the stat is important for one reason:
To understand What is it that Indians do not use a social network for?
The answer, as I understand is “Hanging out”..
Unlike the US kids who spend a good amount of time on myspace hanging around and “expressing themselves”, Indians aren’t the usual hangout (or ‘cool’?) kind, and instead use socionet for a defined purpose.
Now, this obviously goes against several socionet startups’ mantra (who want Indians to express themselves by uploading cool pics/videos and more..) and a clear reason why few of them have folded (like jhoom.in) and others are almost on the verge of (more on that later).
Mystery solved.
Nailed that one.That exactly the thing, lot of my frnds in iit give up from orkut and other socoal networking websites by the time they enter 2nd year…
Its true that most of Indian Social Networking sites are heading towards dead pool.. But if you look at the enormous success of Orkut.. you can see a Huge affinity of people to communication over internet and web2 media. The “:-)” are actually recognized by even parents these days!
So, my friend, I see a huge opportunity to targeting the “well-knit” networks that Indian already have… ( clubs, Family, locality etc ) with solutions that fit their information sharing needs.
What say?
Lalit, Orkut’s success has been enormous but don’t see much revenue potential if it stays the way it is right now.
Indians flock to social networks because their friends are on it. That’s all I guess
But these days professional networks like linkedin are also gaining importance amongst a class of students who are into business networking.
Rishabh Kaul
Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership
BITS-Pilani
Doesn’t the figure – 53% tell us something about the opportunity that there is for making dating websites?
Oh yes. But if I were to startup, I wont do a social network for these 53%. It will be a pure dating site (with lots of sleaze!) !
Social Network has a certain meaning, and positioning a dating site as socionet doesn’t help.
-Ashish
IMO people join SN sites because to answer ‘Yes’ if someone asks ‘are you on Orkut ?’
and the internet market in India is not that huge.. occasional mail checkers does not count as an Internet user :p…
maybe if the Indian me-too SN sites can hang till the market becomes huge enough they can see some momentum…. or else theres the obvious deathpool :p
i think nielsen’s research reflects what orkut, the dominant SN site, is currently: a place to connect and communicate. its not designed like facebook and myspace, which are primarily full of apps, music and other fun filled widgets to try out.
this will change once orkut apps will launch, facebook becomes more popular and myspace figures out its india strategy. i’m betting nielsen will have some new insights six months into the above mentioned changes.
the reason why the indian SN sites are failing is because they have no clearly articulated strategy and are merely me-toos, and that sounds the death knell when you are not a well-known brand and come to the party rather late.
Another point people tend to forget is that in this market, earlier entrants will be hard to beat. If I already have a lot of friends and well maintained social profile on orkut, I dont see a reason to move to another website (I might still try it). I am just too used to social networking done orkut’s way.
So unless there is a disruptive technological benefit to a new social networking site, I doubt people will move. Case in example: MySpace vs FaceBook. Myspace was ruling until Facebook came up with the facebook apps platform. Things haven’t remained the same ever still.
Another point, the new sites need to find niche market. In US, myspace was more famous with high school kids while facebook started with being famous with college kids (their whole interface was designed this way). Similarly, Linkedin is success, because they are targetting the professional networking.
Pingback: Facebook and pedigree « Fly on the wall
Pingback: MySpace India launch, to announce developer platform soon |Technology and Business Startups in India
Pingback: BigAdda claims 1.5mn user base – targets 4-5mn$ in a year |Technology and Business Startups in India