Indian internet users are just hooked to social network sites. What started with the popularity of Orkut in India is now become a cultural revolution. Most school going teens have an account on some social networking site and almost all IT-Savvy urban Yuppies are on it. In fact, just about every internet user I know in my circle is online on some of these sites. There are already dozens of local Indian social networking sites trying to be the next Orkut. Rediff.com, a popular portal in India launched its own version recently and claims to have 1 Million subscribers already! Yaari, Minglebox, Hi5 and dozens of other sites are attracting their own fan base. Here are a few points on my perspective about this trend:

• First mover: Clearly, Orkut has the first mover advantage in this space. There is a lot of inertia for people to move en masse to another service. What makes a social network site successful is the people that are on it. Facebook lost out on a big opportunity there due to its initial focus on American markets, but is now growing in popularity in India as well. (Right: Image of Orkut celebrating Diwali, a popular Indian festival)
• Socio-Cultural factors: Social networking sites have been great for catching up with long lost friends from high school or your local community. While dating is quite common, in India sometimes it happens in subtle ways. Most users seem to shy away from exclusive dating sites like yahoo personal. There is however one exception. Sites like Shaadi.com and others aiming to target the matrimonial market are doing extremely well.
• Business networking: From LinkedIn stats, it looks like it is gaining new grounds in Indian market. There might also be a potential market for B2B, B2C networking sites.
• SMS-based sites: While Twitter does not have a large user base in India, it is primarily due to the lack of a 40404 number. India is one of the largest growing market for SMS and Cell phones and almost all carriers provide an array of SMS based services. Its time that such services be integrated into social networking sites.
• Interest Specific sites: Perhaps the next generation of social networking sites might aim specifically at verticals: Games, Cooking, Finance, Religion and just about any topic. Flickr is a great example for this. There are a number of Indian photography enthusiasts who are sharing their pictures and participating on Flickr.

Online video and music sites are also doing reasonably well. However, one of the major competitor there is the Indian Television and Cinema industry, which still has a grasp on a big share of the user attention. With respect to online music, due to the popularity of Bittorrent in India, most users prefer to download their music rather than listen to it online! Besides, in India the charm of AM/FM radios is still the same. So online music/radio faces an uphill battle.

Categories: Uncategorized, , Related posts: • India: The next knowledge superpower;  • Issues with Social Networking (in India and perhaps elsewhere);  • Motorola developing social network friendly android mobile phone;   Comments: 7